Wow, I can't remember being this disappointed with a book...well, I was going to say "in a long time," but I might more accurately say "ever." In terms of disparity between my expectations and the reality, this is the most disappointing book I've ever read. I give it one star, and a glance over my reviews will demonstrate that I almost never do that.I read, and loved, Truss's previous work, Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation. It was funny, erudite, and most importa...

I loved this book! I'll write a proper review soon! Fantastic read! One of my favorite parts of this book is the authors list of reasons to show special politeness to other people that have nothing to do with class. Here's the list - 1 they are older2 they know more than you do3 they know less than you do4 they got here first5 they have educational qualifications in the subject under consideration 6 you are in their house7 they once helped you financially8 they have been good to you all your lif...

I loved Truss's first book. Her outrage at the misuse of apostrophes was appealing but also beguiling because it was so over-the-top with tongue placed firmly in cheek. This book, however, was validating (though not funny) when it was right, but worrisome when it became too far-sweeping and crotchety about social classes. Everyone loves to feel justified in their outrage after feeling disrespected by strangers or the general public, but attacking entire classes of people (the workers, the fans,

You know, it's very easy to read Lynne Truss--she writes smooth and amusing prose, and you're halfway through the book before you realize that it isn't going ANYWHERE.If this woman hadn't already written a bestseller that actually gives reasonable advice I don't *really* think any editor would have considered publishing this grouchy and extended rant about nothing. Half of it doesn't even have to do with politeness (her supposed topic), or lack thereof, but about the author's personal dislikes o...

I blame myself. Or as author Lynne Truss would have it, I blame my Effing self. I should have been wise to the kind of book Talk to the Hand: #?*! The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door would prove to be: the lament of the agéd against the young. But somehow I never even saw it coming.Talk to the Hand rapidly degenerates into a diatribe against Generations X, Y and the Millenials. Point out bad manners to anyone younger than thirty-five,

Author Truss brought us "Eats, Shoots, and Leaves" and now brings us "Talk to the Hand.." Respect, courtesy, kindness, and consideration are discussed here. Current society all over the world is generally rude, impatient, lax, condescending, and disrespectful (I think we are all aware of this, but if we we are, then why is this problem still so prevalent?). My favorite lines include:- "...the individual personality wastes no time bolstering its defenses"- "... it's become fashionable never to lo...

After witnessing a congressman shout out "You lie" to a sitting US president on the news, a rapper rudely interrupt another singer's acceptance award, various sports figures acting childishly, this book is a breath of fresh air. It confirms that not all of us in today's society accept the common rudeness so commonly displayed in this day and age.This book is also a fun read, much like Ms. Truss' "Eats, Shoots & Leaves". It's a fast read and not easily put down! Though it's not a "manners" book,

In essence, Truss rants about rudeness for the same reasons that she does about punctuation: that the lack of good manners and the escalation of rude behavior both signals and contributes to the downfall of society. She makes a good argument for just being nicer to each other, for pity's sake.Truss covers all varieties of rudeness, from drivers who cut you off on the highway and give you the finger, to loud cell phone conversations on the train, to the endless automated menus you get when you ca...

Best buck I ever spent! Literally, this book cost me a dollar at Family Dollar in Providence (hurry and get a copy!). As I was flipping through it out of curiosity, a few things caught my eye so I figured that for a dollar I couldn't really go wrong. This book has it all. It is hilarious, laugh out loud funny--mainly, I believe, because the author is British and Brits have such a way with words. It's also insightful, revealing, and thought-provoking. I found myself at once relieved to hear from

From the author of Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to PunctuationThis was her follow up. It was okay but there really wasn't enough material for a whole book. Should've just been a clever(if occasionally whiny) article. So rather than a review, I'm just going to share my own thoughts on rudeness, society, and other things.In my neighborhood, there is a small business whose name is based on that lovely saying, "Talk to the hand." Think a bakery called 'Talk to the Flan' or a de...

