I’ve also noticed this with “brisk” and “curt” smiles. From context, I think the authors mean “brief” or “quick” and don’t understand that both words carry a tone that shades from business-like (vs friendly) to bordering on rude. Super annoying.

It’s a tie between a book on home charcuterie, when the giver was very aware that I was vegetarian at the time, and The Shack, a book about one’s relationship with god, when I was and still am not even a little religious.

To be fair, the charcuterie book was really nice, and did have a single chapter on preserving non-meat food items so…