The only grammar book you'll ever need by Susan Thurman

The only grammar book you'll ever need by Susan Thurman

        ...This may be the only grammar book you’ll ever need, but it’s not the only book you’ll ever need for writing

Author's decision to use The only grammar book you'll ever need as the title of this work is risky. Given the advent of Grammar Nazis, who cannot forgive someone even for splitting of an infinitive, author's use of such a bold title could seem either boorish or adventurous depending on the strength of content of the work. Fortunately, the clear, concise, and almost funny writing style of the author leads me to conclude the the title to be apt and ,despite its glibness, quite apropos to book's coverage.

The book's principal topics include: parts of speech, word selection, sentence structure, verbs, pronouns, punctuations, and effective writing. While I wouldn't recommend this book to a beginner of english grammar, the breath and details of the aforementioned topics are perfectly balanced making the book a perfect choice for readers who want a short grammar refresher. Susan has indeed chosen to delve on addressing the common errors related to each of these topics and provides a few examples of the error as well its resolution. I did feel that some of her points were too short and not enough examples were provided, but addition of these points/examples would come at the cost of augmenting the book and disturbing its current elegant state.

It could make sense to complement this book with Strunk's Elements of style; reading the same topic from both of these high quality reference books will help reader think from multiple angles and reinforce the concepts in his mind.

This book is strongly recommended for multiple reads for people looking for an english grammar refresher. Beginners might want to start with suitable introductory works in the market before jumping to this book.

The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr.

The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr.

Strunk's Elements of Style is an english grammar and usage book that includes several key topics such as comma usage, paragraph formation, brevity, and commonly misused words. The work's sole purpose is to lay down some of the rules of english grammar and usage that Strunk thinks important for the reader. The work is very reader-focused; Strunk does not attempt to give an exhaustive list of grammar and usage rules but considers only those that are most often implemented incorrectly.

While writing this review I have become blissfully aware of at least two mistakes I could have made, but avoided.  However, I still think I could use multiple readings of this work to write better. Unfortunately, this review is heavily jaded by the numerous praises that most of the readers have given to this work. I found this book to be quite well written, brief and simple to read. A word of caution- I was checking some of the rules from other sources and found that a few of the rules are no longer valid for modern usage or is heavily disputed. Reader should take caution if he finds that some rule is blatantly different from his understanding; then, he should verify the rule from other sources.

Strunk's work does not seem to be an introductory text in english grammar. A beginner had better complement it with some other grammar book.

I highly recommend this book for any speaker or writer of english. I also recommend that the reader goes through it many times over a few years to assimilate the rules.

Secrets of Mental Math by Arthur Benjamin & Michael Shermer

Secrets of Mental Math by Arthur Benjamin & Michael Shermer

    …Too often, math is taught as a set of rigid rules, leaving little room for creative thinking.

This review might be considered somewhat disjoint from other reviews on this blog. Ordinarily, books that are 'too practical' or read simply for utilitarian purposes have not been dwelled upon with as much thought as given to other works of literature. This book will not be exception, since it ends up being both a practical as well as a thought-provoking work.

It is true that this work mainly deals with mathematical shortcuts and some guesstimation techniques that, with practice, can help reader do some quick practical as well as fun math. However, I believe the real gems of the book are not the shortcuts. Instead it is authors' belief that anyone can do quick mathematical calculations in their mind. The authors do not try to persuade the reader of this belief only by reasoning with them. Instead, they demonstrate improvement of mathematical capabilities as the work progresses by increasing both the challenges and motivation. In no way is this work cumbersome to read. Indeed, even those who might have loathed using their mathematical faculties in their formative years may come to think of some parts as fun.

The work ends on a great essay by Shermer "How math helps us think about weird things", in which he notes thus: "I don’t want to pontificate about how mathematics in school teaches students to think critically, because that has probably been said by nearly every math teacher in nearly every math class in nearly every school in America, at least once a year."  I think this quote is, in some sense, a meta-commentary of the work itself. The book is acutely demonstrative & practical, yet might remind the reader of Bach's seagull- “He was not bone and feather but a perfect idea of freedom and flight, limited by nothing at all”. In this idea of human limitlessness, even an abstraction lover will begin to appreciate a likeness for the practical.

As a confession, the reviewer did skip many parts that he seemed fit only for a mathemagician. Yet, the parts he did read felt nothing short of some fun!

I strongly recommend this book for everyone who wants to learn how to have fun with numbers or wants to improve their practical mathematics skills.