Average customer rating:
- Strange, disappointing work by noted film critic
- disappointment
- Totally original
- frustrating and brilliant at the same time
- A "biography" that should be an embarassment to the author
|
Nicole Kidman
David Thomson
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 1400042739
Release Date: 2006-09-05 |
Book Description
From the brilliant film historian and critic David Thomson, a book that reinvents the star biography in a singularly illuminating portrait of Nicole Kidman—and what it means to be a top actress today. At once life story, love letter, and critical analysis, this is not merely a book about who Kidman is but about what she is—in our culture and in our minds, on- and offscreen.
Tall, Australian, one of the striking beauties of the world, Nicole Kidman is that rare modern phenomenon—an authentic movie star who is as happy and as creative throwing a seductive gaze from some magazine cover as she is being Virginia Woolf in The Hours. Here is the story of how this actress began her career, has grown through her roles, taken risks, made good choices and bad, and worried about money, aging, and image.
Here are the details of an actress’s life: her performances in To Die For, The Portrait of a Lady, Eyes Wide Shut, Moulin Rouge!, The Hours, and Birth, among other films; her high-visibility marriage to Tom Cruise; her intense working relationship with Stanley Kubrick and her collaborations with Anthony Minghella and Baz Luhrmann; her work with Jude Law, Anthony Hopkins, Renée Zellweger, and John Malkovich; her decisions concerning nudity, endorsements, and publicity.
And here are Thomson’s scintillating considerations of what celebrity means in the life of an actress like Kidman; of how the screen becomes both barrier and open sesame for her and for her audience; of what is required today of an actress of Kidman’s stature if she is to remain vital to the industry and to the audiences who made her a prime celebrity.
Impassioned, opinionated, dazzlingly original in its approach and ideas, Nicole Kidman is as alluring and as much fun as Nicole Kidman herself, and David Thomson’s most remarkable book yet.
Customer Reviews:
Strange, disappointing work by noted film critic.......2007-03-04
I chose this book not because of its subject so much as because David Thomson wrote it. I own his "New Biographical Dictionary of Film" and have enjoyed reading the mostly thorough entries and catty comments it contains. "Nicole Kidman" is a tiresome and creepy disappointment, however. It is more filmography than biography and consists largely of Thomson's fantasies of how Kidman's films could be remade to better suit him, as well as a good deal of fretting about her "advancing age" (she will turn 40 this year) and the inexorable concomitant decline of her beauty, sex appeal, etc., which the author seems to take entirely for granted. I recommend this book only to diehard Kidman fans (a member of which I am not, although I have managed to see and enjoy most of her films anyhow, and think much of her work is just fine the way it is) who will read anything printed about her, no matter how bizarre or repugnant. Critics (and dirty old men) like Thomson should find someone more deserving of being picked on.
disappointment.......2006-11-14
Most people buy biographies because they have an existing interest in that star and want to get more of an insight into that particular personality. This book provides absolutely no new revelations into this talented actress. Instead we are forced to be the audience to David's views on each and every film and how he feels she could have done better/worse etc. There are very few interviews with people that have worked with her, few details about why she made her films choices, how the films were put together, and how she has become such a bankable star. He quotes from other magazine and interviews she has done, which we all have access to, and talks like he knows her intimately even though it is revealed they only spoke for a few minutes on the phone. I understand this was an unauthorised biog, but surely there could have been some proper investagative journalism and research done to provide the reader with new information on Nicole, instead of boring us with his own theories. Shame on you David! We bought this book to learn more about Nicole not about you.
Totally original.......2006-10-24
No one writes about films the way David Thomson does. Yes, this is a love letter to an actress, but more than that, it is a humorous, insightul look at current movies, and our culture. Not your standard biography, this book is much more than that, and a real treat from beginning to end.
frustrating and brilliant at the same time.......2006-10-16
Thomson's writing style, for me, is the definition of incisive, and like the old master, Stanley Kubrick, who he writes about in the book, he can be maddening just as often as he can be gratifying. He's at his best when he writes about the nature of the film medium and how films act on our subconscious sexual longings, which, I'm am convinced, is the only true way we react to movies. The rest (talk about camera movement, cinematography, nuanced performances) resides somewhere between posing and intellectual fodder. The Human Stain is a highly problematic film, but my attention was galvanized throughout, not by Faunia Farley's plight, but by the ghost of a promise of a far more alluring dream: of myself running in and rescuing poor helpless Nicole. Puerile and childish, maybe, but Thomson is the only critic I know who is audacious enough to address the movie that exists BETWEEN the individual audience member and the movie, the only movie that really exists, as opposed to the inert play of shadows and light projected on a screen. His sin, and the source of most of the negative reaction this book seems to be getting, it seems, is to discuss the movie between himself and the screen in total honestly, making no bones about it. Movies are not primarily about technical precision; they're about how they speak to our unconscious fears and our frustrated sexuality and when someone puts their finger on that, we tend to recoil.
