Grammar for a Full Life: How the Ways We Shape a Sentence Can Limit or Enlarge Us

by Lawrence Weinstein

Why settle for a normal book on grammar when you could learn new things about it and become your own best self at the same time?
If you’re looking for a traditional manual of rules, this much-acclaimed, groundbreaking book by a cofounder of Harvard University’s Writing Center may not be the one for you. Grammar is about much more than rules: it’s about choices, too—since a thought can always be expressed correctly in multiple ways.

In Grammar for a Full Life, author Lawrence Weinstein reveals how our grammatical choices either stifle or boost our…

sense of agency in life
creativity
depth of connection to others
and mindfulness.
Weinstein shows that certain tweaks to a person’s grammar can bring consequential changes in his or her fulfillment and well-being. In this wonderfully readable book, he describes some forty transformative moves that can be made with English punctuation and syntax. In the book, you’ll learn, for instance, why a greater use of active voice constructions builds assertive energy in us. You’ll discover how—paradoxically—cutting back on the “intensifiers” (exclamation marks and words like really, absolutely) heightens our awareness of the world.

There is not too much about personality and life that Weinstein doesn’t see benefitting from a wiser use of grammar. In a chapter titled “Bonding,” even sex comes in for some grammatical attention. Even fear of death receives its own, almost lyrical chapter near book’s end.

The farther one gets into this remarkable book, the clearer it becomes that Weinstein’s wish—for both himself and us—is actualization of “the whole person,” through language.

No reader should be intimidated by Weinstein’s university credentials. As important a book as his is, it’s conversational throughout—and it’s packed with numerous compelling, clear examples. You will never think of commas or possessive pronouns in the same way again. Your regard for the conjunction “but” is likely to soar.

Praise for Grammar for a Full Life has been coming in from thought leaders of all kinds, ranging from well-known authors on language, such as Anne Fadiman, Lynne Truss, and Richard Lederer, to influential spiritual thinkers, like Rabbi Lawrence Kushner. Cornel West calls it “brilliant and original.” Pioneer in mind-body studies Joan Borysenko writes, “If you read just one book this year, let this be the one.” (For a sampling of endorsements, see Editorial Reviews, below.)

[PLEASE NOTE: Grammar for a Full Life is not a book intended for the person new to the English language. It assumes familiarity with many of the basics of English.]

Genres: Nonfiction, Writing, Language, Audiobook, Personal Development, Teaching, Linguistics

244 pages, Paperback

First published November 16, 2020

Reviews

[Parker Taylor · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’m going to start with the portion of the book that I have a big issue with because I think it’s important. The section about the singular “they” seems to lack a nuanced understanding of the queer people and queer identities this type of language affects.

The author nods to queerness in this section by stating: “And now we’re all starting to learn important lessons about gender fluidity and genderlessness. The call for alternatives only grows louder.” I do appreciate that this sentiment was included! However, when it’s followed directly after with his statement, “I’m all for alternatives- new ones, too- but I mightily resist the use of they as one, even though it has a long history,” I’m left confused. So here we have a man nodding at gender fluidity and then invalidating individuals’ expression of this fluidity on the same page? As a nonbinary person, this is sooo tired and such a lackluster take. I don’t know if you have actually learned that many important lessons about gender if you are going to include your negative opinions toward “they” in the singular form. I use the singular “they” to describe myself because that’s the word that I feel most accurately represents my own personal and nuanced gender experience.

He later goes on to say that when he used the singular “they” he feels, “compromised to an extent.” As a queer and trans person this is hilarious. Using gendered pronouns for trans folks doesn’t just leave them feeling “compromised to an extent,” but effectively contributes to trans folks to have a suicide rate that is 10 times larger than the national average. Invalidating someone’s gender expression can contribute to something more pressing than “compromised” grammar. He acknowledges that he needs to compromise in order to, “keep friends,” instead of “compromising” to respect others identities. Throughout the entire book he uses gendered language by using either “he,” “she,” or “he or she.” This language excludes me. It does not acknowledge my existence and many other folks’ existence and interactions with this book. As another reviewer wrote, it is not difficult to discern what the author is saying with the singular “they” with clarification or context clues.

