SAT Vocabulary: The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)

The Outsiders is consistently among my students' favorite books. On the surface, it's a book about gang warfare, a world that piques the imaginations of this generation's middle-class kids.

S.E. Hinton's deeper message, that members of rival gangs are more similar than they think, will resonate broadly with students that feel mistreated or left out of cliques at school. (The last time I checked, that's almost every kid.)

She successfully conveys the feeling of being in an inner circle with Johnny and Sodapop, being on the fringes of the larger social group represented by Darry and Dally, and being ostracized by a rival group (the Socs).

All the main character, Ponyboy, wants to do at the beginning of the story is run away from it all, live a simple life, and invite the people he gets along with to join him. By the end, he begins to understand each of the characters better, even the Socs, and can picture himself as one someday.

Perhaps most amazingly, Hinton wrote this book when she was still in high school, and her writing style still resonates with middle and high schoolers. Her great gift to us is not only the book's message, but also the captivating way that she delivers it.

Hinton, S.E. The Outsiders. Penguin, 2008.

SAT Vocabulary Words in The Outsiders

Stocky: (of a person) broad and sturdily built.
"He was about six feet tall, stocky in build, and very proud of his long rusty-colored sideburns." (p. 9)

Character: an interesting or amusing individual.
"If I had to pick the real character of the gang, it would be Dallas Winston - Dally." (p. 10)

Broad: a woman.
"That little broad was two-timin' me again while I was in jail." (p. 14)

Fuzz: the police.
"We left when the switchblades came out, because the cops would be coming soon and nobody in his right mind wants to be around when the fuzz show." (p. 20)

Hoodlum: a person who engages in crime and violence; a hooligan or gangster.
" 'Dropout' made me think of some poor dumb-looking hoodlum wandering the streets breaking out street lights." (p. 23)

Stricken: (of a face or look) showing great distress.
"He looked up and across the field with a stricken look on his face." (p. 32)

Crocked: drunk.
"And it had been funny, because Two-Bit was half-crocked when he gave me the lecture, and he told me some stories that made me want to crawl under the floor or something." (p. 35)

Buckskin: a horse of a grayish-yellow color.
Sassy: lively, bold, and full of spirit; cheeky.
Cheeky: impudent or irreverent, typically in an endearing or amusing way.
Ornery: bad-tempered and combative. Stubborn.
"Mickey Mouse was a dark-gold buckskin, sassy and ornery, not much more than a colt." (p. 39)

Dumbfound: greatly astonish or amaze.
"Two-Bit and Johnny were staring at me now. "No...." Two-Bit said, dumbfounded. "No, Ponyboy, that ain't right... you got it wrong..." (p. 42)

Madras: a strong, fine-textured cotton fabric, typically patterned with colorful stripes or checks.
"One had on a white shirt and a madras ski jacket, and the other a light-yellow shirt and a wine-colored sweater." (p. 44)

Soused: drunk.
"Marcia's number. Probably a phony one, too. I must have been outa my mind to ask for it. I think I'm a little soused." (p. 46)

Snooker: a game played with cues on a billiard table in which the players use a cue ball (white) to pocket the other balls (fifteen red and six colored) in a set order.
"Gonna play a little snooker and hunt up a poker game." (p, 47)

Cur: an aggressive dog or one that is in poor condition, especially a mongrel.
"I would have a yeller cur dog." (p. 48)

Dandy: excellent.
"I was under strict orders from both Darry and Soda not to get caught within ten miles of his place, which was dandy with me." (p. 58)

Rueful: expressing sorrow or regret, especially when in a slightly humorous way.
" 'Me and Shepard had a run-in and I cracked some ribs. I just needed a place to lay over.' He rubbed his side ruefully." (p. 60)

Bum: of poor quality; bad or wrong.
"That bum haircut made my ears stick out." (p. 104)

Swig: a large draft of drink.
"He took a swig of chocolate milk out of the container." (p. 109)

Billy boat: a male goat.
Bum: travel, with no particular purpose or destination.
"And if you had the sense of a billy goat you'd try to help around your place instead of bumming around." (p. 114)

Jazz: enthusiastic or lively talk, especially when considered exaggerated or insincere.
Rumble: a street fight between gangs or large groups.
" 'You know the rules. No jazz before the rumble,' he said to the Socs." (p. 115)

Stiff: a fellow; an ordinary person.
"Greasers will still be greasers and Socs will still be Socs. Sometimes I think it's the ones in the middle that are really the lucky stiffs." (p. 117)

Juiced: drunk.
"And don't get juiced up, because the doc won't let us see you no more if you do." (p. 122)