I'm torn right down the middle by this book. The aforementioned comments about the nature of the medium are fresh and vital, as in his other, much better book, The Whole Equation; when it comes to film, Thomson has his eye turned to the future, to how digital technology is sapping the life-likeness from our films and to the numbing realization that people are gradually drawn to the falseness of movies instead of their brilliant capacity to evoke life. Movies are in a state of ignominous decline, and that apprehension seeps into how he sees Kidman; the possiblity of Botox, the lamentable last few entries on her resume. He's courageous to share his fantasies of Nicole with us, and I hope he's being honest about them, because otherwise my view of the man would change entirely. The problem remains that virtually no one wants to hear about the fantasies of an aging, portly, grey-haired man; we have our own fantasies, thank you. Do Thomson's fantasies justify themselves in the degree to which they yield insights to how we view movies, and Nicole, etc.? That's a subjective thing and negotiating that line as I read the book was what made "Nicole Kidman" a predominately queasy experience for me.
Also, his reviews of Nicole's films, which is really what I bought the book for, are depressingly shallow. A little more talk about the movies on the screen rather than the ones in Thomson's head would have been appreciated here, as his hypothetical, what if? movies aren't quite as interesting as he seems to think they are.
Far from Thomson's first priority, I think, is to comfort his reader. He seems better than anybody else at getting us to see movies as dubious objects that sap our energies and emotions rather than revivifying them. This book will be rewarding as long as you don't mind bumping into the author on your way to Nicole.
A "biography" that should be an embarassment to the author.......2006-10-14
This book is not so much a biography (let alone an authorized biography) as it is a trite apologetic for the author's own obsession with Nicole Kidman. Thompson offers an armchair deconstruction of film and film-making in an effort to lend his book some semblance of critical purpose. His conclusion however, (all movie actors are hollow shells of human beings with whom we interact in a mutual desire to fill some assumed void; movies are only viewed as an extension of star-worship) generalizes his own neurosis and obsessions to his readers. These kinds of sweeping generalizations permeate the text (all Australian's are driven by rage??) and would not pass muster in a college freshman writing course.
Thompson's chummy style, implicating the reader in his own onanistic obsession, is grotesque. Personally, I do not surf the web looking for nude and semi-nude pictures of Ms. Kidman, nor do I share Thompson's morbid fantasies of her waking up "screaming" at the realization that she is aging. This falls firmly under the category of "too much information" and should give the reader a clue as to the proprietary and even sadistic bent of Thompson's attachment to and fascination with the actress.
Ultimately, Thompson's argument that Ms. Kidman shamelessly courts the limelight begging to be worshiped in an effort to "be" what we desire speaks more truth about Thompson's own need to justify his voyeuristic impulses than it does about Ms. Kidman's attitude towards privacy and public notice. It brings to mind the kind of defense offered at rape trials that the girl was "asking for it" because she had on too much makeup. And the rape analogy can be taken farther. The availability of coverage of her personal life is primarily the product of those industries secondary to the film industry - the tabloids, entertainment broadcasts and yes, critics, who obtain their own celebrity and make their living by marketing the image of others. In so doing, they take something as essential to a human being as their identity out of their hands, craft or even reinvent it and sell it like a comodity for their own gain.
Thompson exemplifies the worst of this parasitic behavior, reducing Nicole Kidman to the shell of a public persona crafted largely by others, and presuming to therefore "know" her, all the while blaming her for the shallowness of that image. Worse yet, in a volume that bears Ms. Kidman's name and likeness on the cover, Thompson uses this "biography" to showcase his own obsession and his own fantasy-driven "insights" into popular culture and film. A book like this, nothing more than fantasy-rendered-as-biography, can only be regarded as an act of violence against its very subject.
Average customer rating:
- Nicole Kidman: The Biography
- An Enjoyable Biography
- GREAT READ!