This doesn’t even touch on the fact that the singular they has been around for centuries, it is recognized by all major dictionaries and writing formats (apa, MLA, etc.), and the fact that “you” used to be a plural pronoun but is now almost only commonly used as a singular pronoun and no one bats an eye. Besides, part of the beauty of language is that it is ever evolving. So much more could be said but I’ll stop here.

This was difficult to read, and I hope you can understand why. I wish that this section had been more thoughtful in consideration to queer folks.

Over all, this book speaks about things that are clearly out of the authors scope of knowledge. If anyone ever wants to chat about how grammar intersects with queerness, I’d be enthusiastic to oblige.

I hope that my criticisms of this book will provide a perspective on this topic that is from someone with a different lived experience, who is perhaps more affected by it.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a nice book!

If you grew up with (or carry or keep on your shelf or frequently recommend) Strunk & White's The Elements of Style and you appreciated Truss's Eats, Shoots & Leaves, both of which are referenced in the book, this is right up your alley.

Funny, even though it's non-fiction, it felt novel (as opposed to like a novel) to me.

At the same time, the book felt like the culmination of a thoughtful, caring, emotive (and accomplished) teacher's work, and it's nice to see it in print, read, and appreciated. (Since it's a grammar book, the word mensch rattled around in my head throughout, but I don't specifically recall it being referenced.)

A joy to read and think about. I guess the next challenge is implementation, putting Weinstein's tips into action, incorporating grammar more intentionally (and in different ways) into my writing. Definitely something to aspire to.

[Amanja · Rating 2 out of 5]

review origianlly published https://amanjareads.com/2021/03/01/gr...

Thank you to author Lawrence Weinstein for providing me with a copy of his book in exchange for this honest review.

Grammar for a Full Life is a hard book to classify. It was sold to me as a self-help through better use of language guide but I would say it falls more toward grammar usage analysis or philosophical theory.

The book is broken down into short chapters that address different sentence structures, punctuation, or any sort of grammatical usage that can change the meaning of what is intended. Author Weinstein uses myriad examples to attempt to bolster his arguments along the way.

The chapters themselves are often too short to be able to reach a profound conclusion and many of the thesis premises are thin to begin with. I think a more successful grammar book would have picked fewer topics and explored them in more depth. It is also unclear how many of them might relate to improving your daily life.

Some of the advice in the book might also be detrimental to modern living. The author takes a strong stance against the use of the exclamation point, for example. His reasoning seems to be outdated. As those of us who grew up watching Seinfeld and then developed a strong texting over phone call preference can attest, exclamation points are important!

There is a whole episode of Seinfeld where the character Elaine considers breaking up with her current boyfriend because he failed to use an exclamation point when taking a message for a call. He wrote, "she's having the baby" instead of "she's having the baby!" and Elaine considered this extremely insensitive. He should feel excited about such news!

Although this is an extreme example, I think it's valid. Any Millenial or Gen Z individual can tell you the difference between the texted responses "ok" "ok!" and the dreaded "k". That exclamation point can be the difference between being excited for plans and worrying all day that your friend is mad at you.

The biggest problem with Grammar for a Full Life is that it is dreadfully outdated and out of touch. My reference to a sitcom that went off the air 23 years ago is easily more modern than any of the examples in this book. Many of the references are not only decades but centuries or even milllenia old. Language has evolved an incredible amount since then. I also take issue with quoting the bible and other ancient texts for a book about English grammar. Maybe we should focus on books originally written in the English language.

The author clearly has a love of words and language and finds this topic incredibly important. However, that passion does not equal coherence. This grammar book is written with such a grandiloquent vocabulary that it is far from simple to understand. The meandering prose is counterintuitive to the subject matter and would be much better suited for poetry than nonfiction.

Grammar for a Full Life fails as a self help or reference book. It does succeed as a passion project and should be treated as such. If you are an old school scholar with a love for the intricacies of English then this book might be for you.