Cheap: deserving of contempt.
Hard: not showing sympathy or affection; strict.
"Johnnycake's eyes were fearful and sensitive; hers were cheap and hard." (p. 123)

Dryly: in a matter-of-fact or ironically humorous way.
" 'I''m okay'.... 'Hate to tell you this, kiddo,' the guy said dryly, 'but you're bleedin' all over my car seats." (p. 151)

Start: a sudden movement of surprise or alarm.
"My stomach gave a violent start and turned into a hunk of ice." (p. 151)

Louse: spoil or ruin something.
"I was lousing up my schoolwork." (p. 169)

Read More

SAT Vocabulary: The Blind Side (Michael Lewis)

This is simultaneously a story about changes to the way football was played, the free market's ability to accurately judge the value of certain players, and a family who kindly takes in a homeless kid without realizing how their support will make it possible for him to become a star.

More than anything else, though, Michael Lewis makes it a story. He manages to weave sports history, economics, and biography into an almost seamless narrative that I couldn't put down. I wanted to learn because I loved the book and not the other way around. In this sense, it serves the same purpose as Liar's Poker and The Big Short.

You might pick this book up to learn some SAT words, but you'll gain a respect for football, markets, and the power of love. Those, in turn, will help you appreciate the richness of a good story - or is it the other way around?

Lewis, Michael. The Blind Side. W. W. Norton & Company, 2007.

SAT Vocabulary Words in The Blind Side

Connoisseur: an expert judge in matters of taste.

"Parcells became a connoisseur of the central nervous system in opposing quarterbacks." (p. 17)

Sangfroid: composure or coolness, sometimes excessive, as shown in danger or under trying circumstances.

"Those who had watched Taylor's career closely might have expected a bit more sanfroid in the presence of an injured quarterback." (p. 26)

Homunculus: a very small human or humanoid creature.

"But by the mid-1990's the market disagreed: it had declared this one member of the offensive line a superstar. Not some interchangeable homunculus, not low-skilled labor, but rare talent." (p. 33)

Vogue: the prevailing fashion or style at a particular time.

Antitype: a person or thing that represents the opposite of someone or something else.

"The types came and went - one decade there would be a vogue for speedy little receivers, the next decade the demand would be for tall, lanky receivers. And there were antitypes; Lord help the white running back or wide receivere or, until the early 1990's, the black quarterback." (p. 37)

Pathological: compulsive; obsessive.

"Football was a team game; there was a limit to the pathological behavior it would tolerate, especially in a high school player." (p. 40)
"In addition to their pathological friendliness, and their constant need for medical attention, they exhibited a bizarre tendency to leave their most valuable possessions unattended." (p. 312)

Inglorious: (of an action or situation) causing shame or a loss of honor.

"Lemming had seen hundreds of NFL-caliber players with social problems come to inglorious ends." (p. 40)

Ignoramus: an ignorant or stupid person.

"At several schools Michael Oher had been given F's in reading his first term, and C's the second term, which allowed him to finish the school year with what was clearly an ignoramus's D. They were giving him grades just to get rid of him, to keep the assembly line moving."

Gig: a job, especially one that is temporary or that has an uncertain future.

"The restaurants ran themselves, the Grizzlies gig was a night job, church was on Sundays." (p. 65)

Magnum: a gun designed to fire cartridges that are more powerful than its caliber would suggest.

" 'And when he comes to get me, he shows up with this magnum strapped to his chest.' " (p. 68)

Dun: make persistent demands on (someone), especially for payment of a debt.

"She called Ramsey, who said he was more than happy to dun his teammates for their old clothing." (p. 72)

Quixotic: exceedingly idealistic; unrealistic and impractical.

"By the time he had finished his quixotic track career, Michael Oher would break the West Tennessee sectional record in the discus, and threaten it in the shot put." (p. 79)

Bivouak: stay in a temporary camp without cover.

"But because Big Tony lived such a long way from school, Michael had bivouacked some nights here and there in East Memphis, several of them on Tony's sofa." (p. 83)

Bid: make an effort or attempt to achieve.

"[O]ne of the coaches, in his bid to separate himself from the others, had wandered up beside him." (p. 95)

Platoon: a group of people acting together.

"After that, the coaches came in platoons." (p. 96)

Fetish: an excessive and irrational devotion or commitment to a particular thing.

"Reduced by NCAA regulations to a single sense, the coaches fetishizhed that sense." (p. 99)

Chump: a foolish or easily deceived person.

"And Stan Walters was no chump." (p. 105)

Prima donna: a very temperamental person with an inflated view of their own talent or importance.

"If they led their teams to Super Bowls, these prima donnas became all but irreplaceable, in the public mind." (p. 106)

Visceral: relating to deep inward feelings rather than to the intellect.