- Best present ever!
- As close as we can get
|
Nicole Kidman: The Biography
Lucy Ellis , and
Bryony Sutherland
Manufacturer: Aurum Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 185410926X |
Book Description
The first–ever biography of this dazzling Hollywood star.
Customer Reviews:
Nicole Kidman: The Biography.......2007-01-09
I really liked this biography about Nicole Kidman. It is detailed, not too emotional, rather facts-oriented and seems honest.
An Enjoyable Biography.......2006-05-08
This is the only Nicole Biography I have ever read. It is written by two English authors. It is long and the print is small, so one must be prepared to spend some time reading it.
It covers her childhood up through the time of writing. The authors seem to have done extensive research on Nicole, so appear to have covered all the bases. Her career is written about in great detail and there is sufficient mention of her personal life to keep the reader wanting more.
It is not a juicy tell all, though, but instead very respectful of Nicole's privacy. I think one will be surprised to find out the kind of person Nicole really is, the breadth of movies she has done, and also how many of those movies were disturbing and/or quite sexual.
An Enjoyable Biography!
GREAT READ!.......2004-02-22
I really loved this book. I just finished reading it and was disappointed it ended so soon. I didn't know much about Nicole Kidman until I read the biography. As I read it, I felt as though I was living her life; feeling her pain and joy. Whoever reads this book will love it! It truly is a great read!
Best present ever!.......2003-12-30
I was recently given this book by a friend as I am a new Nicole Kidman fan - What a great read! It was really fun, and detailed her life in a chatty but informed way. I didn't know about any of the films she did as a teenager and I am dying to see them and understand the backstage stories more! I think Nicole's a brilliant actress and this is a fitting biography.
As close as we can get.......2003-12-30
I have been following Nicole's career for a while and have always been fascinated by the fact that she breaks all the rules and goes for quirky arty films rather than surefire box office hits. Unlike other reviewers here, I think this biography put those desires into context with her struggle as being labelled Mrs Tom Cruise and the break up of her marriage.
I found it a really interesting read with some different takes on the usual stories. There were also some great tales from her early days back in Australia which I have never heard before. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants to know a bit more about this wonderful actress and mother.
Product Description
COME WHAT MAY
Series: Piano Vocal
Artist: Ewan McGregor
Artist: Nicole Kidman
Sheet music.
Average customer rating:
- Interesting subject, poor writer
- nothing new
- Eyes Wide Open for Nic
- Go, Nic, Go!
|
Nicole Kidman
James L Dickerson
Manufacturer: Citadel
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 080652491X |
Customer Reviews:
Interesting subject, poor writer.......2005-08-18
While Nicole Kidman is an interesting subject, and I love to read about her and watch her films, the writer of this book is infantile, and often makes you wonder if he has studied English at all. There are bizarre run-on sentences and wording that simply doesn't make sense. The style is choppy and uninteresting.
You might like this book if you are just hoping to learn a little more on Kidman's life, but expect to overlook some major shortcomings in the writer.
nothing new.......2005-04-25
Same stuff you hear in the news. Doesn't tell you about why or how her marriage broke up or anything else really.
Eyes Wide Open for Nic.......2003-08-12
I see this biography of Nicole Kidman, and, being a red-blooded All-American type, I decided to check out one of my favorite actresses. Having admired Ms. Kidman since her Dead Calm days, I like to claim her as one of my film "discoveries" so there's more than a bit of prejudice about her.
This biography, painstakingly researched and meticulously detailed, is a work of many textures and is an enjoyable as it is thorough.
But, hey, wait until you come to Chapter Seven - "The Making of Eyes Wide Shut" -- the film she and then-husband Tom Cruise made with the late, great Stanley Kubrick.
A longtime admirer of Kubrick's work, I learned some hand-wringing details about ol' Stanley such as whether or not the myths surrounding him and his allegedly bizarre work habits were true or not.
And SEX, oh yes. Nicole Kidman and sex. We see how Kubrick manipulated, managed, whatever, Ms. Kidman's 'love' scenes in Eyes Wide Shut. and how those scenes affected her marriage with the oh-so-nearby Mr. Cruise. This chapter has some of the 'hottest' descriptions I've seen in a serious, almost scholarly, biography. The pages were singed on the ends.
It's here where the reader gets hooked and then digs in for the rest of the ride, particularly after reading the interview with the 'sailor' who did the 'love' scenes with our star.
