Hope mixes with despair in this bittersweet cocktail of a writing/grammar guide.
Another handbook for those who love precision in language and who are not going gentle into that good night.
Brandreth, a British radio personality, former Member of Parliament, and author of the Oscar Wilde mystery series (Oscar Wilde and the Return of Jack the Ripper, 2019, etc.), skates lightly across the ice of his subject, offering some occasional humor (see the title). Like other books on the subject, this one assumes that most people care about being “correct” (do they?). The author writes in such a way that readers who already understand grammar, usage, and punctuation will best comprehend his lessons about subordinate clauses, restrictive and nonrestrictive modifiers, the use of apostrophes, and the like. On some issues, Brandreth stands rather firm (“alright” is not all right); on others, he feels the winds of change and realizes the end is near for, say, the difference between “who” and “whom.” The author pauses occasionally to comment on the differences between English in the U.K. and in America. His text also features long lists of various sorts: the meanings of prefixes and suffixes, the differences between spelling in British and American English, words that writers can confuse (“affect” and “effect,” “complement” and “compliment”), and common internet acronyms. Brandreth spends an inordinate amount of time on spelling, perhaps a superfluous endeavor in a time when many people are carrying around unabridged dictionaries on their phones. He urges his readers—especially those who wish to write—to increase their vocabularies and to read a lot (good advice). He concludes the main part of his text with some advice from some notable writers, including George Orwell, Martin Amis, William Safire, and Gyles Brandreth. In a postscript, the author provides a brief grammar lesson, explaining such things as parts of speech, misplaced and dangling modifiers, and transitive and intransitive verbs.
Hope mixes with despair in this bittersweet cocktail of a writing/grammar guide.Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-982127-40-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: May 25, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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