"Finally, the Walsh plan addressed the football coach's visceral fear of an offense based on the passing game." (p. 109)

Marquee: leading; preeminent.

" 'Ron decided that he should be a marquee player, and subsequently sounded off in the locker room about how he should have been receiving credit and publicity.' " (p. 123)

Tort: a wrongful act or an infringement of a right (other than under contract) leading to civil legal liability.

" 'Did the whistle blow?" asked Sean, who could have made a good living as a tort lawyer." (p. 136)

Apotheosis: the highest point in the development of something; culmination or climax. The elevation of someone to divine status; deification.

"Technically, it was Hugh's job to talk to Michael, as, since Michael's apotheosis, Hugh had taken a special interest in the offensive line." (p. 137)

Garish: obtrusively bright and showy; lurid.

Muu-muu: a woman's loose, brightly colored dress, especially one traditionally worn in Hawaii.

"She wore a muu-muu and a garish wig that Leigh Anne assumed she had thrown on when they'd called to tell her they were on their way." (p. 144)

Moraine: a mass of rocks and sediment carried down and deposited by a glacier, typically as ridges at its edges or extremity.

"The she yanked open the box and down came the avalanche: water bills, light bills, gas bills, phone bills, eviction notices. It looked to be about three months' worth of stuff, and when it was done falling out, a moraine of future trouble rose from the pavement." (p, 144)

Nubile: (of a girl or young woman) sexually mature; suitable for marriage.

"How have you handled having your gorgeous, nubile, seventeen-year-old daughter living under the same roof with a huge young black man the same age?" (p. 146)

Expiate: atone for (guilt or sin).

"White Memphis life was organized around churches, and the churches, at any rate most of them, viewed homosexuality as either a sin to be expiated or a disease to be treated." (p. 149)

Indolence: avoidance of activity or exertion; laziness.

"Ten yards later he was delivered, violently, back to the earth, where he vanished for several seconds beneath Michael, until Michael, with the indolence of an heir to a great fortune getting out of bed in the morning, lifted himself off the flattened body." (p. 159)

Gamer: (especially in sports) a person known for consistently making a strong effort.

"The fullback was a five eight, 165-pound gamer named Clarke Norton." (p. 164)

Imprimatur: a person's acceptance or guarantee that something is of a good standard.

"At the end of December 2004, she and Sean would become Michael's legal guardians, but even without the imprimatur of law Michael felt so much a part of the family that he couldn't imagine himself out of the Christmas picture." (p. 167)

Festoon: adorn (a place) with ribbons, garlands, or other decorations.

"When coaches walked into the living room of the Tuohys' lovely Memphis home, the first thing they saw was the Rebel Christmas tree: red and blue branches festooned with nothing but Ole Miss ornaments." (p. 169)

Pincer movement:a movement by two separate bodies of troops converging on the enemy.
"In what came to be, perhaps inadvertently, a kind of Ole Miss pincer movement, Leigh Anne had brought in Sue Mitchell to tutor Michael every night." (p. 170)

Ditzy: silly or scatterbrained.
Debutante: an upper-class young woman making her first appearance in fashionable society.

"Michael, for his part, did an excellent imitation of a ditzy debutante unable to decide which of the fifteen eager young men in her parlor she wanted to escort her to the ball." (p. 171)

Booster: a keen promoter of a person, organization, or cause.
Graft: practices, especially bribery, used to secure illicit gains in politics or business; corruption.
"Leigh Anne and Sean explained to him that, if he had any intention of going to Ole Miss, they really ought to go through the process of formally adopting him, so that the many gifts they had already bestowed on him might be construed not as boosters' graft but parental love." (p. 171)

Rap: a talk or discussion, especially a lengthy or impromptu one.
"With that, Sean Junior took off on a surprisingly insistent rap. He explained how important it was for him to be near Michael, and how concerned he was that once Michael committed himself to some big-time college football program, he'd become to totally inaccessible." (p. 174)

Quotidian:ordinary or everyday, especially when mundane.
"The trouble was that there was no end to the quotidian details of upper-class American life bafflingly new to Michael Oher." (p. 175)

Lurid: (of a description) presented in vividly shocking or sensational terms, especially giving explicit details of crimes or sexual matters.
"He was at a serious disadvantage with Michael, however, because Michael had already visited LSU and been entertained for a lurid evening by a few of LSU's star football players. Michael refused to go into the details of the night, but when he come home his eyes were big and round." (p. 182)

Tableau: a group of models or motionless figures representing a scene from a story or from history; a tableau vivant.
Swanky: stylishly luxurious and expensive.