Go, Nic, Go!.......2003-07-29
As a read, this book is every bit as fabulous as Nicole is an actress. It is filled with psychological insights into her marriage to Tom Cruise and offers the most detailed information yet about her experiences growing up in Australia.
The best part of this book centers on the making of "Eyes Wide Shut." Beyond any doubt, it is the steamiest, most erotic writing I have enountered about a major Hollywood star. My glasses are still steamed over.
You will never be sorry you read this book.
Product Description
Three Items: "Mrs. Dalloway" by Virginia Woolf (book); "The Hours" by Michael Cunningham (book); "The Hours" (movie).
Average customer rating:
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Livewire Real Lives Nicole Kidman (Livewires)
Janet Platt
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0521776414 |
Book Description
This book tells the story of the talented Australian actor Nicole Kidman. It has photographs of Nicole in some of her films and on stage. The Real Lives books are about famous people from the worlds of Sport, Film and Music, and Politics and History.
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Mario Testino: Let Me in
Manufacturer: Taschen
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 3822844187 |
Book Description
Inside the circle: Behind-the-scenes photos of celebrities by the fashion world's favorite photographer
As one of the 21st century`s most travelled, acclaimed, and influential fashion photographers, Mario Testino has unsurpassed access to the most magnetic stars of popular culture. For some time now he has been collecting a personal archive of off-screen moments, often snatched spontaneously before, during, and after more official sittings for Vanity Fair, Vogue, and Testino`s many clients in the world of fashion. The result is a portrait not just of a generation of the most wanted and talked-about, but an invitation to be part of the backstage parties and unstaged moments of Testino`s life. Sometimes offbeat, but always on the pulse, Let me in!, with Testino`s eye for a modern kind of elegance liberated from conventional polish, is a new chapter from the photographer who has already made his mark with the books Any Objections, Front Row Backstage, Alive, Portraits, Kids, Diana Princess of Wales, and numerous exhibitions and publications worldwide.
Product Description
Twentieth Century Fox Motion Picture studio book commemorating 2001 Moulin Rouge motion picture release. Bright bordello red leatherette oblong softcover book with foldover paper clasp. Faux vintage admittance ticket affixed to paper clasp states All you need is love/THE SHOW MUST GO ON. Book contains color photos of scenes from the film. Some pages fold open to reveal more motion picture scenes. Book is wrapped in bordello red tissue paper (decorated with Moulin Rouge windmill logos) and enclosed in a glossy red box with gold interior (Moulin Rouge windmill logos on box exterior).
Average customer rating:
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Music \= Cultures in Contact: Convergences and Collisions (Musicology)
Margare Kartomi
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 2884491376 |
Book Description
Contact between cultures may also lead to rejection as well as suppression of certain types of music. This process leads to such unfavorable circumstances as abandonment of entire works, genres or concepts or loss of instruments; yet such conflicts may also generate new and more positive creative achievements.
Contributors include Andrew Alter, Tan Sooi Beng, Zdravko Blazekovic, Stephen Blum, Lê Tuân Hùng, Margaret J. Kartomi, Marcello Sorce Keller, Margarita Mazo, Bruno Nettl, Don Niles, William Noll, Jann Pasler, Ankica Petrovic, Chris Saumaiwai, John M. Schechter, Graeme Smith, Doris Stockmann, Sumarsam, and S. Venkatraman.
Music -- Cultures in Contact examines how and why change occurs in musical culture, particularly change engendered by contact between two or many impinging cultures, sub-cultures or classes within a culture. This contact can have positive or negative effects. It may result in an influx of new musical ideas, leading to a greater level of crea
Average customer rating:
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Music-Cultures in Contact: Convergences and Collisions.(Review): An article from: Notes
David Henderson
Manufacturer: Music Library Association, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
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ASIN: B00098NH58
Release Date: 2005-07-28 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Notes, published by Music Library Association, Inc. on March 1, 1999. The length of the article is 876 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Music-Cultures in Contact: Convergences and Collisions.(Review)
Author: David Henderson
Publication:
Notes (Refereed)
Date: March 1, 1999
Publisher: Music Library Association, Inc.
