Talk to the Hand

Book #2 was Lynne Truss' newest book Talk to the Hand: the Utter Bloody rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to stay Home and bolt the Door.

Starter confession: I, like many many many people, loved Eats, Shoots and Leaves. It was probably one of my favorite books of the year, if not on my all-time hit list. I don't consider myself all that good at grammar or punctuation, but it was so spirited, funny, and convincing, that it was hard not to read it and want to storm the verbal Bastille with an eraser. IMHO, that book deserved every piece of praise it got, and the people who criticized it just missed the point.

So it was enormously disappointing to me that Talk to the Hand was sub-par. The genius of ES&L is that it was such a random thing to be militant about. Add to that her biting wit and superb writing style, and it couldn't help but be enjoyable.

But if "grammar and punctuation" are unlikely heros in a book, then featuring "rudeness" in your follow up is like modeling the male lead in your romance novel after Fabio. It's been done; a lot. So instead of being a fun ride alongside someone else's extremely focused and odd pet peeve, it sounded a lot like the TV commentators on Fox News complaining about how the world is going to He** in a hand basket and we can blame that on the youth of today and their "utter bloody rudeness."

Still, I enjoy her writing style immensely and will be first in line for her next book, on whatever topic that will be.