Scrabble Books

Storky is a fun book written from Michael "Storky" Pomerantz's point of view in diary form. It was fun to follow the daily happenings of this freshman boy. He starts out with a journal on the computer and then figures out someone may be reading his personal thoughts, so decides to just type the pages and print them out, but not save them.

Storky's sister reveals some of his inner most thoughts, showing that she was the one reading the journal. Being of nerd fame, all Michael wants to do is get through his freshman year of high school without being noticed too much.

Storky tries very hard to be accepted by his father, who lives outside the home--and tries to accept his mother's antics and deal with the mixed-up, crazy Jewish family traditions all while trying to maintain a semi normal life. Every day is a new adventure for Storky, right up until the end when his mother meets and marries his dentist. All through the dating process, he wants to hate Dr. Berman but finds he can't hate a man who has befriended him in the only way he knows how. Michael ends the school year planning another person's life and gets the girl, not the one of his dreams or that he thought he would get--but someone better.

Armchair Interviews says: Most of us can relate to that freshmen year in high school. Nice story from boy's point of view--written by D.L. (Debra).

Written in the journal-entry style a' la Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging, this book will make anyone who has ever been a high school freshman laugh every few pages. The diary follows the first year in high school for Michael "Storky" Pomerantz, as he tries to lose his nickname, get a girlfriend, and learn about making the right choices in life. Unfortunately he is not only saddled with a useless divorced Dad in the throes of a mid-life crisis, but other calamitous events in the life of a 14-year old: the uncontrollable male body part he nicknames "Rex" (who causes embarrassing things to happen while he is trying to impress girls at the blackboard with his Spanish skills), a mom who begins dating (gasp!) the pudgy family dentist, a friend who introduces him to alcohol, and Michael's own age-appropriate musings and wonderings about sex. First-time author Deborah Garfinkle (note that the publisher uses the "J.K. Rowling-don't-let-the boys-know-it-was-written-by-a-woman" name change), gets right into the head of a smart, sarcastic and sensitive young teen with great skill. The character of Michael is unmistakably Jewish and living a very middle-class, 3-times a year, Reform Jewish existence in San Diego. Librarians: beware of the maturity of the themes, but know there are many young high-schoolers who will be passing this hilarious book from hand to hand and waiting most impatiently for the certain sequel.
Reviewed by Lisa Silverman.

This book not only "swooshed" me back in time to my own high school days, but it also brought memories of my children's high drama of high school. How little reactions (both mental and physical) have changed since then ... and I confess, that was a looooooong time ago.

Although Storky's a male, and I'm a female, this author brought not only Storky's feelings but the feelings of all the characters into this story ... in funny and pathetic ways of which we can all relate.

And, YES, like most teen boys from time immemorial, there's the inevitable Miss Popular for Storky to lust after, an insensitive father ... and the other high school problems that will trigger the memories of all who read this well-written book. This is a page-turner for teens and for their parents and grandparents, also. I could see the "comic tragedy" of teens shining through the pages AND, in hind-sight, the healthy learning experiences for Storky and the realistic characters in this book.

I recommend this book for ALL AGES. It was a nostalgic trip down Memory Lane for me. A great job, Debra Garfinkle! Keep 'em coming; you have found your niche.

Now I am Over 13, but Didnt Want An Account So Don't Get The Wrong Idea

Now Mike Pomerantz aka Storky is a freshman in highschool and is going through some normal teenage things.

I thought this was a well written book for a female women, but unless you have some real bad hormone problems most guys arnt like that(or that much of a pervert) So If Your A Girl And You Have Read This Book DO NOT THINK THAT EVERY GUY THINKS LIKE THAT.

This book was a highly entertaining book and slightly disturbing on my part but yeah...Well I would Highly Recomend This Book To People :)

A lot of people have talked about how this book about a GUY was written by a GIRL (or, rather, a woman). Yeah, she did it. Very convincing. But the real story is that really that she wrote a funny, touching, believable story about a character I wish I knew. Good show!

This book gives you all the words in the Official Word List,
saving you the need to buy a copy unless you're using it to
judge challenges in club games and someone objects to the
extra information: front and back hooks, and anagrams, for
every word listed. It's great fun to browse for such lovely
anagram pairs as SNAKEBIT BEATNIKS, OILIEST IOLITES, and my
current favorite, ONANISM MANSION -- and you might just retain
a new word or two. If you play in NSA tournaments, you need
this book, period.