Volume: 55
Issue: 3
Page: 686(2)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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|
Positive Thoughts: Living Your Life to the Fullest (Quote a Page)
Manufacturer: Andrews McMeel Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0836207238 |
Customer Reviews:
Great!.......2000-01-25
I wish everyone had a copy of this book. It's witty, insightful, and uplifting. It has quotes from Virgil to a Navajo song. Many quotes from woen are there, which I also enjoyed. There are many great words of hope and inspiration, in an easily readable form (one quote, per page).
Book Description
In America today college professors cringe at the lack of writing skills displayed by their students, business leaders bemoan poor communicative skills among their employees, and people themselves recognize that they (and their children) have a problem and want to do something about it.
This inviting book introduces readers anew to the eight parts of speech and common grammatical problems -- such as the case of pronouns depicted in the book's title, the tension between nouns and verbs, the controversy of the active vs. passive voice, and the power of a verb-based style. Then equipped with a knowledge of the parts of speech and the power of the verb form, Good presents his theory of style and the craft of sentences -- including those important marks of punctuation.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent.......2007-09-10
The title alone will sell you. I must hear people misusing "I and me" 100 times a week. I wish I'd had this book in high school. It lays out usage in a clear and understandable manner and doesn't bog you down with information that you don't care about.
Terrific reference book for non-English majors.
Yes, Buy This Book!!!.......2007-07-08
The fact that you are reading this review indicates that you are interested in grammar. That means you should buy this book, as it is certainly one of the better books on this topic. What I especially like is that it does not treat you as a grammarian and it reviews many basics of sentence structure - and it is an enjoyable read. Yes, you still should have a copy of "The Elements of Style" by Strunk and White if you're serious about good writing, but this book is a clear, single source, winner to me. I write articles, books and websites. I routinely seek good reference advice. That includes this book.
A Good Introduction to Grammar.......2007-05-13
Mr. Good laments the fact that grammar is no longer taught in schools and he has taken the effort to introduce novices to it in a fun way. I am truly enjoying his book and I am learning much along the way! Thank you, Mr. Good!
Finally - a grammar book written for the rest of us!.......2007-04-11
I am always trying to ensure my grammar is correct (a habit I picked up from my father.) I've not been able to find a book that explains common grammar problems in a way I would remember. This one is easy to use and I will always keep it with my dictionary and other reference books.
Our Most Important Subject.......2006-08-28
This is an excellent book for learning or renewing our knowledge of English Grammar. There is a conspiracy in this country to dumb down the attendees of public schools, and it began in the early part of the last century with some wealthy industrialists and government officials. Leaving Children behind began before Bush and he is a prime example of it. Let's all fight back by speaking English properly, as well as reading and writing excellently. This book is a good place to start! Then, on to Phonics!
Customer Reviews:
Entertaining and educational!.......2007-04-01
Brian P. Cleary has a great way of introducing and explaining pronouns to children in this book! My students have enjoyed all his books that he has written about the different parts of speech, and I have purchased everyone that he has written! He has made a boring subject entertaining and educational.
Excellent Read!.......2005-10-11
Clear and concise, with a lot of tongue in cheek fun thrown in, this book is excellent for teaching what a pronoun is and categorizing pronouns. A wonderful resource for the classroom and home library.
Time to learn your grammar!.......2005-03-26
These books are so good at helping kids learn the parts of speech. They give so many clear examples of sentences, with the specific part of speech in a different color so everyone will notice it. I used these in a classroom during english class and they all loved it. A+ to this book!
Product Description
On-the-go Instrction Because your time is valuable... All Audio All on the go! Beginning level instruction is presented in an all-audio format on 4 digitally-recorded CDs. You have the opportunity to learn on the go, taking advantage of time normally wasted. Study in your car, while exercising, doing yard work anywhere you can safely listen to a CD player. No accompanying books are needed to help you complete the lesson activities. Why can t learning be fun? It can! Linguaphone has chosen to present the allTalk series in an entertaining, soap-opera format. No dry old teacher with a monotone voice putting you to sleep, you follow the adventures of a visitor to a Spanish-speaking country as she interacts with individuals in a variety of interesting situations, learning the language and beginning to understand the culture. Actually learn the language Tired of spending money on language courses that don t work? Did you ever think the problem could be with the course and not you? With Linguaphone s unique learning sequence: Listen, Understand, Speak, you will find yourself actually using the language in no time at all! You are presented with a unit of the language, it is then broken down and explained to you, then you put it back together with greater understanding than just repeating what you may not have understood in the first place. . . . and learn it well! The all Talk methodology not only teaches well, but will have you speaking and understanding basic spoken Spanish in no time at all. Other popular all-audio courses require four times the cds, four times the money and four times the time to do what Linguaphone s allTalk Basic does with 4-one hour CDs.
