While I can understand how people would like this book that we’re English majors or anyone that just enjoys reading about that sort of thing, this book wasn’t for me. That’s not to say it was a bad book, because it wasn’t. It was full of information and lots of interesting illustrations. I just got bored really fast.

An Illustrated Book of Loaded Language by Ali Almossawi is a funny, albeit somewhat dense, read. I wish there were more illustrations, considering it's "An Illustrated Book". But the information provided was informative and intriguing.

An approachable book that can be summed up with “words matter”, but spelled out for the masses that aren’t attuned to the use of language in the media and how it manipulates situations. People in the media often do this in a passive way, downplaying the severity of situations, lest the people become radicalized. Wordplay can at times satisfy the reader or listener that does not want to critically think about what it being said. They can think, “Oh good, this issue will be resolved in a matter of weeks”. Well, that can me anything. Two weeks? Two hundred weeks? Both are a “matter of weeks”.

I paid particular attention to the language of people who want to come across as objective, and the language of neutral people. Neutrality is something that I have little patience for and was glad to see neutral language analyzed in one or two of the sections of this book.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced review copy. 4 stars! This book is available to purchase or borrow now.

An Illustrated Book of Loaded Language by Ali Almossawi was cute but kind of dense in some parts. If you liked the authors previous works though you'll probably enjoy this one.

An Illustrated Book of Loaded Language covers a variety of ways that language can be used to manipulate perceptions, especially by politicians and the media. It does a pretty decent job of covering a mixture of what happens in the media, and the illustrations definitely help make things clearer. I do wish there were more illustrations, as I feel like it was a bit light on them for a book that says it's illustrated in the title (one of the chapters had no illustrations at all, but as I read an advanced readers' copy, I wonder if perhaps this was different in the final edition). Also, while I understand that many of the real-world stories were changed to reflect woodland characters instead of the real world to prevent reader bias from intruding, I felt a bit weird about how some of these stories were presented.

I don't think it was as good as An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments, but they're both still worth the read to help become more media literate and avoid falling into the traps that both books speak of. An Illustrated Book of Loaded Language is a bit of a mixed bag, but ultimately it's still a good educational resource.

I majored in English, and this book was spot on. I was giggling at the examples and the illustrations. I genuinely liked this booked, and I find that it would be a good resource for helping people make informed decisions when it comes to interpreting media. I liked the melding of real world examples with the whimsical animal creations within the book.

Ali Almossawi and Alejandro Giraldo (illustrator) provide a timely title on the use and misuse of language in public discourse, traditional media, and social media. They pack a lot of concepts in less than a hundred pages. However, unlike in his book on bad arguments, the seven chapters lack coherence and structure while rambling around the concepts in each chapter. Also, the illustrations seem to be randomly placed rather than an integral part of the arguments. This title is a worthy effort that falls short of the goals put forth in the forward.

Maybe it's because I was reading an ARC, but the title really overstates the number of illustrations. There was an illustration at the start of each chapter, but that was it. I was hoping for some cartoon that would help get the points across, but no.

If the author meant that they were going to instill in the reader an understanding of loaded language, and in that way illustrate the ideas, then it did that...a little bit. Some of the explanations were more confusing than just pointing out the key words that would lead the reader to be able to discern loaded language in the wild.

For these two reasons, I am going to rate this book 2 stars. It wasn't terrible, but I don't think it did what it set out to do.

My thanks to the Experiment and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

An Illustrated Book of Loaded Language comprehensively describes many of the cautions librarians try to impress upon their patrons when evaluating information. It outlines the most common methods of persuasion used by writers and how to spot them and be aware of the false confidence and biases they generate. This is also the sort of content that teachers of elementary-aged gifted children love to cover, so would be an excellent resource for those classrooms.

Not as good as the earlier "An Illustrated Book of bad Arguments," but still full of charming illustrations, still very readable, and still cove3ring important topics. Part of the problem is structural - logical fallacies have a well worked out taxonomy, where bad faith and deceptive arguments and reporting do not. That said, it's important to keep track of the rhetorical techniques that are used to make bad faith persuasion and so this book is great for being so readable and accessible.

This book is an odd mix of jargon, apparent good intentions, and playfulness that seems to be trying to lighten the mood of a serious topic but in my opinion obscures the author's aims.

While claiming to be a book about language that confuses and obfuscates, the text within the book does just that with the numerous examples, some of which seem to be actual quotes (like "Trump Ambassador Investigated for Controversial Comments") and others that are clearly made up to make a point ("Congresswoman Condemns Death of Rabbit Child by Badger Forces"). Using these two techniques back-to-back without clarification is confusing and makes the text seem unreliable. And there are no citations for the quotes or studies mentioned, which is something that a book about clear language absolutely should have. Although the author's other book has been well-reviewed, I found this to be disappointing in terms of both quality and tone, which surprised me.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy!

This book is a good overview of how language, especially headlines, tend to skew the world in certain ways, and does a good job of making the reader think about what motive a writer might have for using specific language to describe events.
I was somewhat put off by the way real-life situation and metaphor are mixed. In some situations, real world examples are cited: 'A news station reports that 'some sources' say that masks don't prevent coronavirus', while in others, the rabbit/badger metaphor is used 'Badgers say rabbits are to blame for riots' The fictionalized situations seem to be ones about race, poverty, and war, while real-life ones are about thing like disease, political offices, and climate change. This divide felt strange and incohesive. One might wonder what the author's motivation for making only some situations metaphorical is. Luckily, he's given us a lot of tools to figure that out with.

I did not finish this book although I tried twice. The first time, I read the first chapter and stopped. I found that referring to badgers and rabbits clouded the issues and left me to guess the context. I picked up the book again some time later and made it to about two-thirds of the way through before stopping. I got tired of the veiled stories, biases, and of looking up the actual stories for context. For a book purporting to be about clear language, I personally found that it failed. Too much had been left unsaid. The illustrations, however, were very good. Thank you to Netgalley and The Experiment for the advance reader copy.

This is an excellent guide to the biases and agendas that can slip into our language. Several real-life examples are used, as well as other examples that are couched more obliquely in order to help the reader focus on the substance of the point, instead of their reaction to the subject of the quote.

This is a great, and enjoyable, resource for anyone who would like to become a more discerning consumer of media. We're all susceptible to biases, prejudices, and faults in our thinking and this kind of self-evaluation helps us combat that. This would be a wonderful addition to high school and college libraries and curricula (possibly even middle school for advanced students).

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review!

An interesting look at an ongoing problem with our information heavy world. I'd say that the level is for teens or older, and could see it being shelved in either the young adult or adult sections of the library. This is quite the good read and I highly recommend it.