Dreyer's English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style by Benjamin Dreyer

I was so relieved when Benjamin Dreyer confessed. "When I started out as a copy editor, I realized that most of what I knew about grammar I knew instinctively.”  I was not alone!

He won my heart by adding, "Even now I'd be hard-pressed to tell you what a nominative absolute is, I think that the word "genitive" sounds vaguely smutty, and I certainly don't know, or care to know, how to diagram a sentence. I hope I'm not shocking you."

We did diagram sentences in junior high....in 1965... Don't ask me how to do that now.

In school, I often got an A for content and a C for grammar and spelling. I never did learn to touch type with accuracy, and any proficiency I had gained in spelling has disappeared.

I often said that I came out of Temple University knowing how to read intelligently. I was quite unemployable and ended up in customer service and sales.

When I got a job as a copywriter/copyeditor in promotion for a small publishing house (I had worked for a former employee and my new boss thought I had learned her skills through osmosis), I worked hard to correct my errors by reading grammar books. My coworker and I had many heated discussions about how to write; she was a grammar nerd.

Later in life, while schooling our son, my family all were writing and  we would critique each other. I had become a member of the dreaded 'grammar police' and oversensitive to bad writing habits.

I took short-term editing jobs and people hated me. I edited a manuscript for a self-published author who appreciated my insight and gave me double our agreed on price.

Well, that was a long time ago. I had thrown out my ragged grammar books before a move. Now, I needed a refresher course. And hearing so many good things about Dreyer's English, bought an ebook.

What a treasure! So much useful information, shared in such an entertaining way! A joy to read!

I now understand why I never know if I should use gray or grey. My history of reading British writers had me totally confused.

I am very grateful.

Learn more at
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/232363/dreyers-english-by-benjamin-dreyer/

You're Saying it Wrong!

When I saw the book You're Saying it Wrong!, subtitled, "A pronunciation guilde to the 150 most commonly mispronounced words and their tangled histories of misue," I knew it was meant for me.

I am going to memorize this book. I am one of those people who learned my vocabulary from reading, not from hearing the words spoken by the people around me, and consquently I don't know how to pronounce words I understand when I read.

Take chiaroscuro (kee-ahr-uh-SKYOOR-oh, according to You're Saying it Wrong!) I knew it referred to the effect of light and shadow in art, as seen in Rembrandt's The Night Watch. I had no idea how to say it.

I was particularly needed the page "How to Sound Well Read", because although I've read these writers I didn't know how to say J. K. Coetzee (j.m. koot-See-uh), Ta-Nehisi Coates (tah-nuh-HAH-see cotes), and Jonathan Lethem (JON-uh-thun LEETH-em).

But at least I know "How to Sound Like a Season Holder to the Symphony," perhaps because I HAVE BEEN a season ticket holder, and because radio announces know how to pronounce Antonin Dvorak (AHN-to-neen DVOR-zhahk) and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (PYAW-ter ihl-YICH chuh-KOFF-skee). 'Rayf" Vaughn Williams was in my pocket--but in "How to Sound Like You 're From Acorss the Pond" I learned that Ranulph is... 'ralph'.

I can now order at the Greek diner with confidence since I know gyro is 'YEE-roh'. Nor will I avoid ordering wine after learning how to say "reece-ling" and "PEE-noh nwar".

There has been a disagreement in America on pronouncing Iran (ee-RAHN) and Iran (ee-Rahk), and Dubai (du-BYE).

Included in the book are sayings that are often misspoken, like 'on tenterhooks', meaning a state of anxious suspense, which many people mistakenly call 'on tenderhooks'.

The authors, siblings Ross and Kathryn Petras, are both 'word nuts' and 'grammer pedants' who have appeared in newspapers, television news, radio shows, and magazines.

I need to get back to my memorization. I have to learn to say my virtual friend's name, Siobhan (shih-VAWN) in case we ever meet in real life.

I received a free book from the publisher through Blogging for Books in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

You're Saying it Wrong
Ross Petras and Kathryn Petras
Ten Speed Press
ISBN 13 9780399578083

The Literate Reader's Fun Fantasy Series: Thursday Next by Jasper Fforde

"Whoever controls metaphor controls fiction."

The Peace Talks are coming up and Thursday Next is missing. Thursday Next works for Jurisfiction, keeping BookWorld in order for readers everywhere. The peace talks with Racy Novel will prevent an all out genre war. Thursday was to head the talks. Is she dead, or lost in BookWorld, or hiding out in the OutWorld? Even her husband Landen Parke-Laine does not know where she is.

The written Thursday from BookWorld is drafted to take her place. Of course the written Thursday does not know everything the OutWorld Thursday knows, so she will pretend that irritable vowel disease prevents her from talking.

Thursday (written) saves the life of a robot named Sprocket. "We tick, therefore we are," he tells her. He helps her evade the notorious Men in Plaid who are out to kills her.( It's Tartan, they will testily correct.) A car chase to evade the Men in Plaid lands Thursday (written) and Sprocket in a dangerous mime field. Luckily they find a way to evade the Mimes.

We gain an inside understanding of the interaction between readers and characters. "Harry Potter was seriously pissed off that he'd have to spend the rest of his life looking like Daniel Radcliff."

You would not believe the crimes committed in BookWorld. In "One Of Our Thursdays is Missing" we learn about the met labs turning out illegal metaphor. And cheese smuggling is endemic. The stinkier the cheese the high the street price.

To BookWorld denizens the OutWorld can break a character down in minutes. Thursday (written) is sent there for 12 hours to find the missing Thursday (real).

"Is it as bad as they say it is?"

"I've heard it's worse. Here in the BookWorld we say what needs to be said for the story to proceed. Out there? Well, you can discount at least eighty percent of chat as just meaningless drivel."

Written Thursday Next can't find Thursday Next. She suffers an identity crisis: could she BE the real deal? As she tries to solve the mystery of the missing Next she travels through the far reaches of literature, into Vanity, Fan Fiction, and Racy Novel itself. She discovers a dirty bomb, that is, a loosely bound coil of badly described scenes of a sexual nature. Had it gone off smut would show up higgily-piggily in literature everywhere!

I have been reading Thursday Next novels every since I saw them advertised in my son's Science Fiction Book Club brochure way back when he was a kid. British novelist Jasper Fforde has written five in the series: The Well of Lost Plots; Lost in a Good Book; Something Rotten; Thursday Next: First Among Sequels; and One of Our Thursdays is Missing.

The BookWorld is full of great wisdom.  Such as the Law of Egodynamics: "For every expert there is an equal and opposite expert." That is SO true!