Rating: 
Summary: Generally excellent, but...
Review: This is one of the best colloquial (nontextbook) books on grammar and usage available. American English grammar, at times, seems to be more a collection of 'rules of thumbs', rather than a coherent set of readily-understood principles; Mr. Good does a fine job of bringing some order to the chaos. Particularly clear and crisp are his handling of punctuation (Part five) and common grammatical mistakes (Part four). He also provides an excellent discussion of the "fused participle" bogeyman.Regrettably, this book-- like most in its genre-- is overly prescriptive, emphasizing 'rules' and convoluted terminology. Do we need to know the difference between a prepositional phrase and a past participial phrase, as long as we know how to use each correctly? Mr. Good seems to believe that you should.
If your written and spoken grammar and usage are adequate (or better), you'd be better off reading a descriptive resource on grammar and usage. The style of those resources makes it easier to grasp the most common grammar and usage mishaps. Bryan Garner has written several excellent books in this category.
Rating: 
Summary: Would you rather eat dirt that read a grammar book?
Review: Would you rather eat dirt than read a grammar book? Think all grammar books are torturous, pedantic, desperately dry, unintelligible? Buy this book and have your world changed forever. Ed Good's style is witty, inviting, conversational, and informative. Logical, focused, and entertaining, the book is a pleasure to read and painlessly teaches just about everything you need to know to write and speak well. And if you have a "like" habit, chapter 31 should obliterate it forever. A "must read," as the critics might say.
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