Average customer rating:
- Good, but no "Eats, Shoots and Leaves"
- Easy read, fun, but not rigorous
- Fun, but disappointing
- Useful, but could be easier to use
- Another annoying book of half-truths and prejudices
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Between You and I: A Little Book of Bad English
James Cochrane
Manufacturer: Sourcebooks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Grammar
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ASIN: 1402203314 |
Book Description
In the spirit of the bestselling Eats, Shoots & Leaves, this is an informative and highly amusing little book about bad English, full of examples of the incorrect grammar and usage that often pervades modern radio broadcasts, newspaper articles, classroom discussions and political speeches.
As the author explains, he does not take issue with the so-called "educated or uneducated" uses of the English language. Between You and I is more concerned with the particular form of English debasement we now have, which might be called the "half-educated" uses of language.
Readers may be surprised to find that much of what they thought was "bad" English is in fact perfectly good, and that what they have learned to think of as "good" English is sometimes ignorant, dishonest or just plain stupid.
Customer Reviews:
Good, but no "Eats, Shoots and Leaves".......2007-01-03
Maybe I'm burned out on the genre. Technically this book is just as helpful as any other of its ilk, but I didn't find it the joy that "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" was.
Easy read, fun, but not rigorous.......2006-11-03
This book was easy to read and quite fun. It has lots of sayings that make you say, "Ah-ha" when you realize something you hear all the time is wrong, or at least questionable. Some of the entries have some good research and background. I think everyone would like this book because there is enough variety that every person will find some phrases they also think are barbaric and others they'll disagree with the author about (oops, ended my sentence with a preposition, I think...). So lots of debate topics available and it will make you think.
However, the book is a bit shallow; some of the reasoning and "background" on some of the phrases seems suspect; it is certainly not a rigorously researched book and by no means complete or authoritative. It reads as if it was written by someone who knows English well, has some pet peeves, and is probably right about a lot of things, but didn't put a whole lot of effort into research for the book. I found _Eats, Shoots, and Leaves_ to be even better than this book. Wittier, if nothing else. Still, this book is fun and very quick read. Worth it if you don't pay full price and definitely worth it if you can get your friends to read it so you can argue with them! :-).
Fun, but disappointing.......2006-07-15
I am really disappointed (or appalled) by the fact that this guy does not appear to have any understanding of the cause of the problem he used as the title of his book! When kids would say "Jim and me went to the mall," around the 70s when it became popular to have children attend school without actually teaching them anything, teachers started correcting them, "'Jim and I', not 'Jim and me'!" without teaching them anything about why "Jim and me" was wrong. They had no choice but to "learn" that it is wrong to say "Jim and me," and that "Jim and I" must always be used instead. No one taught them that it is just as wrong to use "Jim and I" after a preposition, as it is to use "Jim and me" as the subject. There isn't the slightest question as to why people go around saying "between you and I" today, but the author of this book writes that he doesn't really know quite how this has happened. Incredible.
Useful, but could be easier to use.......2006-02-24
I found the book quite useful because I was guilty of quite a number of the mistakes that the author points out.
I would have found the book easier to "use" if the author had clear "right" and "wrong" examples for each case. I guess I'm used to "... for Dummies" books, but at times I had to re-read an example to make sure I understood which case was right, and which wrong.
Another annoying book of half-truths and prejudices.......2005-08-08
Just once, I wish the people who churn out these amusing little handbooks on 'bad English' would do some basic research. For an example, on page 14, Cochrane says, referring to the titular phrase: "This oddity, which seems to have emerged only in the last twenty or so years, presumably arises from a feeling of discomfort about using the word me, a sense that it is somehow impolite or 'uneducated.' "
Except that this usage goes back well over 400 years (Shakespeare uses both it and "between you and me"), and has nothing whatsoever to do with hypercorrection or politeness. If it did, we wouldn't also see "Me" standing alone, as we do, not to mention "Me and you" in subject phrases. ('Myself', now - that does seem to be some sort of avoidance mechanism...)
I recommend the Merriam-Webster Dictionary of English Usage's thorough treatment of this and other topics for those who want to know what's really happening with English.
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