[Ned · Rating 4 out of 5]

This turned out to be a delight – I’m at a loss for why I purchased this title. Likely I thought it would help me learn the craft of writing, a lifelong frustration of mine. Since I read more books than most and opine about them to family members and friends to a large extent, my intimates often ask me when I’m going to start writing “my book”. In my younger days I might have thought that possible, but now at 64, I’m even further down the road, well beyond even those great writers who started at the ripe age of 50. My ability to express myself, even to type on a keyboard rapidly, is clearly in decline. I do, however, hope to write my own story and have started that process. My expectation is that it will not likely be read completely, if at all, but I don’t consider this a futile activity. It is my way of achieving immortality, a source of private pleasure, in the “organizing” of my thoughts and desire to capture my life and my thoughts before they drift into the ether as they do for most humans (the great wordsmith Shakespeare must have even felt this way, and I think of van Gogh, painting furiously for his own sake and getting nearly no recognition in his lifetime). I don’t delude myself; I have little talent; my writings are ugly to me – but it doesn’t bother me overmuch anymore. Mainly I hoped to learn some techniques from Weinstein, which I certainly did. And so much more.

Weinstein is a grammar expert, but we quickly learn that the art of writing, even the techniques of grammar, make us who we are and how we might achieve morality. Even now, as I write this, my style is freeform, like an improvisational jazz solo, largely undisciplined and free flowing (sloppy really). However, some of my experience writing scientific articles (for which I have achieved some success) over a career did show progress. Some of the methods (elimination of conjecture, attribution to self for opinions, minimization of adjectives and generalizations) Weinstein encourages were ones I had learned from trial and error over time. Reading my laboratory journals, and scientific reports, from only a few years back tended to embarrass me with their pomposity or carelessness. This is surely evidence of progress. Frustrated today with my ability to accurately capture what is in my head in the written word, this fact does give me hope that I’m still growing as a communicator. My wife and I often discuss the “problem” of text messages and emails – more often than not they confuse instead of enlighten. I used to say that 90% of communication was with body language, verbal including the voice (ergot some of the body) being a second preference. This means, essentially, that as a species we are just not very good at conveying meaning in the written word. Again, I wanted to improve this, since the written word will be all that is left to understand me once this body expires (in the rare case that anyone in the future would care). I did help my father-in-law write his memoir, completing it just before he passed, and it continues to give great pleasure to the many people who knew him. I’m trying hard to get my own father at the age of (nearly) 89 to do the same, and we are making some progress.

On page 74, Weinstein earnestly stresses the importance of writing well about oneself: “If you care about fostering a sense of community between us – a sense of shared presence- don’t just write to me. In your writing, be that person who you are in the flesh.”

On page 126, he addresses intellectual honesty and natural tendency to lazy thinking; “A person’s decision to rely heavily on books (or other sources of authority) for getting at the truth of matters often amounts to the decision to let others relieve her of the work it would entail to do brave thinking on her own. As much as we may prize freedom, we are all members of a species much given to laziness and fear, who frequently seek cover in what passes for the truth among our peers, or throughout society in our times. On topics ranging from the way a mutual friend has been dressing lately to the merits of a current bestseller, we must be on guard to becoming mere mouthpieces for the views of others.” I had to look at the publication date (2020) to reassure myself that men like Weinstein still exist in our current times, where major political movements succeed through ignorance fueled by cable news networks, and professionals with great experience are discredited. I think we may look back at this time and wonder how we got to this state of ignorance, where information flowed faster than ever yet true understanding and intelligence diminished. Weinstein is a beacon of hope in these times.

This book encouraged me greatly, I’ll end this review by quoting the author has he quotes another, encouraging me to keep on writing, regardless of my age and ability (p. 299): …language is a tangible extension of ourselves that has a longer shelf-life than we do ourselves do. We imagine it, and therefore us, continuing to live well beyond some engraved end-date on display in a cemetery. Anne Sexton called her cache of poems her ‘Immortality Box’”. Mine is the letters, essays, and this review itself as well as my feeble attempt at other artforms – they are worth continuing, regardless of where they ultimately land in the unknown future.

[Tasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mostly very good and interesting. The bits about a writer or speaker’s personality being reflected in their grammar is fascinating.

One star off for the section on Singular “they.” Weinstein addresses the reasons in favor of singular “they” and then rejects them all on the ridiculous basis of potentially confusing singular for multiple, saying “I pull out all manner of clumsier locutions to avoid seeming to confuse the single human being with the many. In my humble view, we have done too much homogenizing in our day already.” Firstly, anyone who can’t use context clues to determine whether the subject of the sentence is singular or plural has bigger issues. Secondly, it’s not homogenizing, it’s using a perfectly valid placeholder in a sentence where the subject’s gender isn’t relevant. Ironically enough, Weinstein’s own book falls victim to the very assumption that singular “they” seeks to eliminate. Weinstein’s example sentences throughout the book are unnecessarily gendered and reinforce a number of implicit gender biases. It’s not the hill to die on.