Bob's Bible is a perfect resource for improving play. It offers useful lists to extricate a player from tight spots (i.e. the vowelless rack or vowel-heavy rack). It lists both the short and 6-8 letter JQXZ words. Plus, every entry includes the front and back hooks as well as the anagrams of that word which allows the player to see how that word will fit into play or how his opponent might hook onto that word during play. This book has broadened my potential and energized my game. I feel I've found the secret formula for successful play!

Bob's Bible took the competitive Scrabble world by storm. Within a few short months of its initial publication it graced the shelves of most of the nation's top Scrabble players. It is formatted to include hooks and anagrams for each entry, which is essential information for the competitive Scrabble player. All words are sanctioned for use in club and tournament play and it is the same word source used by many online word games, such as Literati and WordOx. Of the dozens of word books and dictionaries I own and use for various word games, Bob's Bible has proven to be the most useful and valuable. I love it!

Why someone would rate a book that they haven't seen is incomprehensible. The only ratings below 5 stars for this book are from people who are frustrated because they haven't been able obtain it.

The paperback version is out of print, but a nicer wirebound book is available through Amazon's used books and it's actually new. If you have trouble finding a copy contact I suggest emailing bible@hiwaay.net or running a google search on Scrabble Bible. It's the first item in the google list.

The newer edition also contains 60 pages of beginner study lists: the 2 letter words, 3 letter words, 4 letter words, the JQXZ words for each length 2-8 letters, the Heavy-vowel words for each length 2-8 letter and the no-AEIOU words for each length 2-8 letters. The wire binding makes it last much longer (many Scrabble tournament players were wearing out the paperback version!)and allows it to lie flat for learning. There is also a large print version available, an International Edition that adds the British words as well and a Backwards edition that actually orders the words by their reversed spelling!

The second edition of the book has more text than the first edition. It is an excellent book which is recommended for all science students especilly those in the USA where Imperial units are still in use.
In the second edition you'll see the address of the author's website site which should also be available by mid September.
[...]

This book is ideal for preparing questions for a trivia quiz on SI (metric) units. It's also a good resource for teachers to illustrate the use of prefixes in maths, also spelling and language work in this subject.

In 1960, at the age of 40 and after many years wondering the globe, Texas-born writer John Graves bought a worn-out patch of land in the hills south of Fort Worth. It began as something of a retreat and became a life-long attachment. This book, published in 1974, is a humorously thoughtful description of how this new landowner becomes equally owned by the land he has settled on.

Not a long book, it reads at a leisurely pace, as Graves traces the history of the land, once fertile and grass-covered. He tells what he knows of the numerous tribes of Native Americans who once lived on it, including the fierce Comanches. Then he characterizes the first settlers, who knew next to nothing about land stewardship and cared less, exhausting it with poor farming techniques, overgrazing, and a single-crop economy--cotton. We learn of the toll taken in depleted soil, diminished flood control, and the spread of cedar and scrub brush across former prairie. And we learn of the descendants of these early settlers, diminished by reduced circumstances, some of them making a living by cutting down cedar brakes into fence posts.

Having established the history of the land, Graves takes us on a tour of his farm, which he calls Hard Scrabble, describing in turn the fields and streams, the plant and animal life, the weather. Then he describes the long, slow process of reclaiming what he can of his 400 acres, clearing the land, building a house, barn, and other outbuildings, learning stone masonry and carpentry as he goes. In connection with this subject, there is a discourse on the industriousness and workmanship of Mexican laborers, all of them illegal, who help him with building, fencing, and fighting back the growth of unwanted brush and cedar. On the subject of animal husbandry, he tells of raising cattle and goats. And in the investment of himself in all of these he ruminates on how they transform him and root this former world-traveler more firmly into a rural frame of mind.

Of the many things I enjoyed in this book, I especially liked his capturing of the way his country neighbors talk. Their points of view and temperaments are captured in quirky turns of phrase and syntax. An episode involving local fox hunters is a joy to read. Graves is in many ways a Texas version of E. B. White, transplanted from city to country and not only seeing this remote environment with fresh eyes but engaging physically with it, befriending the long-time inhabitants, and discovering a way of life only dimly understood by city-dwellers. Although Graves' writing style is more given to verbal flourishes, his wry humor and literary allusions remind one of White's collection of essays on living in Maine, "One Man's Meat."

I recommend this book to anyone interested in country life, Texas, subsistence farming, and natural history. As companions to "Hard Scrabble," I would recommend books by three other rancher/farmer writers: "Windbreak," by South Dakota writer Linda Hasselstrom, "A Collection of Cowboy Logic" by North Dakota writer Ryan Taylor, and "Sketches From the Ranch" by Montana writer Dan Aadland.

