Benjamin Dreyer, the copy chief at Random House, "wandered into his job nearly three decades ago" when he started out as a freelance proofreader. He's worked his way up since then and, in "Dreyer's English," this gentle guru gives us valuable tips about the proper use of punctuation and capitalization, warns us to avoid mixing up words that sound alike but have different meanings, and urges us to proofread our copy for spelling mistakes and factual errors. Unless you are wild about this stuff--which I am--you might worry that a manual on how to write more clearly and elegantly might be nit-picky and/or sleep-inducing. Fear not. Mr. Dreyer is a clever fellow who entertains us with puns; allusions to popular culture; marvelous excerpts from such works as Dickens's "Bleak House" and Baum's "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz"; and witty footnotes and asides that add to the generally lighthearted tone.

I love the chapter heading, "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up (Your Prose)." This pokes fun at those pompous decluttering books that are all the rage these days. Although Dreyer does not tell us how to get rid of the junk in our homes, he is a stickler for streamlining sentences. In addition, he suggests ways to convey one's meaning lucidly and succinctly while steering clear of dangling participles, mistakes in subject-verb agreement, misuse of quotation marks, misspellings, and redundancies. Dreyer also cautions us to give clichés a wide berth (I couldn't resist) and to avoid pretentiousness. He is a kinder version of my college English professor who commanded us to "cut and connect"—to trim our writing down to its essentials and ensure that each idea leads to the next seamlessly. "Dreyer's English" gives us the tools to improve our prose, and the author charms us with sassy and humorous anecdotes that demonstrate how much fun playing with language can be.
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Brilliant, life-changing book. A bit tedious to listen to in the list sections, but it's great to hear Dreyer's thoughts in his own voice and cadence. ( )

I have a suggestion for a title change. It should be "An Utterly Delightful Guide to Clarity and Style." It is like having a few drinks with your best friend who has strong opinions about punctuation and grammar. But only in the best way. It was full of humor and cleverness. I loved it. ( )

My go-to style book ( )

Hilarious and Helpful

For authors, editors, and grammar-nerds alike, a hilarious take on the intricacies of the American English language. Highly recommend. Was learning and laughing throughout. ( )