[Cynthia Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grammar Geeks, you must read this book!
Why, you ask? I'm so glad you did.

Grammar by its very definition is the analysis and protocols for the structure of language. It gives specific guidelines for how to use the key elements of language, such as the nouns, verbs, adjectives, and intensifiers we all love so much, but most books about grammar don't usually go beyond the 'how and into the 'why'. Why is it important to use active voice? Why should intensifiers, such as exclamation points, be carefully utilized, but not overused?

I can honestly say I've never read a book about grammar that incorporates spirituality and mindfulness, the psychology behind the fear of death, and how we think about sex....until now. Yes, you heard me correctly, Grammar for a Full Life reaches beyond the definition and soars into the possible and even the potentially improbable. Well, if you're devoutly one of the 'old-guard', that is.

The author writes: "If you care about fostering a sense of community between us- a sense of shared presence- don't just write to me. In your writing, be that person who you are in the flesh." I particularly love this, because when I'm writing, especially for my blog, I write the way I speak....or more accurately, the way I think. Yes, I use a great deal of extraneous descriptors, prepositional phrases, multiple ellipses and parantheses; however, having read the above, I no longer spend inordinate amounts of time grappling with my verbosity. Oh, to be sure, one should never strive to out-do Charles Dickens with word usage, but the fact that some of us take joy in writing compound-complex sentences that would make the literary mogul proud isn't a terrible thing.

Ah, but I digress. Lawrence's opus on the usage, choices, and significance of all the parts of the language we use is an unexpected journey I thoroughly enjoyed. As a lover of words, I have always felt that the words we use to form our language is very much a synergistic inception, but now I comprehend ...or rather, can appreciate more fully....just how mystical and magical the words, phrases, commas, conjunctions, contractions, punctuation and syntax truly are.

If you want to learn how to diagram a sentence or learn the golden rules of grammar, borrow a text book from the library. If, however, you already understand those basics and you're ready to delve more deeply into the mysteries of word choice and our connection to each other and the universe, dare to open Grammar for a Full Life. The journey it takes you on is nothing short of facilitatively propicious.

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is it weird that a book ostensibly about grammar made me cry at the end? Perhaps not, since this is, as I said, a book ostensibly about grammar.

As someone who has spent too much of life in an unbalanced and damaging mental state, and raised very much under the "stop crying and pick yourself up by the bootstraps" method, I find little miracles in each person or book that reminds me of the ways we can atone with and appreciate our emotions. Weinstein's graceful outlook on life and the subtle ways we can control our understanding of it and ourselves is such a comfort, in part thanks to the many, many fellow writers, philosophers, artists, politicians, etc. he calls upon to support his case for a life lived in balance—accepting beginnings with endings, successes with failures, what we produce in life, and what we receive from it.

The chapter "Grammar for Creative Passivity," which issues a touching interpretation of Emily Dickinson's use of dashes, I actually found extremely moving, though not so much as the final chapter, "Grammar for the End," which, no pun intended, killed me. Weinstein is open-minded about the fluidity of grammar and language through time—this is not, for example, an Elements of Style-type dissertation—and expresses compassionate views on pedagogy and editing others' writing that I found equally fascinating and wish I had employed myself in past teaching/editing experiences.

Don't be discouraged by the Chicken Soup for the Soul-esque cover—this is a mature book with lots of keen and delicate insight into life through the lens of the way we speak and write. I would recommend this to any writer who wishes to be grand and wonderful and peaceful both on and off the page, and I know I'll be revisiting my highlights for years to come.

[James Maskell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Largely a collection of previously published essays, Grammar for a Full Life is fun if you approach it from the right perspective. It’s not the self-help book the title suggests (thank goodness) nor it it going to help you master the concept of grammar. Rather, it’s a creative way to look at the effects of syntax, diction, verb tense, and the like with a bit of personality you wouldn’t get from a more “text book” treatment of the subject.

