Kitty Burns Florey

Once wildly popular and used by teachers across America to teach grammar, sentence diagramming is now a lost art to most people. But from the moment she encountered it in the seventh-grade classroom of Sister Bernadette, Kitty Burns Florey was fascinated by the bizarre method of mapping the words in a sentence. Now a veteran copyeditor, Florey studies the practice in a funny look back at its odd history, its elegant method, and its rich, ongoing possibilities--from its birth at the Polytechnic Institute in Brooklyn, to a consideration of how it works, to a revealing look at some of literature's most famous sentences in diagram. Along the way, Florey explores the importance of good grammar and answers some of language lovers' most pressing questions: Can knowing how to diagram a sentence make your life better? And what's Gertrude Stein got to do with any of it?--From publisher description.

"Tumbling backwards in time, from 1987 to 1938, and seen through the eyes of four generations of women, Souvenir of Cold Springs is the story of one extended family and the secrets from the past that shaped their lives.". "The story begins when Margaret Neal, a junior at Harvard, drops out after a disastrous liaison and its unfortunate consequences. Aimless and guilt-ridden, she decides she has to get away from the East Coast altogether. For the money to buy a ticket to California she appeals to her Aunt Nell Kerwin, a no-nonsense ex-schoolteacher who still lives in the old family home where, each Thanksgiving, the members of the Kerwin clan come together for a raucous family reunion. When Nell replies to Margaret's plea, she encloses a gift - an odd but cherished sourvenir that weaves in and out of the story as a series of crucial truths about the family's haunted history is revealed."--BOOK JACKET.

"Steeped in the Palmer Method of handwriting she learned in Catholic school, Kitty Burns Florey is a self-confessed "penmanship nut" who loves the act of taking pen to paper. So when she discovered that some schools today forego handwriting drills in favor of teaching something called keyboarding, she was shocked." "The idea that such a vital, simple, and frequently beautiful skill could be lost to future generations inspired her to investigate the history of writing by hand and its place in our increasingly electronic society. The result is Script & Scribble - a charming, fascinating exploration of the many facets of handwriting." "Weaving together the history of writing implements and scripts, pen collecting societies, the golden age of American penmanship, the growth in popularity of "graphology"--Handwriting analysis - and the pockets of aficionados who still prefer scribbling on paper to tapping on keys, Florey poses the question: Is it true that writing by hand is no longer necessary in today's busy world?"--Jacket.

A chance encounter on a train leads painter Christine Ward to wonder whether Orin Pierce, her beloved college friend, believed dead for some twenty years, may actually be alive. As she begins to track down the man she believes might be Pierce, she finds herself in the grip of a past she had thought resolved. In her search through the tangles of truth and illusion, memory and dream, she questions her various roles as lover, mother, artist, and mourner of the dead. An uncompromising portrait of a contemporary woman in crisis.

Long Journey Back Where she was concerned Trent had no scruples. Nothing—not even Trent's divorce—could alter the fact that he'd cruelly jilted Melly in favour of a more advantageous marriage. His undeniable love for her only made his betrayal all the more searing, her return to New Zealand even more unsettling. Trent wanted her back. No, demanded it! Passion, trust, the lot. His single minded ambition was to lay bare her love for him at any cost. Yet he hardly even tried to explain the past. And until he did, how could Melly trust opportunity not to sway his ambition a second time? Smoke in the Wind Her response to him was frightening. Venetia had felt desire before. The result? Such a disastrous marriage that she felt she wanted never to experience desire again. And she hadn't - until now. Ryan Fraine, famous documentary filmmaker, was in New Zealand to set up a new television station. From the moment they met, Venetia, herself a TV reporter, knew this man could make her suffer as she never had before. So she shied away from his blazing sensuality. Yet there was something else, something in the very core of her soul that wouldn't permit escape....

In 1856 in New Haven, Connecticut, Charles Cooper, a penman-teacher of handwriting is attempting to come to terms with his tragic past, and Lily Prescott, is an unconventional woman with her own troubled story. When a brutal murder takes place just outside the city, Charles becomes involved in its solution.