Book review: The Grammar Devotional

July 13 2010. TalentEgg Incubator.

I am a self-described grammar perfectionist. My friends call me “The Editor” (but maybe they’re trying to be nice). No matter which name I go by, I’ve spent a fair amount of time over my university career editing essays, reports, proposals and policy documents for other people.

For some reason, I really enjoy editing. Yes, you can call me crazy.

It really drives me crazy when people make grammatical errors, especially really simple ones. For example, mixing up the meanings of there, their and they’re, or two, too and to. I cringe when people tYpE EvErYtHiNg lIKe tHiS or use texting short-forms other than when they are on their phone.

That being said, I am certain that my grammar is by no means perfect and can be improved. Thus, I picked up a copy of Mignon Fogarty‘s The Grammar Devotional: Daily Tips for Successful Writing from Grammar Girl .

I must admit that I didn’t follow the intended schedule of the book: instead of reading one tip per day, I ended up reading the entire thing in a couple of sittings because the book was so entertaining! Fogarty includes pop culture references and humour in her book, which made an otherwise boring subject come alive (with her friends Aardvark and Squiggly helping as well).

How many grammar books can you think of would include word searches, song lyrics, word jumbles, short quizzes, song titles, or a reference to How I Met Your Mother (the season three episode “Spoiler Alert”)? Very few, if any, I am sure.

Humour and jokes aside, Fogarty offers her readers a lot of tips on how to correct their grammar, which can be transferred to academic writing (essays, book reviews, etc.), professional writing (emails, reports, etc.) and non-fiction writing. There is also an index so you can find the tips you need at a later time.

If you do any kind of writing at school, this book is an excellent resource for you, and it can also be beneficial for you at work. It is a small investment ($19 or less), but one you will get a lot of use out of as a student as well as a working professional.

Don’t forget to check out the Grammar Girl website for other great tips and tricks on grammar, writing, and how to avoid putting your foot in your mouth.

Book Review: Surviving Your Stupid, Stupid Decision to Go to Grad School

July 18 2010. TalentEgg Incubator.

OK, so you liked doing your undergrad. You liked what you studied, you liked the social atmosphere of your school and you’re thinking about going to grad school.

Maybe you want to go to college for the rest of your life, sip Banker’s Club and drink Miller Lite.

Graduate school is not the same as an undergrad. If it were, it wouldn’t be called grad school (thank you, Captain Obvious).

After finishing his PhD in molecular biology, Adam Ruben wrote a book titled, Surviving Your Stupid Stupid Decision to go to Grad School. His goal in writing the book is to warn students considering applying for their MA or PhD, as well as to be a form of a support for those who have already embarked on what he implies is a long, incredibly challenging and frustrating, journey.

Ruben says the “… book is for readers considering or already committed to spending the best years of their lives without sunlight. You’ll learn which department events have the best free food, what pranks to pull on hot-but-vapid undergrads … and why your friends who opted to take nondescript nine-to-five jobs after college were actually the smart ones”.

The countless hours spent researching while completing graduate degrees can probably cause insanity if it isn’t thwarted properly. Maybe that old adage “laughter is the best medicine” is something graduate students learn as a survival technique.

Regardless of whether or not all grad students are funny (especially unlikely, seeing some of the ones I’ve encountered), it seems to hold true for Ruben: he is a stand-up comic as well as a PhD grad.

The book is divided into seven chapters:

1. Stop? Drop? Enroll?: Deciding Whether to Ruin Your Life
2. Selecting a Graduate Program: Where, When, How, and Why, God, Why?
3. Grad Student Life: You Weren’t Going to Do Much with your Twenties Anyway
4. Research and Destroy: Making Data Pretty
5. Undergraduates and You: The Hand That Robs the Cradle
6. Six Degrees of Exasperation: Law School, Business School, Medical School and More
7. Let My Pupil Go: Getting the Fuck Out of Grad School

Each of those chapters are full of sarcasm and wit, all of which hints at Ruben’s apparently not-so-fun times spent completing his PhD. For example, as part of a larger quiz in the book, Ruben asks the question: If you were an animal, what would you be?

• a) a tiger
• b) a bear
• c) a tiger or a bear who is in grad school

He says if you pick c), you’re likely to go on to grad school.

He also points out where grad students belong in the university pyramid (at the bottom, even below tenured chickens), and reminds the reader that squirrels are plentiful on university campuses, and are a good source of protein.

