Rating: 
Summary: strange book
Review: This is not really a book about grammar; for example, if you misuse the word "literally" or "penultimate" because who don't know what it means, well, bob's your uncle, but you are not struggling with grammar. The book has a lot of examples like these, but doesn't address many of the really difficult grammatical mistakes that I make and that I hear. I am extremely surprised, for example, that the author does not mention the use of "Fred and I" when "Fred and me" should be used, in for example "Jane played golf with Fred and me". Strangely, the author does mention the use of "myself" in place of "me" (thus, "Jane played golf with Fred and myself") but seems to think people say "myself" because they feel it pretentious to say "me". I believe they say "myself" because they are not sure if "me" or "I" is correct. Maybe it's just I, but me hear people say "with Fred and I" all the time now, and it's driving I crazy, believe you myself.
Rating: 
Summary: Lost Your Sense of Humor about Writing?
Review: This one will put some fun back into your labors! English has become the language of commerce & computers all around the world, & it behoves us to not only become fluent, we also need to put our words in order & avoid inter-cultural confusion with worn out cliches - in short we had better get better at writing & speaking our mother tongue. So you're confused about _irregardless_ or _literally_ - do you really mean cats & dogs were dropping from the sky? Or _unique_ - neither more nor less, it simply is! What about _viable_ - what do you think it means? Well, it doesn't! Lederer & Dowis bring to bear their playful & instructive wit on such elusive fundamentals as the syntax, the apostrophe, transitive verbs, the common comma & the myriad errors to which we fall heir. With mnemonic devices(look it up!), frequent reminders to get a dictionary & use it, together with important advice on how to monitor ourselves before we hit that Send key & slather our deranged & idiomatic(not idiotic!) versions over the broadband, this witty & useful guide could become every harried writer's best friend. These two fellows have made re-learning our language fun! I'm reading along, getting more & more confused, when, BAM! They add a fillip that opens my eyes & rattles my brain.
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