North Maple Rag

Peace Like a River is officially one of my favorite books. Ever. It's so good I had a dream about it and I stayed up until 3:30am this morning finishing it. There are lots and lots of reasons I thoroughly enjoyed the book, but the only one I'm going to mention today is the vocabulary. I have a habit of marking up books that I love and this one's now filled with lots of circles around words that made me stop and think either "I should use this word more often," or "wow, I have no idea what that means." I've included a short list of some of Leif Enger's best words, along with their definitions, below.

scapegrace - "incorrigible rascal"
brigand - "one who lives by plunder"
meerschaum - "white, clayey material used in tobacco pipes"
plumbline - "a line that has at one end a weight and is used to determine verticality"
ruffian - "a brutal person"
scattershot - "broadly and often randomly inclusive"
flummox - "to confuse"
ratfink - no definition for this one at Merriam Webster, but I think you can guess its meaning.
candle - (v.) "to examine by holding between the eye and a light; especially : to test (eggs) in this way for staleness, blood clots, fertility, and growth"
apostate - "one who renunciates a religious faith"
grue - "shockingly repellent"
muzzy - "muddled or confused in the mind"
nubby - "knobby or lumpy"
vapid - "lacking liveliness, tang, briskness, or force"

I'm also going to start employing the phrases, "crawling heebies" when I'm scared and "king of pukes" for people I don't like.