What do you think?
Rate this book
Getting It Right
146 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1989
7 people want to read
About the author
Laurie Graham
40 books137 followersLaurie Graham was first published at the advanced age of 40. Gentle comedy is her style. She is the author of seventeen novels, including the best-selling The Future Homemakers of America and its sequel, The Early Birds
Mother of four, grandmother of many, Laurie is married to a New Yorker and lives in County Dublin, Ireland.
You can visit her website, read what she's up to and say hello at http://lauriegraham.com
Mother of four, grandmother of many, Laurie is married to a New Yorker and lives in County Dublin, Ireland.
You can visit her website, read what she's up to and say hello at http://lauriegraham.com
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 29, 2025
You need to have grown up in the 80s/90s, and I suspect either be British or want to laugh at the British to enjoy this book.
It is all about British manners, social etiquette, and it shows very well particular how ridiculous some of it is even though it also explains how important it is.
Purchased after it was serialised on Radio4 women hour in the 80s.
After Mysteries of Udolpho it is a book I can, and have, read time and time and time and time again.
It is all about British manners, social etiquette, and it shows very well particular how ridiculous some of it is even though it also explains how important it is.
Purchased after it was serialised on Radio4 women hour in the 80s.
After Mysteries of Udolpho it is a book I can, and have, read time and time and time and time again.
November 11, 2014
I read this book years ago and found it funny and at least somewhat useful. Then for some reason or other I decided to pick it up again and give it a re-read. And was disappointed as you might have guessed from the score.
The humour is there, but it gets repetitive after a while and the advice, while most of it sound, is lacking in depth. You don't really feel educated after reading this.
And then there's the fact that time just seemed to have marched on. At one point Graham talks about table planning and guests of honour and brings up a example of having invited among other people a cardinal and your brother, who is an admiral and also newly out of the closet and is bringing his boyfriend. Graham's solution to the challenge is to drop the brother from the company. Really? Never mind all the it-was-a-different-time-crap. Why bring up a etiquette problem and then not give a solution? Fortunately, in the Danish edition, the translater and editor hijacks the book for a moment to suggest seating the cardinal next to the brother's boyfriend, so he can learn a bit about life, if he doesn't already know about such things. Thank you, editor! The one star in this review goes to you.
But this is not the only problem in the book. Later, Graham suggest hitting your children as a way of teaching them to behave. Something you should never do and I say that as someone who was smacked as a child and didn't learn anything good from it. And before and after giving this piece of advice, she goes on a rant about how children today are spoiled because their parents can't set boundaries. And of course I think children today are rude and lack discipline, but the thing is, her book is more than 20 years old and the children she's talking about are my generation. Who have now grown up to complain about today's kids. Which is absolutely fine; that's what adults are supposed to do. But Graham is not just some lady writing a book review on the web. She wrote a whole book about how people are supposed to get along most easily and pleasantly and frankly, I found her lack of perspective and self insight disturbing.
Tl;dr. Not funny enough to work as a comedy book and if you're looking for actual useful advice on manners, you'd be much better of getting some of Judith Martin's books or simply going through her Miss Manners column.
The humour is there, but it gets repetitive after a while and the advice, while most of it sound, is lacking in depth. You don't really feel educated after reading this.
And then there's the fact that time just seemed to have marched on. At one point Graham talks about table planning and guests of honour and brings up a example of having invited among other people a cardinal and your brother, who is an admiral and also newly out of the closet and is bringing his boyfriend. Graham's solution to the challenge is to drop the brother from the company. Really? Never mind all the it-was-a-different-time-crap. Why bring up a etiquette problem and then not give a solution? Fortunately, in the Danish edition, the translater and editor hijacks the book for a moment to suggest seating the cardinal next to the brother's boyfriend, so he can learn a bit about life, if he doesn't already know about such things. Thank you, editor! The one star in this review goes to you.
But this is not the only problem in the book. Later, Graham suggest hitting your children as a way of teaching them to behave. Something you should never do and I say that as someone who was smacked as a child and didn't learn anything good from it. And before and after giving this piece of advice, she goes on a rant about how children today are spoiled because their parents can't set boundaries. And of course I think children today are rude and lack discipline, but the thing is, her book is more than 20 years old and the children she's talking about are my generation. Who have now grown up to complain about today's kids. Which is absolutely fine; that's what adults are supposed to do. But Graham is not just some lady writing a book review on the web. She wrote a whole book about how people are supposed to get along most easily and pleasantly and frankly, I found her lack of perspective and self insight disturbing.
Tl;dr. Not funny enough to work as a comedy book and if you're looking for actual useful advice on manners, you'd be much better of getting some of Judith Martin's books or simply going through her Miss Manners column.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews