You're Saying it Wrong

. . . the latest book from Ross and Kathryn Petras, a brother-and-sister writing team. . . .[contains] instructions ostensibly designed to make pronunciation a forte. (It's pronounced fort, by the way.) And designed, too, to spare you the particular strain of embarrassment that results when you learn that you have been pretentiously mispronouncing the name of your already-pretentious sparkling water. <i>You're Saying It Wrong </i>acknowledges that most modern of problems: the fact that so many of us learn words not by hearing them, but by reading them. <i><b>-- The Atlantic</b></i> . . . the small tome packs 150 of the most irritating words American-English speakers fail to get right. From gourmet terms borrowed from French to colloquialisms born in the United States to the names of characters endemic to H. P. Lovecraft's fictional universes (admit it, you've always wanted to know how to pronounce Cthulhu), they help readers master both the perplexing and perplexingly simple expressions that make ordering braised endive anxiety-inducing. <i><b>-- The Huffington Post </i>. . . The best way to consume this book is in a room full of people who are from different parts of the country and have good senses of humor. Ask them how they pronounce each word that doesn't seem obvious. Let the frustration and laughter and discussion ensue. <b>-- The Awl </b>