If you are thinking about going to grad school, this book is an excellent read: it covers a lot of things you should consider if you are going to spend the next year or couple of years doing graduate work. And it’s hilarious, too.

My thoughts on the 1,000 books everyone should read

December 16 2009, Launch Magazine

Once the academic term winds down for the holidays, I find that I can finally start reading for pleasure: something I can’t normally do when I’m expected to read 200-700 pages a week in my classes.

Over the next couple weeks I plan to tackle the rest of Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine, Geoffrey York and Loreen Pindera’s People of the Pines, and Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series; hopefully more depending on what I end up doing over the break.

Even though I’m a student and I complain about all of the books I have to read during the year, I don’t think I will ever stop loving reading, and I am not alone.

A journalist friend of mine, Joey Coleman, recently asked me an a bunch of other friends via Facebook note for suggestions for books to read over the holidays because he wanted to get away from the things he normally reads for class. Although Joey wanted more classic literature (something I don’t typically tend to be a fan of), I gave him a rather long list of some of my favourite books.

And then I started thinking about how many books have been printed in the last 550 years or so and how many of them are considered must-read books. It turns out that the British newspaper The Guardian has printed a list of the best 1000 novels everyone one should read.

Of that list, I have read only 38, which I find surprising; given how much I love to read and how important literature has been to my university degrees.

I have several shelves filled with books at my parents’ house and another sizable collection with me at school. And yet, I’m always buying more books and don’t ever feel like I have enough. Predictably, I plan on buying some more books over the break.

If you’re looking for something to read over the break, check out The Guardian’s list for a couple of possible options. I think you should also check out Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. It has been my favourite book since I was 12, and I know a few people who also cite that book as one of their favourites. Hugo and Nebula awards have to count for something too.

Books with an astericks denote some of my favourites. They are:

1. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams *
2. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
3. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
4. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
5. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
6. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess *
7. Naked Lunch by William Burroughs
8. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
9. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
10. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
11. Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
12. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
13. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
14. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
15. The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides *
16. Time to Kill by John Grisham
17. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
18. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
19. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
20. The Shining by Stephen King
21. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee *
22. The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis *
23. The Call of the Wild by Jack London *
24. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
25. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
26. Animal Farm by George Orwell
27. His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
28. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by JK Rowling
29. The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
30. Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
31. Maus by Art Spiegelman *
32. Dracula by Bram Stoker
33. The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
34. The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien *
35. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
36. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
37. Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh
38. Slaughter-House Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Do you have any books you think other TalentEgg readers should check out? Please leave your suggestions!

Book Review: What's My Pee Telling Me

November 19 2009, Launch Magazine

Even though we are adults, many of us have not outgrown toilet humour, myself included.

All immaturities aside, I often wonder if my body is functioning normally and I know I am not alone: this is one of the reasons why Dr. Oz is so popular.

I recently received Josh Richman and Anish Sheth’s What’s My Pee Telling Me? as a gift. And because apparently I go to the washroom frequently (said the person who gifted the book to me), I decided to give it a read (and I was [not-so-secretly] also hoping for some punny toilet humour).

The book is the “sequel” to the best-selling What’s Your Poo Telling You?, which came out in 2007. Like its predecessor, What’s My Pee Telling Me? is about your bodily functions. Although this book focuses primarily on urination, it also delves into a few others areas of your gastrointestinal tract.

Richman and Sheth were college roommates, and both shared a fascination with bodily functions and were amused with fart jokes. Sheth later went on to medical school where he became a gastroenterologist, so this subject matter is something he is very familiar with. Some years later, the two decided to write a book, which became What’s Your Poo Telling You?

What’s My Pee Telling Me? goes beyond silly and immature humour and actually provides reasons why your body functions they way it does.

It explains the different properties of urine, what can cause it to change, and does the same for poop and flatulence. The fourth section of the book debunks various myths that have developed about the human body, such as if you urinate on yourself it will remove the sting of a jellyfish. (It doesn’t. I feel that Joey, Chandler and Monica from Friends lied to me.)

The book is also filled with little tidbits, offering suggestions on how to stay healthy as well as bathroom habits throughout history. Additionally, it has amusing illustrations and lots of toilet humour. I found it hilarious, of course.

Perhaps most importantly, I learned that my body functions normally (more or less, in terms of bathroom habits anyway), and I know what signals when it is not.

If you’re the type who likes to read while doing your business, What’s My Pee Telling Me? a good book for you to occupy yourself with while you’re in the washroom. If you don’t read in the bathroom it a great book of reference that you can use well into the future.