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Between you & me : confessions of a Comma Queen Cover Image Book

Between you & me : confessions of a Comma Queen

Between you and me (other title)
Norris, Mary 1952- (Author).

Summary: Mary Norris has spent more than three decades in The New Yorker's copy department, maintaining its celebrated high standards. Now she brings her vast experience, good cheer, and finely sharpened pencils to help the rest of us in a boisterous language book as full of life as it is of practical advice. Between You & Me features Norris's laugh-out-loud descriptions of some of the most common and vexing problems in spelling, punctuation, and usage comma faults, danglers, "who" vs. "whom," "that" vs. "which," compound words, gender-neutral language and her clear explanations of how to handle them. Down-to-earth and always open-minded, she draws on examples from Charles Dickens, Emily Dickinson, Henry James, and the Lord's Prayer, as well as from The Honeymooners, The Simpsons, David Foster Wallace, and Gillian Flynn. She takes us to see a copy of Noah Webster's groundbreaking Blue-Back Speller, on a quest to find out who put the hyphen in Moby-Dick, on a pilgrimage to the world's only pencil-sharpener museum, and inside the hallowed halls of The New Yorker and her work with such celebrated writers as Pauline Kael, Philip Roth, and George Saunders. Readers and writers will find in Norris neither a scold nor a softie but a new friend in love with language and alive to the glories of its use in America, even in the age of autocorrect and spell-check. As Norris writes, "The dictionary is a wonderful thing, but you can't let it push you around."

Record details

  • ISBN: 0393240185
  • ISBN: 9780393240184
  • Physical Description: print
    228 pages ; 22 cm
  • Edition: First edition
  • Publisher: New York : W.W. Norton & Company, [2015]

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 205-212) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:
Confessions of a Comma Queen -- Spelling is for weirdos -- That witch! -- The problem of Heesh -- Between you and me -- Comma comma comma comma, chameleon -- Who put the hyphen in Moby-Dick? -- A dash, a semicolon, and a colon walk into a bar -- What's up with the apostrophe -- F*ck this sh*t -- Ballad of a pencil junkie -- The million-dollar copy editor -- Appendix. Some books I have found particularly helpful.

Search for related items by subject

Subject:
Norris, Mary 1952-
New Yorker (New York, N.Y. : 1925) New Yorker (New York, N.Y. : 1925) Officials and employees Biography
Comma
Copy editing
English language Errors of usage
English language Punctuation
Women periodical editors United States Biography
Genre:
Autobiographies.

Available copies

  • 41 of 41 copies available at NC Cardinal. (Show)
  • 1 of 1 copy available at Onslow County Public Library.

Holds

  • 0 current holds with 41 total copies.
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Location Call Number / Copy Notes Barcode Shelving Location Status Due Date
Jacksonville Main Library 428.2 NOR (Text) 36015000684387 Adult Nonfiction Available -
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