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Rating: 
Summary: It's the Bee's Knees, all you Sheiks and Shebas!
Review: I bought this book as a present for someone whose interests lay in cultural history, a topic which lacks good reading material. When it arrived, I started to read it to get a feel for the quality of the book. From a cultural history point of view, its priceless. The writer provides an extensive historical backdrop to place the language in, creating a vivid portrayal of life in that time. I was very much impressed with the amount of work she did on vocabulary between 1900 and 1919, an area which tends to be neglected in books on cultural history. Any reader of this book will find themselves reading aloud to other people in the room (whether they like it or not), laughing at the anecdotes behind the words, and often times whispering "wow" as you discover something fascinating. The only thing I'd caution against is not buying the book for the chapter on the 90's. Though she does do a respectable job, we are too close to that decade to have a full appreciation of the contribution to our vocabulary. However, I would say this book is a must for anyone with an interest in cultural history. You can't be disappointed.
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Summary: Entertaining and great for writers!
Review: I picked this book up for fun, but halfway through it realized that it would give a lot of authenticity to my writing, especially dialog. (I am an aspiring writer.) I didn't enjoy it any less after figuring that out -- if anything, I enjoyed it more! It's very readable, not at all like a dictionary. It's more like a popular history.I am planning on using this with my fifth-graders and asking them to pick a chapter and write dialog based on the words from one decade. I'm also planning on ordering a couple as Christmas presents!
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