Books

Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing
By Mignon Fogarty, Holt, 2008.

Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing by Mignon Fogarty is based on the author's very popular (more than 13.5-million downloads) podcasts about everything from punctuation basics to Internet terminology.

Dig Grammar Girl? You might like:

"I" Before "E" Except After "C": Spelling for the Alphabetically Challenged (Citadel) by Dr. Laurie E. Rozakis is packed with handy-dandy lists, rules, charts and even a chapter on why people misspell words all designed to help writers avoid looking dumb.

Fer-De-Lance, The League of Frightened Men
By Rex Stout, Bantam, 2008.

Bantam has reprinted the first two Nero Wolfe novels in a trade paperback. Fer-De-Lance and The League of Frightened Men (written in 1934 and 1935 respectively) both hit the ground running; there's never a trace of insecurity in Rex Stout's writing.

I've always felt Stout inverted Sherlock Holmes when he created Wolfe. The former is tall, thin and active, the latter is short, fat and dislikes leaving his house. Like Holmes, the stories are narrated by the assistant.

The mini-omnibus volume offers new introductions by Loren Estleman ("Fer-De-Lance") and Robert Goldsborough ("League of Frightened Men") along with a document Stout wrote in 1949 outlining the physical characteristics of both his characters and the layout of their townhouse.