Better Than Great: A Plenitudinous Compendium of Wallopingly Fresh Superlatives Paperback – June 7, 2011

This book has raised my benchmark for brilliance when it comes to writing with superlatives. What a relief, to move beyond "great" and "awesome!" I have been using this reference constantly for the past week and it has already earned a prime position on my desk. I now consider it a must-have for bloggers and critics.In response to the negative reviews on this book... For those who thrive on precise organization, or who twitch compulsively when facing variability, this may not be the reference for you. However, for those who feel let down by their thesaurus when their brainstorming dead ends at the same old synonyms, this is the book that will get your mind moving once more.Personally, I find that Plotnik provides just enough organization to make the book searchable, but not so much that the reader feels limited. Whenever I want to find a synonym for a word, I simply decide if my intended meaning falls into one of his fifteen categories. Did I want to convey size? I look under "Large." If I meant to convey a sensation in the body I would look under "Physically Affecting," or if it were a sensation of the spirit I would go to "Sublime" or "Challenging Belief or Expression." This may all sound vague, but I assure you it has worked well for me. A thesaurus nitpicks over semantics. Plotnick cuts to the chase and helps your say what you mean.One more thing. For those who argued that Plotnik included too many whimsical or nonsensical words, I would respond that whimsy can come in handy when you least expect it. My blog post on cupcakes does not need the corny (and hilarious) term "Viagara on a plate" but if I ever write myself into a corner while describing a delicious barbeque sausage sandwich, I have a feeling it might prove useful. (And hilarious.) I admit, I may not be brave enough to tell my significant other that I find them coruscatingly beautiful, but what if that same person decided to, say, buy me a diamond necklace for Valentines? Do I want to find myself at a loss for words, limited to "wonderful" or "lovely"? No, thank you. I want to be able to say, "Thank you for the lovely gift, darling. It's coruscatingly beautiful."So, if you are capable of using eighth-grade skills such as brainstorming, categorizing, and judging context-clues, then this might very well be the book for you. It will reduce brain-blocking headaches and add whimsy to your writing life, I promise.

You may want to permanently shelve your traditional thesaurus. If you're a writer in search of substitutes for over-used words and phrases, then Arthur Plotnik's "Better Than Great: A Plenitudinous Compendium of Wallopingly Fresh Superlatives" is the Swiss-Army-knife for your Macgyver-esque writer's bag of tricks.When the only word that comes immediately to mind is "GREAT," "HUGE," or "AWESOME," imagine having at your fingertips such alternatives as: monsta!; a leg up on perfect; Mozartian; smack-in-the-glove perfect; tweetworthy; and more.Regardless of your personal writing style, there are turns of phrase here for everyone, from the street-smart coarse to the ten-Ph.D. erudite. What's more, his lists will inspire you to come up with your own brains-into-putty expressions and insights that will send frissons of delight coursing down your word-loving spine.How about: Jayne Mansfield 2.0; lick-her-boots mesmerizing; boop-boop-a-doopa appealing? Or try these on for size: gigabig; incomprehensibly immense; pachydermous?Better still, try some of these modifiers to spiff-up the over-used "awesome": awesome unabridged; giga-awesome; kiss-the-hem-of-its-robe awesome; out-of-the-ballpark awesome.Even these don't begin to tell the whole story. The author provides commentary at the start of each section, as well as synonyms or in-context examples for less-than-familiar expressions.The only down-side is that I wish I'd purchased the paperback version, too. It would be dog-eared, highlighted, underlined and otherwise accoutered with sticky note tabs. On the other hand, there's a lot to be said for being able to search for something without flipping pages. I absolutely must learn how to use the highlight and bookmark functions on my Kindle!If you love words, then this gem of a book is a no-brain inevitability for your shopping cart. Better turn on 1-click. Quick!

I'm an Episcopal priest in charge of a parish. Besides attending to the usual weddings and funerals that means writing endless, wrist aching thank you notes; at least twenty a week. How to keep these vitally important notes fresh and vibrant? Arthur Plotnik has given clergy-persons and non-profit types with the greatest tool since the look em' in the eye handshake. 'Better than Great' is a mosh pit of fresh new words and phrases to express thanks or joy or any number of occasions that head butt your stale thank you notes and make them sing (okay perhaps I'm over Plotniking here but the enthusiasm is heartfelt!) 'Better than Great' will enliven your writing and provide you with that way of writing what you so want to say without sounding cliche and tired. A truly fabulous gift for anyone who writes letters of thanks for their work or charitable projects. If you're among those who still value to the gift of writing letters to persons..buy this book.

Arthur Plotnik's latest book for words people, Better Than Great, is a sizzling success. Short, punchy and unparalleled, this slender volume is good company for two of his previous writers' necessities, The Elements of Expression and Spunk and Bite. BTG is meant to be a handy reference to grab when a writer needs an expressive adjective, something other than the used-to-death "great." I wished the announcer on a recently-televised NFL game had had a copy of BTG on hand as he blithely characterized the Packers as "a great team with great owners in a great city with great fans."Although the book is meant for occasional reference, I read it from beginning to end--it's that mesmerizing. The five appendices are an especially fecund resource, notably Appendix 5, which gives us a starter set of alternatives to tired old terms. Among my favorites are: raveworthy, avalanchine, ungluing, gobsmacking and both-barrels mind-blasting. Mr. Plotnik, URTM (per Appendix 2 on texting acclaim: You are the man).