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Title details for Greek to Me by Mary Norris - Available

Greek to Me

Adventures of the Comma Queen

by Mary Norris
Mary Norris
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
"Hilarious. . . . This book charmed my socks off." ?Patricia O'Conner, New York Times Book Review Mary Norris has spent more than three decades in The New Yorker's copy department, maintaining its celebrated high standards. Now she brings her vast experience, good cheer, and finely sharpened pencils to help the rest of us in a boisterous language book as full of life as it is of practical advice. Greek to Me features Norris's laugh-out-loud descriptions of some of the most common and vexing problems in spelling, punctuation, and usage?comma faults, danglers, "who" vs. "whom," "that" vs. "which," compound words, gender-neutral language?and her clear explanations of how to handle them. Down-to-earth and always open-minded, she draws on examples from Charles Dickens, Emily Dickinson, Henry James, and the Lord's Prayer, as well as from The Honeymooners, The Simpsons, David Foster Wallace, and Gillian Flynn. She takes us to see a copy of Noah Webster's groundbreaking Blue-Back Speller, on a quest to find out who put the hyphen in Moby-Dick, on a pilgrimage to the world's only pencil-sharpener museum, and inside the hallowed halls of The New Yorker and her work with such celebrated writers as Pauline Kael, Philip Roth, and George Saunders. Readers?and writers?will find in Norris neither a scold nor a softie but a wise and witty new friend in love with language and alive to the glories of its use in America, even in the age of autocorrect and spell-check. As Norris writes, "The dictionary is a wonderful thing, but you can't let it push you around."

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    April 2, 2019

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781501935282
      • File size: 203253 KB
      • Duration: 07:03:26

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Part very personal memoir, part travelogue, part intellectual obsession--it's hard to know whom this audiobook is for. Mary Norris, former NEW YORKER copy editor, is here most interesting when discussing classical Greek language and literature, modern Greek, and the history of written languages. Norris's personal journey learning to speak Greek, and her passion for Greece the country, may be less universally fascinating. More problematic still is the TMI factor as Norris recounts her long-ago sensual adventures as an available single-woman traveler. She has done herself no favors by narrating, as it's hard to enjoy imagining the young woman she was, skinny-dipping and picking up strangers, while hearing the voice of a woman in late middle age, with its distancing strongly regional Midwestern accent. B.G. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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