Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen - Mary Norris

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 wise and witty 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."


ENDORSEMENTS & REVIEWS
“Very funny, lucid, and lively… part memoir, part language guide, and part personal account of life at The New Yorker.” — Julia Holmes, The New Republic

“[A] winningly tender, funny reckoning with labor and language.” — Megan O'Grady, Vogue

“[An] utterly delightful romp.” — Charles R. Larson, Counterpunch

“An educational, entertaining narrative… Unforgettable anecdotes… Countless laugh-out-loud passages… A funny book for any serious reader.” — Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

“A delightful discourse on the most common grammar, punctuation, and usage challenges faced by writers of all stripes… Norris writes with wit, sass, and smarts.” — Publishers Weekly

“Thoughtful and humorous… [Between You & Me] is not your grade school primer; expect wisecracks and pointed commentary.” — Gricel ­Dominguez, Library Journal (starred review)

“[A] funny and entertaining new book about language and life… While Norris may have a job as a “comma queen,” readers of Between You & Me will find that “prose goddess” is perhaps a more apt description of this delightful writer.” — Deborah Hopkinson, BookPage

“Lighthearted and sparkling.” — Eloise Kinney, Booklist

“Between You & Me is smart and funny and soulful and effortlessly illuminating.” — Ian Frazier

“Mary Norris brings a tough-minded, clear-eyed, fine-tuned wisdom to all the perplexities and traps and terrors of the English sentence.” — Adam Gopnik

“Mary Norris is a grammar geek with a streak of mischief, and her book is obscenely fun.” — Marilyn Johnson

“This is as entertaining as grammar can be. Very very. Read it and savor it.” — Garrison Keillor

“A delightful mix of autobiography, New Yorker lore, and good language sense.” — Ben Yagoda

“Mary Norris is the verbal diagnostician I would turn to for a first, second, or third opinion on just about anything.” — John McPhee, in The New Yorker

“There is so much to be learned from Mary Norris's marvelous memoir: she tells us when to hyphenate a compound noun, shows whether to employ the subjunctive, and elucidates the suggestively named copulative verb. But she is no dry guardian of grammar, no punitive Poobah of punctuation. In giving an account of her journey from provincial obscurity to the glamour of New York—and The New Yorker—she offers a warm, tender, and funny coming of age story. (Or possibly it's a 'coming-of-age' story. Mary could tell you.)” — Rebecca Mead