FEBRUARY Title: Life After Life Author: Kate Atkinson Average PSG Rating: 3.875/5 Favorite Quote: “Sylvie’s knowledge, like Izzie’s, was random yet far-ranging, ‘The sign that one has acquired one’s learning from reading novels rather than an education.’” Although the PSG Book Club was a little behind this month (we blame February) we’re excited to reveal our thoughts on our second pick—Life After Life [...]
New year, same resolution. When we realized that each of us had plans to read more in 2019, the PSG Book Club was born. Eager readers all, we got started right away. Each member was given three slips of paper to write down their book suggestions, then we mixed them all in a bowl for drawing. We drew our first title in December [...]
Whenever I see someone coding on a computer, I get a sense of excitement as I wonder what they’re creating and how they’re creating it. I first tried coding ebooks during my freshman year of college. I participated in an intro workshop run by a club at my school and was intimidated at first. The characters on the screen hurt my eyes and [...]
Imagine randomly hitting the keys on your computer, creating nonsense words as you type. I like to imagine that is how Lorem Ipsum—the filler text that often comes standard with many digital publishing programs—started. However, it actually started with a printer from the 1500s who scrambled up one of Cicero's works, which may be why it’s often mistaken for Latin. To my surprise, though, [...]
Picture this: you’re nearing the conclusion of a thrilling book, and you can feel three pages left in your fingers. But the ending comes more abruptly than you thought—the last two pages are blank! I used to wonder how those extra pages ended up in my books. But PSG staff members Alyssa and Don clued me in on an alternative definition of the [...]
Here at Publishing Solutions Group, we are passionate about punctuation. We take joy in seeing em dashes used properly in subway signs and cringe when holiday cards incorrectly include our beloved serial comma before an ampersand. So it should be no surprise that a New Yorker article about the roots of popular punctuation marks as well as more archaic ones quickly made its [...]
It’s a hot, summer day and you’ve hit the beach. On your way to the water, how many people do you see enjoying the sun with a book or e-reader in their lap? It’s a common sight—I know I never go to the beach without at least one book in my bag—but reading on the beach would be impossible without the work of a [...]
After a lively discussion in the office about how the sounds of certain words make us cringe (moist anyone?) and others are music to our ears (my personal favorite: tabernacle; other office suggestions: mellifluous, resplendent and epiphany), I decided to investigate more examples. In doing so, I hit the jackpot: a word about words! As a language lover, I’ve always delighted in discovering new terms. But there’s something extra [...]
For those who remain staunch devotees of print books, there are few things as disappointing as being at your favorite bookstore and unable to find the book you’re searching for. However, it is difficult for publishers and bookstores to forecast, print and stock books that they are unsure will sell—and doing so can lead to monetary losses and ultimately needing to destroy unsold [...]
Genealogical research techniques have evolved greatly from the Gilded Age of the late nineteenth century, where finding one’s roots was largely the province of wealthy families who could afford professional researchers. Goals from this endeavor, aside from making a record of one’s ancestry for posterity, included proving a royal or presidential lineage, or membership in an exclusive hereditary organization such as the General Society of [...]