This mildly humorous guide to good usage unfortunately doesn't move much past the half-truths and simplifications one gets taught at school. If you read it carefully, you can see the authors ignoring the rules they insist on and misusing the terminology they explained earlier. ( )

I'm not sure that this is easy or good reading for someone who is just learning grammar, but it was a refreshing, enjoyable review of what I already know with lots of little things I never really knew before. I especially like the introduction and how the example sentences are humorous. It's not a dry grammar book, and maybe you'll find something new as well?

I read it front to back over summer vacation (voluntarily), so I think that says it all. ( )

If you are interested in brushing up on your writing and grammar skills, I recommend My Grammar and I...Or Should That Be Me? How to Speak and Write It Right by Caroline Taggart and J.A. Wines.

The book is divided into five chapters: Spelling and Confusables, Parts of Speech, Sentence Structure, Punctuation, and Odds and Ends (Or, Elements of Style). Each chapter lays out the basic rules and examples in a systematic fashion, then quickly lists the most common mistakes.

I was eager to review My Grammar and I...Or Should That Be Me? because of those occasional moments when I'd pause and have to think about the rules for certain things. My spelling skills aren't the strongest and I benefit from having a dictionary on hand. The commonly misspelled words section and the "What Do You Call a Group of?" were interesting.

I appreciate the book most for the errors that it's helped me correct. Here are a few of the things that the book helped clarify:

* Not to capitalize the names of seasons: to write autumn instead of Autumn
* To write "Happy Birthday, Jim and Bea" instead of "Happy birthday, Jim and Bea"
* The plural of talisman is not talismen but talismans
* That the plural of dwarf is dwarfs, but I still think that dwarves is acceptable
* That the singular of graffiti is graffitto and papparazzi is papparazzo, though I'll likely just revise whatever I'm writing to keep using the plural. Graffito sounds strange to me!
* That you're never bored of - instead you're bored by or bored with

Here's a quote that the book uses to demonstrate the proper use of commas, taken from Dick King-Smith's novel Poppet: "He asked beetles and grubs and worms and caterpillars and little lizards and small frogs, and some replied jokily and some replied angrily and some didn't answer." Can you think of ads or signs that have incorrect punctuation?

My Grammar and I...Or Should That Be Me? How To Speak and Write It Right is published by Reader's Digest. It's part of a series that includes i before e (except after c): old school ways to remember stuff by Judy Parkinson and I Used to Know That: Stuff You Forgot From School by Caroline Taggart.

Thanks so much to Julie and FSB Associates for this opportunity! ( )

Kind of average. Lynne Truss's effort on punctuation was both more entertaining and more informative. ( )