"His plan had been to roll up to Briarcrest in the Volunteers'  swanky team buses, and, offensive linemen leading the charge, have the entire team surround Michael Oher and give him a cheer. Even more shrewdly, Fulmer staged his tableau on the very Friday that Michael was meant to make his official visit to Ole Miss." (p. 185)

Hokey: mawkishly sentimental.

Mawkish: sentimental in a feeble or sickly way.

"He couldn't be nicer in his own hokey way, thought Leigh Anne, kind of like the Andy Griffith character in Mayberry R.F.D." (p. 188)

Expurgate: remove matter thought to be objectionable or unsuitable from (a book or account).

"For his senior yearbook, he'd selected his quote, from a rap song, which he'd expurgated for Briarcrest Christian School consumption." (p. 203)

Scintilla: a tiny trace or spark of a specified quality or feeling.
"To his one-word answer he would add nothing - not a scintilla of color commentary or new information." (p. 206)

Hoot: express loud scornful disapproval of something.
Effusive: expressing feelings of gratitude, pleasure, or approval in an unrestrained or heartfelt manner.

"She also advertised herself as a liberal. When Sean heard that, he hooted at her, 'We had a black son before we had a Democrat friend.' Still. in spite of these presumed defects, Miss Sue was relentless and effusive - the sort of woman who wants everything to be just great between her and the rest of the world but, if it isn't, can adjust and go to war." (p. 208)

Tawdry: showy but cheap and of poor quality. Sordid or unpleasant.
"Pick the courses shrewdly and work quickly and the most tawdry academic record could be renovated in a single summer." (p. 210)

Brigade: a subdivision of an army, typically consisting of a small number of infantry battalions and/or other units and often forming part of a division.
" 'All in the valley of Death rode the six hundred. "Forward the Light Brigade!" ' " (p. 216)

Expropriation: the action by the state or an authority of taking property from its owner for public use or benefit.
"There were a number of colleges - and Ole Miss was one of them - for which the expropriation of the market value of pre-professional football players was something very like a core business." (p. 219)

Bonhomie: cheerful friendliness; geniality.
"The first time the NCAA lady had walked into his living room, Sean Tuohy had been all false bonhomie." (p. 220)

Whey-faced: (of a person) pale, especially as a result of ill health, shock, or fear.
"One of the kids, a whey-faced doughboy, was twice as large as the others." (p. 228)

Purchase: a hold or position on something for applying power advantageously, or the advantage gained by such application.
"Wallace can't get a purchase on him; his only hope is to give him a big hard push at exactly the right moment." (p. 243)

Conceit: a fanciful notion.
"Even he was constrained in his financial demands by the conceit that one good lineman was no different from any other." (p. 248)

Finesse: intricate and refined delicacy.
"He heard scouts say, also, that he was a 'finesse' player. He reckoned that scouts always had to have one critical reservation, and so they'd dreamed that one up for him, as he had no flaw." (p. 258)

Ersatz: (of a product) made or used as a substitute, typically an inferior one, for something else.
Jalopy: an old car in a dilapidated condition.
Hubcap: a metal or plastic cover for the hub of a motor vehicle's wheel.
Rig: set up (equipment or a device or structure), typically hastily or in makeshift fashion.
"The color of their skin was just the beginning of what set the Ole Miss football players apart. They wore different clothes: oversized ersatz sports apparel so loose fitting that every stiff breeze threatened to leave them naked in the streets. They drove different cars - these jalopies outfitted with hubcaps worth twice the market value of the entire vehicle. You'd see them driving around in these bizarre-looking rigs with the front seats tilted so far back that the driver appeared to be an astrologist hard at work in a fully reclined Barcalounger." (p. 264)

Aide-de-camp: a military officer acting as a confidential assistant to a senior officer.
"As Hugh Freeze, who was now Coach O's closest confidante and chief aide de camp, put it, 'This is a a game we don't need to be losing.' " (p. 272)

Hoary: old and trite.
Trite: (of a remark, opinion, or idea) overused and consequently of little import; lacking originality or freshness.
"The game served as a proxy for the hoary Mississippi class struggle, between white folks who wore shirts with collars on them and white folks who did not." (p. 272)

Teetotaler: a person who never drinks alcohol.
" 'Will I be the only person at Ole Miss who doesn't drink?' (The small club of teetotalers was accepting all applicants.)" (p. 273)

Internecine: destructive to both sides in a conflict. Relating to conflict within a group or organization.
"On the football field the players became honorary white people, but off it they were sstill black, and unnatural combatants in Mississippi's white internecine war." (p. 280)

