Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Teatime with Mrs. Grammar Person / Barbara Venkataraman


Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Non-Fiction/Humor/Writing

Approximate word count: 7-8,000 words

Availability    
Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: NO  Smashwords: NO  Paper: NO
Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

During the day, Barbara Venkataraman is an attorney. At night, she writes in a variety of genres including humor and mystery.

Description:

“Fear not, Gentle Writer, Mrs. Grammar Person is here and she has the answers to all of the questions you never thought to ask. As a dedicated and serious grammarian, she will do what it takes to be entertaining and enlightening, but never vulgar or coarse. Heavens, no! Where are her smelling salts? Warm and witty, Mrs. G.P. makes grammar interesting with rhyming, wishful thinking, story-telling and a champagne toast. You are cordially invited to join her for a spot of tea!”

Appraisal:

A series of chapters that may have had a first life as blog posts, this small book teaches and refreshes grammar rules with an emphasis on word usage (common homophone errors, who vs whom, etc). The lessons are delivered by the fictional character Mrs. Grammar Person. She’s a bit over the top, even for a mild Grammar Nazi such as me, in how serious she takes her subject. But that seriousness is where the humor comes into play. Mrs. Grammar Person’s wordplay to illustrate her points was both amusing and educational. I picked up on one set of homophones that I was consistently using wrong (you home in on something, not hone in). I also picked up a good rule to help with the dreaded ‘who’ versus ‘whom’ decision.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: **** Four Stars

1 comment:

Karen Wojcik Berner said...

Sounds like my kind of book!