If you like jokes about grammar, this book is definitely for you. I wasn't at all interested in reading it until seeing Mary Norris speak; she was so funny I immediately joined the queue for the book at my local library.

And oh, boy, I was not disappointed. As someone who finds The New Yorker style to be overly baroque and tedious, I thought I wouldn't be especially interested in one of its copyeditor's opinions. I was wrong. Her opinions are the best, and her frequent swearing, references to beer, and irreverent jokes about the canon made me delighted to share a profession with her.

Hoped for more from this. I couldn't keep track of what the author was trying to write.

Mary Norris has spent more than 30 years working in the copy department of The New Yorker. Her book, Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen, is billed as a guide to good language usage, but it’s also an insight into Norris’ career and is as much memoir as it is practical text book.

Like Norris, I, too, have made a career out of being a “comma queen” on magazines. I left the industry at the end of 2016, but still work with words and am the go-to person in my company when it comes to spelling, grammar and punctuation usage. I expected to absolutely adore this book, but I was mildly disappointed by it.

Divided into 10 chapters, it covers everything you’d expect from a grammar book — such as spelling, punctuation and the use of hyphens — and some things you don’t (for instance, in the chapter about personal pronouns, Norris tells us that her when younger brother announced he was transgender it was difficult to suddenly start calling him “her”). It’s important to know that it’s all about American grammar usage, not British usage, so it’s not particularly useful for anyone who lives outside of the US unless you want to know the differences.

It’s written in an easy-to-read, engaging style and is brimful of gentle humour, whether Norris is talking about her own life or the way to use a comma or apostrophe.

To read the rest of my review, please visit my blog.

This was a short book. Some of it was interesting (hyphen chapter) and some of it descended into lectures (commas) to fill space. Just ok.

Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen by Mary Norris is a random but amusing take on proofreading, commas, the use of the F word, pencils, and any number of other things that crossed the author’s mind while writing the book.

This is a book for people who love grammar and punctuation – who really love grammar and punctuation. There are long explanations of things like clauses and the accusative case. It also helps if you are a proofreader or ex-proofreader, even better if you proofread in the days of hot lead.

I did work as a proofreader in the days of hot lead, and enjoyed reminiscing about it as I read this book. In chapter 6, Who Put the Hyphen in Moby-Dick?, Norris talks about computers not knowing in the early days where to hyphenate words. One of my tasks when I worked for a publisher was to edit the online dictionary of hyphenated words. The author works at The New Yorker magazine, and it’s refreshing to know there are still publishers who pay proofreaders. I’ve seen many words with end-of-line hyphens in the wrong place in published works (not to mention typos).

The book does have chapters but doesn’t seem to have had an outline. The author muses on anything that pops into her head, following idle thoughts down whatever pathways they take her. This is a book that demands to be read slowly or not at all.

I agreed with her little rant about autocorrect and devices. I particularly liked this passage (p. 16 of the advance reading copy):

"Back in the twentieth century, we thought that robots would have taken over by this time, and, in a way, they have. But robots as a race have proved disappointing. Instead of getting to boss around underlings made of steel and plastic with circuitry and blinking lights and tank treads, like Rosie the maid on The Jetsons, we humans have outfitted ourselves with robotic external organs. Our iPods dictate what we listen to next, gadgets in our cars tell us which way to go, and smartphones finish our sentences for us. We have become our own robots."

Unfortunately, this book is more evidence that you cannot publish a book today without the F word in it. Seriously, why does this book need the F word? I always think the F word is for lazy people, and it makes me think this author is lazy. (I’m not talking about Chapter 9, F*ck This Sh*t, which muses on the casual use of profanity in English and has its place in the book, but “What the f* is a semicolon, anyway?” on page 140 of the ARC. A semicolon doesn’t call for or deserve the F word.)

Between You & Me was not as much fun as Eats, Shoots, and Leaves by Lynne Truss, but I did enjoy reading it. If you are looking for an amusing light read on the English language, I recommend it.

I read an advance reading copy from netgalley.com.

Did you love diagramming sentences in elementary school? Do you see errors in books you read? You will love this book. Mary Norris guides you down the path of pitfalls with grammar, usage, punctuation and more - all with a liberal dose of humor.

Mary Norris is a long time copy editor for The New Yorker. The book is part memoir and part reference book. That sounds like an odd combination, but it worked for me. I found her explanations for how to solve grammar conundrums as funny as they were helpful. Unlike many memoirs, Ms. Norris isn't offering readers a one-size-fits-all philosophy to better their lives; she's helping them better express their own philosophies (or theses or contracts, etc.) by teaching them to be better writers.

I doubt I'll re-read it as a memoir, but it will be a permanent fixture on my reference shelf in my office. It really deserves 3.5 stars.

I received this book free as part of Goodreads First-Reads. My opinion of the book is my own and not at all influenced by the fact that I did not have to pay for it.

I laughed out loud at this wonderful grammar book and yes I'm a huge dork.

Is there such a thing as Humarian/ Grammarian / Copy-Editing Therapist? With a pencil fetish? Loved this.

Hilarious!