Laconic: (of a person, speech, or style of writing) using very few words.
" 'He was a runaway most of the time,' she said, laconically." (p. 292)

Lam: in flight, especially from the police.
"Carlos showed up, and together they went on the lam." (p. 302)

Lithe: (especially of a person's body) thin, supple, and graceful.
"He wanted to be lithe and fast; he wanted to be Michael Jordan." (p. 307)

Abet: encourage or assist (someone) to do something wrong, in particular, to commit a crime or other offense.
"But Michael was different, because the white world had so unusually aided and abetted his rise." (p. 317)

Insinuate: maneuver oneself into (a position of favor or office) by subtle manipulation.
"How, on the brink of adulthood, with a measured IQ of 80, he had so insinuated himself into rich white Memphis that white people no longer noticed the color of his skin." (p. 328)

Read More

SAT Vocabulary: Lab Girl (Hope Jahren)

If you're looking for a way to improve your reading speed and comprehension in both fiction and natural science passages, Hope Jahren's autobiographical Lab Girl is a good place to start.

Jahren talks about trees as if they're people and vice versa. She especially delights in drawing extended metaphors between her life and those of various plants. Her book contains a number of poignant moments of discovery (of both the self- and scientific type), and like any good writer, she draws those moments out into common themes that thread through her life and give her story a sense of purpose.

Though she's a tenured botanist, Jahren gives much of the credit (and the story) to a fellow scientist, Bill, whose selfless devotion and sense of humor provided the energy she needed to keep moving forward no matter how bleak the future looked.

The author's passion for science helps her find her closest friends and provides metaphors to help her understand her relationship with her husband and son. This book might seem to be about love more than it is about science, but for Jahren, they're one and the same.

Jahren, Hope. Lab Girl. Vintage, 2017.

SAT Vocabulary Words in Lab Girl

Burnished: polish (something, especially metal) by rubbing.
Rapier: a thin, light, sharp-pointed sword used for thrusting.
"There is nothing in the world more perfect than a slide rule. Its burnished aluminum feels cool against your lips, and if you hold it level to the light you can see God's most perfect right angle in each of its corners. When you tip it sideways, it gracefully transforms into an extravagant rapier that is also retractable with great stealth." (p. 7)

Wainscoting: wooden paneling that lines the lower part of the walls of a room.
"I remember deciding that the black rubber wainscoting must have been attached with adhesive." (p. 7)

Duchy: the territory of a duke or duchess; a dukedom.
"In my memory of those dark winter nights, my father and I own the whole science building, and we walk about like a duke and his sovereign prince, too preoccupied in our castle to bother about our frozen duchy." (p. 8)

Damask: a figured woven fabric with a pattern visible on both sides, typically used for table linen and upholstery.
"The wool carpet was dusky-blue and the walls had been papered in complementary damask." (p. 12)

Snipe: make a sly or petty verbal attack.
"I listened to the lazy buzzing of bees as they staggered drunkenly from flower to flower, the petty, sniping chirps of the cardinals remarking upon our bird feeder..." (p. 14)

Asylum: shelter or protection from danger.
"My lab is a refuge and an asylum." (p. 20)

Sneer: a contemptuous or mocking smile, remark, or tone.
"My papers do not display the footnotes they have earned, the table of data that required painstaking work to redo when a graduate student quit, sneering on her way out that she didn't want a life like mine." (p. 20)

Nefarious: (typically of an action or activity) wicked or criminal.
"...the printer ink cartridges we secured late at night through nefarious means" (p. 20)

Singular: exceptionally good or great; remarkable.
"Science is an institution so singularly convinced of its own value that it cannot bear to throw anything away." (p. 21)

Recalcitrant: having an obstinately uncooperative attitude toward authority or discipline.
"The chemical reaction that we were tweaking was difficult and recalcitrant: it was easy enough to get the nitrogen out of the explosives residue, but converting the oxygen attached to it proved much trickier than we had assumed." (p. 22)

Seething: (of a person) be filled with intense but unexpressed anger.
"Any mistake would surely have led to death, and to being swallowed up by a seething, unforgiving world capable of rotting even the strongest leaf in a matter of days." (p. 27)

Brazen: bold and without shame.
"[My tree] strove to keep up with its peers and occasionally dared to outdo them by brazenly claiming the odd pocket of full sun." (p. 28)

Stultify: cause to lose enthusiasm and initiative, especially as a result of a tedious or restrictive routine.
"From a teenager's perspective, the grown-up trees presented a future that was as stultifying as it was interminable. Nothing but fifty, eighty, maybe a hundred years of just trying not to fall down, unpunctuated by the piecemeal toil of replacing fallen needles every morning and shutting down enzymes every night." (p. 28)

