The Summer of Bitter and Sweet: Chapters 1–
5

by Jen Ferguson
Named after her Native American mother, eighteen-year-old Louisa Norquay must decide whether she wants to meet her criminal father in order to save her family's ice cream business and pay for an education at Canada's University of Alberta.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–5, Chapters 6–11, Chapters 12–20, Chapters 21–28, Chapters 29–35
35 words 38 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. artful
    marked by skill or cunning in achieving a desired end
    Her skinny jeans are artfully ripped at the knees and across one thigh.
  2. errant
    moving in an uncontrolled, irregular, or unpredictable way
    The ground, too, is covered with spring growth, and errant rocks.
  3. contract
    squeeze or push together
    My skin breaks out in gooseflesh, and my lungs expand and contract like I’m swimming hard.
  4. bode
    indicate by signs
    Even now, talking about him, I’m low-key happy he didn’t show.
    “This doesn’t bode well, my niece.”
  5. marred
    blemished by injury or rough wear
    I continue picking at specks of paint until I switch over to ravaging unmarred skin.
  6. liberal
    given or giving freely
    I ignore my uncles’ chatter to focus on this good lunch, on the sun helping dry the paint we’ve liberally applied to the shack.
  7. abscond
    run away, often taking something or somebody along
    “You could still abscond with me? Ditch the boyfriend and run?”
  8. gaudy
    tastelessly showy
    A blond woman with gaudy red lips leans, nose first, toward us.
  9. seamless
    perfectly consistent and coherent
    On Sunday evening after we’d set up the Creamery for another season, I sat on our farmhouse’s wraparound screened-in porch, picking dried paint from my skin, my phone on speaker, while Wyatt made his excuses and seamlessly planned tonight’s date.
  10. waft
    be driven or carried along, as by the air
    His cologne wafts toward me, fuller than before.
  11. bile
    a digestive juice secreted by the liver
    When I gag a little, bile rises up.
  12. venison
    meat from a deer used as food
    I’m thinking of the venison that sat on my plate tonight.
  13. cliche
    a trite or obvious remark
    Even though it’s a cliché, I clear my throat of a bad taste and say, “Wyatt, we need to talk.”
  14. fringe
    an ornamental border of short lengths of hanging threads
    I release my seat belt and grab my leather bag with the good fringe from the floorboards.
  15. downplay
    understate the importance or quality of
    We’d never been the kind of people to celebrate our heritage, me and Mom. We downplayed it so we could rent a decent apartment, or we ignored it, hoping the world would ignore us—until we moved in with my uncles.
  16. powwow
    a council of or with Native Americans
    With Maurice in the city visiting his ex-wife and daughter, and Mom preparing to leave the day after tomorrow for her summer selling Louisa’s Fancy Beads across the powwow circuit, no one wants to make an effort to cook.
  17. sobriety
    the state of being unaffected or not intoxicated by alcohol
    And I kept lying. Even when King told me all these really hard things, how everyone in town, his friends, his teachers, would comment on how much darker he was than his dad—like there’s acceptable Black and too Black—how he missed his mom, how he worried about her and her sobriety, working it alone in Toronto.
  18. revel
    take delight in
    The kettle begins its high-pitched whistle.
    I let it echo, and revel, very quietly, in its tiny scream.
  19. smolder
    burn slowly and without a flame
    It wasn’t a little fire. This one raged. It might yet smolder.
  20. aboveboard
    without concealment or deception; honest
    But hitting people isn’t my style. I don’t claw or do violence, even underwater where the ref can’t see. Maybe I used to, out of water, for a while after King left. This new version of me, she plays entirely aboveboard.
  21. clad
    having an outer covering especially of thin metal
    This one, he’s clad in shiny new armor—when over the in-between years I’ve finally managed to peel most of mine away.
  22. idealize
    consider or render as the best or most appropriate type
    It’s always like this with Wyatt and his friends: they idealize Blackness as the coolest and smash what they’ve taken into their upscale-country-boy swagger.
  23. undercurrent
    a feeling or tendency that is not explicitly expressed
    Oblivious to the undercurrent, Wyatt untucks his shirt, quietly mirroring King.
  24. deadpan
    speak in a deliberately impassive or serious manner
    King steps close, leans in the serving window, and deadpans, “The caucasity.”
  25. uninhibited
    not restrained
    I’d forgotten how he laughs, all uninhibited, mouth open so that his front-teeth gap is on full display, his nose flaring, eyes pinched almost closed.
  26. bravado
    a swaggering show of courage
    They’re laughing, all full of bravado.
  27. defer
    yield to another's wish or opinion
    King defers to me.
  28. idle
    run disconnected
    Out on the highway, on the shoulder, but not in the lot, the same white SUV from last weekend idles.
  29. frothy
    emitting or filled with bubbles
    I swirl the straw in the frothy drink.
  30. tarnish
    place under suspicion; make less respected
    She promised, cross her tarnished heart, hope to die young and beautiful, that she’d join me at the pool. But I know her promises don’t always hold true.
  31. impulsive
    determined by chance or whim rather than by necessity
    At Florence’s highest highs she’s impulsive, at her lowest lows, basically unreachable.
  32. subtle
    difficult to detect or grasp by the mind or analyze
    There’s nothing subtle about Florence and normally I adore that.
  33. invoice
    an itemized statement of money owed for goods or services
    “Inside joke,” I say, shoving the invoice into my pocket.
  34. caustic
    capable of destroying or eating away by chemical action
    The driver leaves the caustic burn of exhaust in the air.
  35. expend
    use up or consume fully
    But it’s not like Tyler to waste words. Or to expend energy on jealousy.
Created on Thu Jun 01 11:26:03 EDT 2023 (updated Fri Jun 23 13:38:33 EDT 2023)

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