[☘Misericordia☘ ⚡ϟ⚡⛈⚡☁ ❇️❤❣ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Q:
After noting picayune mistakes in an application letter, memo, or political flyer, we become distracted and commence to wonder how competent and credible the author is generally. (c)

[Helvetica Stone · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is quite an unusual grammar book that is crossed with philosophy of life. It helped remind me of things that I should be doing in my writing more consistently, and I revealed the active voice to a terribly reflective person who far too often hems and haws in a way of distancing from the subject in a new light! If you struggle with your writing, you'll appreciate these wise tips.

[Janice SHULL · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Never place a period where God has placed a comma.” Gracie Allen’s words to husband George Burns just before she died nicely summarize Weinstein’s approach to grammar. Weinstein, the cofounder of the Harvard University Writing Center, melds the structure and utility of English grammar to liberal philosophy and life coaching to produce a book of short essays which aims to actualize ”the whole person.”

Scanning the Table of Contents, the reader finds essays categorized under seven subject headings: Grammar to Take Life in Hand; Grammar for Creative Passivity; Grammar for Belonging; Grammar for Freedom; Grammar for Morale; Grammar for Mindfulness; and Grammar for The End. In the section, Grammar for Morale, Weinstein’s essay titled “Fulcrum: ‘But’” is a good example of his methodology. First, a brief story gives us an example from which to build: A despairing report from a Chinese general to his emperor is written as “We fight, but the enemy defeats us.” His protégé suggests a revision: “The enemy defeats us, but we fight on.” The conjunction “but” offers us the choice of which truth is more significant. Other examples move us further into the consideration of how we tell our stories, the “how” being grammatical usage. Having read these five pages, I am more than prepared to rethink every sentence I ever write with the conjunction “but” in it.

The entire book is like that. By the time I reach the two-page conclusion (“Coda: The Comedienne of Grammar”) I have had conversations with myself on thirty different aspects of life. Weinstein’s final words bless us (a grammatical usage covered in an early chapter on “Active-Passive Hybrid No. 1) with a gentle push: "In my view, no one still up to the task of uttering a brand-new sentence is not also capable of growing more whole daily. May that livening experience—and true gladness for the chance of it, as well—be my reader’s fate."

It is Weinstein’s gift for starting a conversation that makes this book so valuable. Whether we share this book with others and engage in animated talk over drinks and dinner, or simply ask questions and allow old memories to surface with our internal conversation partner, we advance our understanding and ability to use grammar as a tool for engaging more fully in life. What more can be asked of a book?

[Amy Linton · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Marie Kondo of grammar: Lawrence Weinstein has passionate, idiosyncratic interest and belief in the power of careful choices of words in our day-to-day lives.

Of course this is not a book for everyone.

Logophiles will embrace (or perhaps have a violent contrary opinion; weird flock of birds, logophiles) Weinstein's pronouncements.

[Sandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. It might have been better had I been expecting the self-help portion instead of an explanation of how different personalities use grammar and punctuation. It did offer a little explanation of the personality of punctuation that was interesting, but overall not a worthwhile read.

[Alexander Blevens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lawrence Weinstein brings grammar to life: as much in writing as speaking, in following rules and breaking them, and in owning or disowning your thoughts. The intent of this book is to take the reader (writer) to the next level of understanding how word choice, placement, and use define us.

[Barbara K. · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you love the English language, if you do a lot of writing, or if you want to communicate on a deeper level in everything you write, then this book might interest you. Even if you don't write that much yourself, but enjoy reading thoughtful writing in the form of essays, I recommend this.

Lawrence Weinstein taught at Harvard University from 1973 to 1983 and co-founded Harvard's Writing Center. More recently he's served as the Director of Bentley University's Expository Writing Program.

Grammar for a Full Life is a collection of essays on how our use of grammar can add subtle layers to our communications, as well help guide us through life itself. It's divided into seven parts, as follows:

Grammar to Take Life in Hand
Grammar for Creative Passivity
Grammar for Belonging
Grammar for Freedom
Grammar for Morale
Grammar for Mindfulness
Grammar for The End

Each of these parts contains several essays about specific aspects of grammar, such as active versus passive voice, colons, commas, prepositions, and so forth. These various tools are presented in ways that enhance not only our writing, to help us communicate more effectively, but also in ways that show how they can be used to enhance our connection to others, our independence, our creativity, and our perspective on life, including the end of life.