Replete: filled or well-supplied with something.
"Every replete tree was first a seed that waited." (p. 31)

Antiarrhythmic: a drug used to treat abnormal heart rhythms resulting from irregular electrical activity of the heart.
" 'Mostly antiarrhythmatic, heart-attack stuff,' she explained." (p. 34)

Gable: the part of a wall that encloses the end of a pitched roof.
"The early sun was striking edgewise on its gables and lattice-windows, touching them with gold." (p. 35)

Umpteenth: used to emphasize that something has happened on many other occasions.
"We commenced our umpteenth break for that very shift." (p. 46)

Hypocotyl: the part of the stem of an embryo plant beneath the stalks of the seed leaves, or cotyledons, and directly above the root.
"Everything is risked in that one moment when the first cells (the 'hypocotyl') advance from the seed coat." (p. 52)

Agronomy: the science and technology of producing and using plants for food, fuel, fiber, and land reclamation.
Enjoin: prescribe (an action or attitude) to be performed or adopted.
"A committee of government agronomists has been perpetually enjoined to transcribe and reinterpret the Keys [to Soil Taxonomy] down through the ages as if it were an Aramaic text." (p. 55)

Posh: elegant or stylishly luxurious.
"A septic tank seems far too posh an ornament for whatever hole your head is in." (p. 55)

Plowshare: the main cutting blade of a plow, behind the coulter.
"He was digging with something that looked like an old harpoon flattened at one end - a sword beaten into a real plowshare." (p. 56)

Titter: give a short, half-suppressed laugh; giggle.
"The little group of students leaned in toward one another and said something private, and then began to titter in our direction. Bill and I looked at each other and rolled our eyes." (p. 59)

Macabre: disturbing and horrifying because of involvement with or depiction of death and injury.
Ligneous: made, consisting of, or resembling wood; woody.
"Bill lived pursued by the ghosts of his macabre ancestors." (p. 60)
"...a group of fungi that makes its macabre living by rotting the ligneous limbs and stumps of a forest" (p. 104)

Gamely: in a brave, spirited way.
" 'I've got nowhere else to go,' he said gamely." (p. 61)

Nary: informal or dialect form of not.
"Not much can kill a hackberry tree, which has been observed to endure both early frost and late drought with nary a loss of leaf." (p. 67)

Opal: a gemstone consisting of hydrated silica, typically semitransparent and showing varying colors against a pale or dark ground.
"I was the only person in an infinite exploding universe who knew that this powder was made of opal." (p. 71)

Exquisite: extremely beautiful and, typically, delicate.
"I wondered who else in the world was having such an exquisite dawn." (p. 72)

Maudlin: self-pityingly or tearfully sentimental, often through drunkenness.
"By the time the sunrise had burned through the Bay Area fog, I felt lifted out of my maudlin mood as well." (p. 72)

Ostentatious: characterized by vulgar or pretentious display; designed to impress or attract notice.
"Bill was awarded his bachelor's degree at the same ostentatious ceremony where I was awarded my doctorate." (p. 80)

Incongruous: not in harmony or keeping with the surroundings or other aspects of something.
Disaffected: dissatisfied with the people in authority and no longer willing to support them.
Comportment: behavior; bearing.
"He didn't do drugs, skip class, or litter on the street - incongruously enough, given his disaffected comportment." (p. 82)

Besotted: strongly infatuated.
"It is easy to become besotted with a willow." (p. 90)

Montage: the technique of producing a new composite whole from fragments of pictures, text, or music.
"We watched a montage of a man being changed and powdered by his sweetheart-slash-caregiver." (p. 99)

Morphology: the branch of biology that deals with the form of living organisms, and with relationships between their structures.
"There is no anatomy, no morphology, and nothing to take a picture of or display." (p. 101)

Haute: fashionably elegant or high-class.
"Instead of just doling out the potatoes with a fork, which would have been haute cusine by our standards, he instead began to mash them." (p. 107)

Poach: cook by simmering in a small amount of liquid.
"Dumpling was on a roll that trip and actually managed to poach pears using a Coke can that had been torn in half and ingeniously skewered on a stick." (p. 115)

Panache: flamboyant confidence of style or manner.
"The room we were in was actually a very large courtyard within the building complex, which had all the architectural panache of your average DMV." (p. 116)

