The New York Times Best 100 Books of the 21st Century: How Does BookBrowse's Coverage Compare?
Posted: July 17, 2024 10:32 AM
In case you missed it, last week The New York Times released its list of the Best 100 Books of the 21st Century. So, we thought we'd compare how BookBrowse did at featuring these books over the past 25 years, and have included a helpful table for you to see the full breakdown.
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It's R C A D
Decipher this clue to reveal a well known expression; for example 'K The B' = kick the bucket.
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In each contest, one winner will be selected at random. The winner will be notified by email shortly after the draw closes and will win a one year membership to BookBrowse or an extension to an existing membership (a $45 value). The exception to this is if a patron of a public library that subscribes to BookBrowse wins, in which case (because they already have free access to BookBrowse) they would win a book up to $25 in value.
This Wordplay will end on August 19, 2024.
This wordplay ended on 08/19/2024
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Answer to the last Wordplay:
Question: L T C O of the B
Answer: Let The Cat Out Of The Bag
Meaning: Revealing a secret.
Source:
L T C O O the B
Let the cat out of the bag
Revealing a secret
There are two possible origins for this phrase. The first claims the idiom came from the Royal Navy, established by King Henry VIII in 1546. At the time, it was perfectly acceptable to deliver harsh physical punishments to sailors guilty of even minor infractions. By the 18th century, one of the more common penalties was whipping, often with a cat o'nine tails. This instrument had a wooden handle with nine braided and knotted cords of rawhide attached – sometimes tipped with bits of metal. It’s thought the device, which was kept in a bag when not in use, was named “the cat” because of the “scratches” it left on the miscreant’s back. Some therefore believe that letting the cat out of the bag originally referred to one sailor ratting out another, thereby causing the cat to be released from its confinement.
More commonly, scholars feel the phrase relates to the days of the medieval markets, when farmers would buy small livestock (piglets, chickens, ducks) in a sack. The theory is that some unscrupulous sellers would surreptitiously swap the costly animals for the ubiquitous and valueless cat. The unwary purchaser would then take the unopened sack home and find he’d been cheated when he let the cat out of the bag – i.e., he revealed the con. (As a cat owner myself, I’m not sure how it would be possible to pull this off, but that’s the legend.)
Of the two explanations, there’s much more weight to the latter. First, there are plenty of early references to similar sayings: “Don’t buy a pig in a poke” (1555 CE) and “When a pig is offered, open the poke” (1325 CE). “Poke” was an early term for a bag or sack, so the advice was to always check what it was you were purchasing rather than buying it blind.
In addition, a like idiom exists in both German (“Die Katze im Sack kaufen”) and Dutch (“Een kat in de zak kopen” – both of which translate to “buy a cat in a bag.”
It’s certainly possible, too, that neither origin is correct, and the phrase was just so accurately descriptive that it caught on. Once a cat is released from confinement it runs away explosively and uncontrollably, just as a juicy secret might. And, just as it’s impossible to put the cat back in the bag once it’s out, one can’t contain a secret once it’s told to others.
In Renegade and Prophet, Lyndal Roper’s 2016 biography of Martin Luther, the author cites a letter to the reformer from a friend, Johannes Agricola, written in 1530. In it, Agricola uses the expression “let the cat out of the bag.” It’s possible that this is the first appearance of the saying in print. Others believe it was first used by The London Magazine in 1760 (“We could have wished that the author…had not let the cat out of the bag”) with indications the phrase was well-known at the time.
Smothermoss by Alisa Alering
A haunting, imaginative, and twisting tale of two sisters and the menacing, unexplained forces that threaten them and their rural mountain community.
Smothermoss
by
Alisa Alering
(16 Jul 2024)
264 pages
Publisher: Tin House Books
ISBN-13: 9781959030584
A haunting, imaginative, and twisting tale of two sisters and the menacing, unexplained forces that threaten them and their rural mountain community.
In 1980s Appalachia, sisters Sheila and Angie couldn't be more different. While their mother works long shifts at the nearby asylum, Sheila does her best to care for their home and keeps to herself, even when enduring relentless bullying from classmates. Her rambunctious, fearless younger sister, Angie, is more focused on fighting imaginary zombies, and creating tarot-like cards that seem to have a mind of their own.
When the brutal murder of two female hikers on the nearby Appalachian Trail stuns their small community, the sisters find themselves tangled in a dangerous game of cat and mouse. Angie discovers a ripped shirt, soaked in blood; money Sheila's been stashing away disappears; and a strange man shows up at a local store, trying to barter with a woman's watch. As the threat of violence looms larger, the mysterious, ancient mountain they live on—and their willingness to trust each other—might be the only things that can save them from the darkness consuming their home.
In turns both terrifying and otherworldly, author Alisa Alering opens the door to the hidden world of Smothermoss—a mountain that sighs, monsters made of ink, rabbits both dead and alive, and ropes that just won't come undone. Unsettling, propulsive, and wonderfully atmospheric, Alering's stunning debut novel renegotiates what is seen and unseen, what is real and what is haunted.
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