A veritable "tko of terminology," Better Than Great is the essential guide for describing the extraordinary -- the must-have reference for anyone wishing to rise above tired superlatives. Deft praise encourages others to feel as we do, share our enthusiasms. It rewards deserving objects of admiration. It persuades people to take certain actions. It sells things. Sadly, in this "age of awesome," our words and phrases of acclaim are exhausted, all but impotent. Even so, we find ourselves defaulting to such habitual choices as "good," "great," and "terrific," or stock synonyms that tumble out of a thesaurus -- "superb," "marvelous," "outstanding," and the like. The piling on of intensifers such as "totally" only makes matters worse, while negative modifiers ("incredible," "unreal") render our common parlance nearly tragic. Until now. Not to mince words, wunderkind of word-wonks Arthur Plotnik is proffering a well-knit wellspring of worthy and wondrous words to rescue our worn-down usage. Plotnik is both hella AND hecka up to the task of rescuing the English superlative, offering readers the chance never to be at a loss for words of praise and acclamation! (Starred review) ... zestfully written, this...reviviscent, wordy fun is to be read as well as consulted, and what gonzo joy awaits language lovers as Plotnik serves up high-fiveable hot sauce for the brain. --Donna Seaman, --Booklist, April 15, 2011 ...Whether you use this book ... when stuck for a thwackingly good superlative or ... to turbo-charge your vocabulary... you'll find the ... industrial-strength verbal inventiveness that you're seeking. --Chuck Leddy --The Writer magazine, June 2011 ...well-written, and engaging.... As a reference tool for writers, Better Than Great is just that. All readers will ... find it supremely fascinating to learn of the terms .... to express greatness.--Barry Silverstein --ForeWord, April 4, 2011 An energetic escape from the literary languor that enwreathes writers and speakers addicted to stale adjectives . . . . Together with two of his earlier works on writing style . . . Better Than Great completes an unmatched triplicity of linguistic perfection. ---George Eberhart, College & Research Library News , Oct. 2011. " . . . if you want to add insane quantities of crackle and sizzle to your writing, look no further than this engaging book. --Julia Tagliere, Buzzle.com. 8/13/2011 Say goodbye to "awesome" and "amazing" and say hello to Better Than Great , a veritable TKO of stale superlatives with almost 6,000 alternative terms. Lexophile Arthur Plotnik presents a skull-spinning assortment of words and ideas for describing extraordinary things?the exceptionally beautiful, joyful, delicious, large, forceful, intense, trendy and more?even 50 gr8t texting superlatives! Better Than Great is the must-have reference for anyone seeking to rise above tired superlatives when the quality matters, as in love, commerce, and the arts. Critics, journalists, poets, speakers, sales reps, bloggers, Twitterers?word slingers from the whole digital and literary spectrum?should find it to be a concussively euphoriant, supernal, larky, epiphanic, über-cool, soul-juddering experience, an upful and endorphining jubilee to make the heart warble. Take your vocabulary of acclaim from woeful to whoa-ful, and don't praise anything without Better Than Great ! Arthur Plotnik is a versatile author with a distinguished background in editing and publishing. Among his seven previous books (not to mention 22 pseudonymous potboilers early in his career) are The Elements of Editing and The Elements of Expression, both Book-of-the-Month Club selections, and the best-selling Spunk & Bite: A Writer's Guide to Bold, Contemporary Style. His articles, op-eds, and literary pieces have been published widely, including his columns in The Writer magazine, on whose editorial board he serves.Plotnik studied under Philip Roth in the Iowa Writers Workshop, was a reporter for the Albany (N.Y.) Times-Union, and after earning a second graduate degree, worked as a Library of Congress staffer in Washington and magazine editor in New York. He received numerous honors and awards as a long-time editor and publisher with the American Library Association in Chicago. He lives in that city with his wife and an avalanche tumble of jottings for Better than Great.