Lithe: (especially of a person's body) thin, supple, and graceful.
Affected: artificial, pretentious, and designed to impress.
Limpid: (of a person's eyes) unclouded; clear.
"I then happened to notice Bill across the courtyard standing face-to-face with a spider monkey, separated only by a rusty screen. Both of them sported the same hairdo, a three-inch-long dark-brown shiny mop that stuck up in all directions, having been groomed with little more than a few vigorous scratches during the last two weeks. This same shag covered both of their faces, and their lithe limbs hung with an athletic readiness that was only weakly camouflaged by their affected slouches. The spider monkey's dark, limpid eyes were very wide open and his facial expression suggested that he was in a permanent state of shock." (p. 117)

Abject: (of something bad) experienced or present to the maximum degree.
Impound: shut up (domestic animals) in a pound or enclosure.
"We read a plaque that described the heavy crosses that lowland gorillas must bear within their native Africa, which ranged from poaching to disease, yet it was difficult to imagine any corner of the Congo more dismal than the abject constriction within which King had been impounded in Florida." (p. 118)

Quip: make a witty remark.
Saccharine: excessively sweet or sentimental.
" 'We went to the Monkey Jungle to learn about monkeys, and along the way we learned a little bit about ourselves,' I quipped in my most saccharine teacher's voice." (p. 119)

Grit: courage and resolve; strength of character.
Gall: bold, impudent behavior.
"A vine finds its way to the sun using not wood, but pure grit and undiluted gall." (p. 126)

Girdle: a woman's elasticized corset extending from waist to thigh.
Corset: a woman's tightly fitting undergarment extending from below the chest to the hips, worn to shape the figure.
"I learned that although I was in desperate need of a girdle, I was better off than one of the other female professors, who would never lose all that baby weight by working all of the time." (p. 129)

Poignant: evoking a keen sense of sadness or regret.
Tableau: a group of models or motionless figures representing a scene from a story or from history; a tableau vivant.
"As the book closes, its action is resolved into a poignant tableau of sacrifice." (p. 135)

Inure: accustom (someone) to something, especially something unpleasant.
"A desert botanist is a rare scientist indeed and eventually becomes inured to the misery of her subjects." (p. 142)

Mania: mental illness marked by periods of great excitement, euphoria, delusions, and overactivity.
Visceral: relating to deep inward feelings rather than to the intellect.
Flaccid: (of part of the body) soft and hanging loosely or limply, especially so as to look or feel unpleasant.
"Full-blown mania lets you see the other side of death. Its onset is profoundly visceral and unexpected, no matter how many times you've been through it.... You have received a grand, systemic injection of Novocain and your entire body tingles briefly before it becomes flaccidly foreign and unreal." (p. 144)

Funk: a state of depression.
" 'I've been in a funk.' " (p, 148)

Gauntlet: go through an intimidating or dangerous crowd, place, or experience in order to reach a goal.
Edema: a condition characterized by an excess of watery fluid collecting in the cavities or tissues of the body.
"...trying to sample our way through an unbelievably lush gauntlet of poison ivy.... A rash had raged up my neck and onto my face, giving rise to a massive edema at my right temple that not only made me look like the Elephant Man but also pressed against my right ocular nerve until I lost partial vision in that eye." (p. 148)

Sans: without.
"We drove back to Atlanta, this time via first I-10 and then I-20, which included Arizona, New Mexico, and two hundred miles of Texas sans map." (p. 164)

Annex: add (territory) to one's own territory by appropriation.
"Those in favor [of the Alaska Purchase] argued that British Columbia could be strategically annexed as a next step; those opposed despaired that the acquisition merely burdened America with more unpopulated territory to fill." (p. 165)

Bohemian: having informal and unconventional social habits.
"At first, Bill regarded his destitution as a novel adventure - a temporary bohemian phase - but it lost its meager charms as the months dragged on." (p. 170)

Melodrama: a sensational dramatic piece with exaggerated characters and exciting events intended to appeal to the emotions.
"During the anxious melodrama of those sleepless nights..." (p. 171)

Catharsis: the process of releasing, and thereby providing relief from, strong or repressed emotions.
Erudite: having or showing great knowledge or learning.
"Anticipating the singular catharsis that comes of conspiring in something dispicable, Bill and I provoked each other with feigned erudition." (p. 173)

Reify: make (something abstract) more concrete or real.
"For decades, Ed had worked on his little piece of the theory, which progress from being an unlikely fancy to a reified fact and is now found within every introductory geology textbook." (p. 181)

Gimp: a physically handicapped or lame person.
" 'He was a gimp? If there is one thing I cannot tolerate, it is the idea of a freak in the lab! Disgusting!' " (p. 183)

Nondescript: lacking distinctive or interesting features or characteristics.
"...a nondescript bird passing overhead..." (p. 195)

Mangy: in poor condition; shabby.
"You consider letting [the stray dog] eat on the porch after you confirm that it is not mangy." (p. 205)

