An opinionated guide to strong writing that’s full of examples and coherent instructions for producing readable prose.
In this writing guide, Tadros (The Book of Death, 2013, etc.) leads readers through the fundamentals of word choice, grammatical construction and rhetorical techniques, with insights drawn from his experience as a writing instructor. Examples of active and passive verbs, modifiers and conjunctions are drawn from a variety of sources, and although some will be familiar to readers of writing handbooks, there are welcome flashes of originality, such as illustrating the value of occasionally breaking grammatical rules, e.g., the use of Apple’s “Think Different” slogan. Touches of wry humor, like the introduction of “FANBOYS” as a mnemonic device to remember coordinating conjunctions—for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so—bring another appealing element of originality to the already well-covered subject. Each chapter focuses on a different aspect of writing techniques and, in addition to numerous examples, includes exercises for the reader. Addressing questions of usage and style, Tadros doesn’t hesitate to share his disapproval of some techniques: “Only self-important authors use turgid words such as utilise when a shorter, simpler word would better serve an audience.” (Yes, the book leans British.) While Tadros cautions readers against overblown prose, his own style often ventures into purple territory, as when he describes our “postmodern world infected with various strains of Staphylococcus relativism: a mind-dulling, host-disabling, culture-killing ideological parasite resistant to all forms of common sense and real-world experiences.” On the whole, however, the advice Tadros offers is balanced and reasonable, and it will bring both clarity and effectiveness to the writing of those who follow it.
An engaging and impassioned, if occasionally idiosyncratic, handbook for writers looking to achieve prose that is correct and elegant.
Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-0987553065
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Nightlight Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 13, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
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