—Richard Lederer, author of Anguished English and Amazing Words
“Susanna Janssen is one of the most wordstruck, word besotted, word bethumped women riding our planet. Reading Wordstruck!, one basks in the luminous presence of learning dressed up to have fun.”
“Hang on to your hats and enjoy your ride with Susanna Janssen, an astute observer of people, customs, and language. Janssen’s debut gem sparkles with laugh-out-loud humor and shared insights that will delight your imagination and instill in you a sense of, ‘I’m so glad I know that now!’”
—Richard Gardiner MD, Author and Editor
“Janssen’s crisp, elegant prose leaps off the page. Her skill in weaving humor, etymology, and cultural insights will make her a hit with fans of Lynne Truss and Karen Elizabeth Gordon.”
—Jody Gehrman, author of Bombshell and The Truth About Jack
“Facts made fun! I’m Wordstruck by Janssen’s tell-all truth about lies, time, money, open kimonos, and godly goodbyes. I want a classroom set!”
—E.Hale, High School teacher and author of Birthing Orgasms, Time, & Money
“’It’s hard to imagine a gram of prevention becoming worth a kilo of cure’ in one’s lifetime.’—True, but it’s fun to try, aided by Susanna Janssen’s light-hearted (but fundamentally serious) and experience-based tour of global culture and language. Pack it in your old kit bag, and smile at her anecdotes, etymologies, and wit.”
—Jonathan Middlebrook, columnist (“It’s All Good”)
“Susanna Janssen has been writing about language for the Ukiah Daily Journal in California and our readers have come to look forward to her fun plays on words, her personal stories, her travels and mostly, her vast knowledge of our language and how it gives us myriad ways to express ourselves. Get ready to be delighted at what you’ll learn. You’re in for a treat!”
—K.C. Meadows, Editor, Ukiah Daily Journal
—Laura Fogg, artist and author of Traveling Blind
“My interest was ‘peaked’ ‘peeked’ ‘piqued’ in the first paragraph of this intelligent, high speed and frequently zany romp through the alternately charming and mind-boggling babel of our language. From personal anecdotes to Shakespeare creations, Susanna has crafted a page-turner.”
—Ricardo Stocker, Ph.D. Professor of Communication and author of Our Compassionate Kosmos
“What a delightful and insightful book! Susanna Janssen’s Wordstruck! unveils fantastic aspects of language, all across the spectrum from the linguistic perspective to the bilingual brain. Your awareness of the significance of words and how the inner and outer worlds are affected by them will certainly increase as you enjoy her reader-friendly and fun style.”
—H. Stephen Straight, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and of Linguistics, Binghamton University of New York
“Anyone with an interest in language and culture will enjoy and learn from this book. Wordstruck! presents an amusing, eye-opening, and well-informed array of anecdotes, examples, historical vignettes, and observations about the history, usage, and even the neuropsychology of language.”
—Heidi Cusick Dickerson, author of Soul & Spice: African Cooking in the New World.
“With wit and wonder, Susanna Janssen lures and captures the reader into her world of words in Wordstruck! Her passion for origins, historical context, metaphors and hilarious adventures is infectious from one memorable passage to the next.”