Baroque: highly ornate and extravagant in style.
"...the baroque equations that he writes so fluently..." (p. 207)

Hoosegow: a prison.
"...avoiding us the same way a reformed felon avoids driving by the hoosegow." (p. 208)

Florid: (of a disease or its manifestations) occurring in a fully developed form.
"...slowly my more florid symptoms began to come under control." (p. 214)

Keen: wail in grief for a dead person; sing a keen.
" 'I don't want this anymore,' I choke out while practically keening." (p. 216)

Wizened: shriveled or wrinkled with age.
"....having grown up under too much shade and wizened without flowering properly." (p. 217)

Postpartum: following childbirth or the birth of young.
Psychosis: a severe mental disorder in which thought and emotions are so impaired that contact is lost with external reality.
" 'She has severe risk for postpartum psychosis and will be observed accordingly.' " (p. 222)

Cluck: express fussy concern about.
" 'C'mon, baby, you have a beautiful head, but we want to see your face,' clucks an older nurse as she pats my knee." (p. 226)

Chum: chopped fish, fish fluids, and other material thrown overboard as angling bait.
"Once my team has stopped my bleeding, they massage a bucketful of now-useless placental chum out of my abdomen while the other team brings my washed and wrapped baby to me for a kiss." (p. 227)

Dour: relentlessly severe, stern, or gloomy in manner or appearance.
"I picture dour men in muck boots and wonder if they would be proud of me." (p. 233)

Mausoleum: a building, especially a large and stately one, housing a tomb or tombs.
"The incubator is like a humid mausoleum, and I wonder if the fainty moldy smell is real or just my own paranoia." (p. 235)

Insipid: lacking vigor or interest.
"I take photos, guiltily indulging in forty-five minutes of insipid pop radio (music causes labeling mistakes)." (p. 236)

Fraternal: (of twins) developed from separate ova and therefore genetically distinct and not necessarily of the same sex or more similar than other siblings.
"Convention and circumstances dictated that we should act more like coworkers and less like twelve-year-old fraternal twins." (p. 238)

Sinewy: (of a person or animal) lean and muscular.
"I wanted to tell Bill that he was his father's heart and prize, a strong sinewy boy whom the world couldn't main, smart and lithe even underground." (p. 239)

Blanch: (of a person) grow pale from shock, fear, or a similar emotion.
"I saw Bill's face blanch and he looked to be stifling the urge to vomit." (p. 240)

Listless: (of a person or their manner) lacking energy or enthusiasm.
" 'Who knows? Who cares?' Bill answered listlessly." (p. 245)

Duffel: a coarse woolen cloth with a thick nap.
"the gray duffel bag" (p. 246)

Behemoth: a huge or monstrous creature.
Salient: most noticeable or important.
Bryophyte: a small flowerless green plant of the division Bryophyta, which comprises the mosses and liverworts.
"an eight-hundred-page behemoth that categorizes and describes the salient characteristics of approximately eight hundred species of British and Irish bryophytes" (p. 247)

Brood: think deeply about something that makes one unhappy.
"I tend toward nervousness and brooding." (p. 255)

Birfucate: divide into two branches or forks.
"There's more than a small chance I'll die before she's born, particularly if our line continues to skip [a generation] or bifurcate." (p. 257)

Rambutan: a red, plum-sized tropical fruit with soft spines and a slightly acidic taste.
"...preparong to unwrap a second chocolate bar, this one flavored with rambutan" (p. 263)

Stochastic: randomly determined; having a random probability distribution or pattern that may be analyzed statistically but may not be predicted precisely.
"I remember fondly the long weekends of years past when I could work steadily for forty-eight hours, when each new data point reinvigorated me and recharged my mind in stochastic bursts that culminated periodically in new ideas." (p. 270)

Sheer: a very fine or diaphanous fabric or article.
Diaphanous: (especially of fabric) light, delicate, and translucent.
"Each greenhouse is as big as a gymnasium and is composed of little more than a huge stainless-steel scaffolding covered over with a sheer shade cloth." (p. 272)

Novitiates: the period or state of being a novice, especially in a religious order.
"People still puzzle over the two of us, Bill and me. Are we siblings? Soul mates? Comrades? Novitiates? Accomplices?" (p. 274)

Manic: showing wild and apparently deranged excitement and energy.
"Roads have grown like a manic fungus, and the endless miles of ditches that bracket these roads serve as hasty graves for perhaps millions of plant species extinguished in the name of progress." (p. 279)

Baffle: restrain or regulate (a fluid, sound, etc.).
"Baffle some chicken wire at [your tree's] base and string a cheesy birdhouse around its tiny trunk to make it look permanent." (p. 280)

Read More