Texan John Graves is not a man to shy away from challenges: he invites them. When he bought his little piece of Texas, he clearly knew he was in for a big one, but I am not sure if he was aware of how his accumulated knowledge of this land would shape the man he was becoming. This book takes you through the process of a bumpy courtship and the resulting marriage between a man and his land.
Already armed with a deep appreciation of Nature, he was able to slowly coax renewed vigor into this misused patch of land through his gentle nurturing of it.

The book is full of his personal adventurers such as stone masonry, animal husbandry, carpentry, and all the hazards inherent in farm life. All presented without regret, with humor and modesty. Inevitably he laments the encroachment of more urban activities as they threaten his bucolic existence. Yet he speaks of the duality of his own urban interactions and compares them to the realities of his rural lifestyle.

This book to me was as much about the man John Graves as it is about his subject, "Hard Scrabble". Tough and complex, like his Patch of Land, he personifies the best Texas has to offer.

We use this at our weekly Scrabble Club night. It has all the official Scrabble words, including the swear words/"not for TV words"

This is most up to date, also. I love it!

Offering this book for about $50 is a ripoff! It is not available to the general public. Members of the National Scrabble Association can buy it for about $15!

Can be enjoyed on so many levels. It is fun and scholarly. This is not a 'dry' little dictionary, but an adventure through facts you knew, but had forgotten ("E" is the Roman Numeral for 250); obvious, but hadn't thought about (how prominent the letter "E" is in our electronic world); or just didn't know (most of Emily Dickinson's poems begin with the word "I"). Like me, my friends are surprised at what an entertaining and thoughtful book Mr. Conley has written. Can't wait for his next one.

I bought this book after hearing the author speak about it on NPR. I have since re-ordered and am online to re-order again as friends who found it on my coffee table could not put it down. It's far more than the clever concept even promises. The author essentially takes you on a journey through literature and you'll see words in an entirely new light.

Gives a good history and good strategy. Covers word placement, arrangement, 2 letter word vocab, and has slightly dorky humor. Great book

I got this book from my local library (I already have "Everything Scrabble") to see if I could learn anything new. Could I! Hinch has done a wonderful job giving the development and background of the Scrabble game while combining it with excellent advice on strategy and vocabulary building. While some of the advice and material is outdated (this book was published prior to the development of the official Scrabble Dictionary and when the Scrabble Association was still using Funk & Wagnall's as the official dictionary resource rather than Merriam-Webster's), Hinch has what I think are the best board illustrations of strategy and his chapter on variations of the Scrabble game (like Ecology Scrabble!) are worth the price of the book alone.

Based on 4th ed OSPDThe Official Scrabble Players Dictionary; this 50 puzzle crossword puzzles book is a great way to build a better Scrabble vocabulary without memorizing word lists or the OSPD. Cheap, easy to use (it's spiral bound) and a great mix of both common and unusual Scrabble words. Use a pencil and eraser and you can use the book over and over!

Scrabble is one of my best word / board games. I have the Scrabble Deluxe on my computer. While on vacation, I was in the Barnes & Nobles Bookstore in Manhattan, saw a Scrabble Crossword and decided then and there to get another. They are really fun and definitely works the brain.

The original holy grail for hardcore Scrabble players has been updated to match the latest North American Scrabble dictionary. Whether you're a solid living-room player looking to enter the world of Scrabble clubs, or already a hardcore Scrabble junkie looking for the ultimate edge, this book has what you need to succeed.

This not only contains every acceptable word of eight and fewer letters, in two lists (one alphabetical, the other in "alphagram", e.g. aaaghlmpr, order), but also key starter lists and tools to help you learn the most important words as efficiently as possible. Highly recommended!

Word lists based on 4th ed OSPD; good price, comprehensive, indexed nicely, easy to follow and some really interesting lists (ie mnemonics for the top 100 7-letter bingo stems, words with 70% vowels, short words that take suprise "s" endings, etc). Baron has gone beyond just listing "the two's", "q without u's", "jqxz's" and "word-hooks", lists (although, these lists are included); and created a really great resource for Scrabble enthusiasts. Only complaint is that word lists are printed in VERY small font, so those of us with small print issues should invest in a magnifying glass.

This digest size sci-fi pulp magazine has stories by sf great Frederik Pohl, Gardner Dozois & Michael Swanwick & others, including the amusing "Scrabble With God," by John M. Ford.