The edition I just finished reading is an ebook, but this is one of those books that I want to own in paper format, because it deserves deep study and rereading to get the most out of it. On my first pass through, I absorbed it more from a reader's than a writer's perspective, moseying through each essay in a leisurely way. There's a lot to be gained from either way of reading it. Whether you love language, or you want to fall in love with language, you might find this to be the treasure I think it is.

NOTE: To clear up any confusion, which seems to have upset at least one past reviewer, this is not a reference book for looking up various grammar rules on the fly or for refreshing oneself on basic grammar. For those purposes, you'll get more out of books you find with a search for "grammar reference" or "grammar refresher" as keywords.

[Phil · Rating 5 out of 5]

My family jokes about my love of grammar. So, I shouldn’t have felt surprised to receive a copy of Grammar for a Full Life as a birthday present. The surprise wasn’t the title, but the contents.

Author Lawrence Weinstein probes the implications beneath the surface of our syntax and usages. The largest words printed on the book cover are “Full Life,” for his purpose is to enhance the human spirit.

For me, the most spirit-enhancing essay begins on page 168 with the label, “Uncertainty: Swapping Our Rhetorical Questions for Real Ones; the Ignorant ‘I’.” Simply put, rhetorical questions are closed while real questions are open. This message snuck through my defenses and awakened me to my limited tolerance for mindful wonder. I cut off curiosity when I tire of exploring myriad possibilities. I’d rather bring closure to a conversation and get on with the show. I’m not averse to ambiguity or uncertainty. I just want to get moving, even if I’m putting the ladder up the wrong house to start painting. Many regrettable results come from such a habit.

Every one of these 30 essays, often witty, often poignant, provides food for thought. Don’t be fooled by the title. Grammar merely facilitates the conversations about the quality and meaning of our lives—and even of our death.

[Cruz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This feels less instructional that I'd like it to be. It reads more like "how to tell what your grammar says about you" instead of "how to improve yourself through adjusting your grammar." I realize that he addresses this in the book, I just didn't walk away from it convinced that I absorbed many tools.

That being said, he's mostly right in his framing of what grammar can mean. In a rapidly polarized world, his observations on how to balance agency and passivity while being welcoming to other people (and their views, sensibilities, pronouns, etc.) were good and made for an interesting read.

There were a few points where he encourages readers to adjust their grammar to encourage healthier verbal discourse that may not necessarily work for written discourse. If you're debating with someone across the aisle, you may want to qualify your statements with a phrase like "From my point of view..."; depending on how much factual evidence you have for your claim, you may want to avoid this if you're looking to publish your work, or even send a professional email.

This book also has an air of being written for writers who already have graduate level academic experience, yet many of the points made are already accepted and implemented by most students and writers I know, so I'm not sure how helpful it would be.

[Elise · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a delightful and original grammar book! That said, Grammar for a Full Life is so much more than a grammar book. It might be called a book about the psychology of grammar, and Weinstein offers some helpful advice about how we might tackle problems through rethinking our way of speaking and writing about them. At first, I couldn’t figure out who the intended audience of this book could be, then the more I thought about it, I would say this is a fun read for all lovers of language. As a teacher of English, I acquired some gems for approaching student writing with empathy, and I found his approach to grammar engaging and even sexy at times. Case in point, I read almost the whole book in one sitting. I can imagine referencing some of his examples in my upper level high school essay writing course. This could also make an interesting textbook or supplement to a college course, maybe one called The Psychology of Grammar. I would sign up for it.

[Marsha Raasch · Rating 3 out of 5]

A charming collection of essays showing how the way we describe our world, events, and ourselves can also shape how we view these things. With examples like decreasing use of passive voice to feel more responsibility and agency, decreasing use of superlatives and exclamation marks to live more mindfully, or decreasing use of ownership words to remind us that we only have people or items for a time, none of the exhortations are necessarily new to a person who enjoys language and psychology and has dabbled in applied linguistics.
But getting to know the author through his use of personal examples revealed a quiet wry humor, introspective nature, and openness to the world and was as rewarding as seeing how slight changes in our grammar can change how we see events and ourselves and how others see us.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a good book. I recommend it to….everyone. Language is powerful, and that idea is abundantly present in this book. The end got a little too heavy for me, but the last paragraph helped redeem it.

[Nigel Fortescue · Rating 4 out of 5]

A worthy, witty and profound read. For all the grammar nerds and pedants, this book will be like a close friend.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting. Esoteric.

[Sylvia Swann · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title says grammar but the subtitle is the true gist, how to use grammar to create a full life.

I loved this little book so much. I will read and reread it for the rest of my life to remind me to employ Larry’s wisdom.

[Robin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Facile and rather obvious, but not entirely without charm.

[Roof Beam Reader (Adam) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightful! For writers and, perhaps especially, writing teachers.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not as deep as I thought it might be from reading the description. But it is absolutely on point and helpful in demonstrating how grammar can change perceptions. I'll be giving this book as a gift to graduating seniors (high school and college), I think. Along with money, of course, and the hope they'll actually read.it someday.

[Sidney · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was interesting enough - I chose it because it seemed to be an original take on grammar. But what I will remember most is that, in one chapter, Weinstein, using Annie Dillard as an example, said that he had 'tweaked her prose.'

[Robbin Vokes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a fan of this book, for various reasons, and I don't usually spend much time reviewing books I don't like. I think the author must know what grammar is; however, he seems to use the term when what he is really talking about is language, and often, simply punctuation. Why does he use the word "grammar" in the title? Has this word taken on an aura of coolness? The book seems not to be targeted at people who know much about grammar, or he wouldn't have taken the pains he does to describe concepts such as dependent and independent clauses. Apparently it was also not edited by people who know much about the topic, or they would have called him on errors and oversimplifications. This work seems well intended, but much of it seems far fetched to me, and I would have put it aside if it hadn't been brief.

"Since language plays a large part in self definition--and since grammar shapes language--grammar has a role in..." p. 111.

Our writing outliving us. p.199

[Jim Armor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Couldn't quite finish this. Although it had a few clever observations and occasionally humous comments, it did not capture me. My mind continuously wandered, bored. There are superior books about grammar (e.g., Truss's "Eats, Shoots & Leaves"; O'Conner's "Woe is I"; Dreyer's "Dreyer's English.")

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book of essays on grammar and life. However, I am not sure if someone who is not a "grammar nerd" would like this book.

"Just aim for honesty, clarity, and impact. Nobody I know satisfies all three criteria right off the bat, except with shopping lists. It takes revising." (40)

"Grammatical correctness of the trivial sort - epitomized by the proper use of the apostrophe - serves us in the same way propriety works to our advantage in settings ranging from a track meet to a formal wedding: It helps us to obtain respect." (87)

"Professor of English Maxine Hairston...identified six nonsexist alternatives to he [italicized], short of resorting to the blurring plural...

When feasible, use plural nouns and thereby eliminate the need to choose a pronoun of a specific gender ...For example: "Painters who want to exhibit their work," not "A painter who wants to exhibit his work."

Reword the sentence to eliminate the gendered pronouns. For example: "The average American drives a car three years." instead of "The average American drives his car three years."

When feasible, substitute one [italicized] for he or she or man or woman [all italicized, except conjunctions]...[Did not include examples; self explanatory]

When it seems indicated, write he or she [pronouns italicized] or his or her [pronouns italicized], as long as you don't use the phrases too often, they won;t be conspicuous.

If you wish, consistently write he/she [italicized] and him/her [italicized].

Sometimes use she and her [pronouns italicized] instead of he and him [pronouns italicized] as general pronouns. [Examples omitted. The author did this, among the other suggestions, throughout the book, and it threw me off a bit.]

..in conversing with friends who say "they" in place of a singular pronoun, I will do the same at times. I might say,
The accountant who pretends not to see blatant fraud in such a company's books only does so
because they're afraid to lose that company as a paying client.
When I do, though, I always feel..well, not as compromised as the accountant in my example, but compromised to an extent. The accountant fears losing customers; I fear losing the friendship of folks I'm talking with. My self-regard would, I think, improve if I could somehow stop feeling [italicized] compromised at these moments and start seeing them as opportunities for learning [italicized] to compromise, within limits." (107)

"...as the years have passed, I see more at the margins of my planned life and remain more open to letting what I find there take precedence at times." (185)