As a self-described grammar nerd (and I am not the only one who calls me such; sorry, friends and family!), Lynne Truss's 2003 primer Eats, Shoots and Leaves is among my very favourite non-fiction joys. Her anecdote at the beginning of the book, of picketing the London premiere of the Hugh Grant/Sandra Bullock rom-com Two Weeks Notice with an apostrophe, missing from the title for no discernible reason, marked her as a kindred spirit, and the whole of the text is filled to the brim with such acc...

This is a 200 page rant (the author acknowledges this) against the death of courtesy in our society. And she's right She talks about such discourtesies as talking on cell phones in restaurants, movie theaters, etc. She talks about having conversations interrupted when the other participant in the conversation takes a call on her cell. She talks about the overall rude behavior of clerks, waiters, cashiers, etc. Other subjects include the modern trend of companies to foist their work off onto the

Punctuation maven Lynne Truss (author of Eats, Shoots & Leaves) takes a stab at rudeness, ubiquitous in society today. Her book is very funny in spots and deadly serious in others, becoming a bit of a diatribe at times, but Truss is dead on in targeting this pervasive problem. If you mourn the disappearance of please, thank you, you're welcome, excuse me, and I'm sorry, and often wonder why parents tolerate outrageous public behavior in their little darlings, this book is for you!

Mostly rant. Negative attitude. I absolutely loved the author’s book, Eats Shoots and Leaves; this is nothing like it. Little of value. Read only if you lack crabby people in your life and need more negativity.

Yuck. What a whiner.

From a blog post I wrote in 2005:I adored Lynn Truss' first book, Eat, Shoots & Leaves. It was a great rant against the deterioration of our grammar skills. As someone who cringes every time she sees people use 'loose' instead of 'lose', 'you're' instead of 'your' or 'irregardless' in any fashion I found myself agreeing with every word of that text.Truss' new book, Talk to the Hand - The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door, is another rant...

Lynne Truss's "Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door" is a thoughtful, and at times, sarcastic and caustic, look at the decline of good manners in western society. As she states near the end of the book, "Rudeness is bad. Manners are good." She argues, quite forcibly, that by showing good manners people are giving respect toward others. Even some empathy factors in how we conduct ourselves in society. There is a moral r...

The Queen of Apostrophe turns into Ms. Manners, even though she swears that this book is not a manners manual. She also swears that she’s not some grumpy old woman. She just wants to rant about how eff-ing rude everyone has become. For a book that complains about rudeness, there’s plenty of F-word for you in this book.Turss attempts at some humor in this book, but to be fair to her, I don’t think her main point was being funny. A lot of people seem to be disappointed that this book is not as ha

The book was funny, and really made me think about how far common courteous has sunk. It was good, with lots of food for thought.

I guess it was too much to ask that a book about the rise of cultural rudeness wouldn't get preachy here and there. It takes a pretty thick skin to go forth into modern society these days; as social observation, the book is pretty good, but as advice, some finger-wagging is bound to be inevitable. It might be literally impossible to write about etiquette without placing yourself higher on the social scale than those you want to inform.Outrage is addictive, as anyone who watches a family member f...

I was looking forward to getting to this because I enjoyed both Eats, Shoots and Leaves and Making the Cat Laugh. Here, though, there was just something about it that didn’t sit well with me, and instead of enjoying Truss’ writing style as I have before, I found it off-putting and kind of overblown.To be fair, I think the biggest issue is that this is basically a book of her ranting about things that she doesn’t like about modern society, and after a while it starts to feel as though she’s going...

Don't read this book. It makes Lynne Truss, an insightful and hilarious writer, sound like an awful person.It's not so much the complaining about rudeness (although that, too, feels like it was greatly exaggerated to give the book a reason to exist) as the fact that hardly a pages goes by without a mention of Eats, Shoots and Leaves' international success. The fact that it's mostly mentioned to complain about it ("it's so hard being a famous author") makes it worse.

Very entertaining and thought provoking. I bought this book from a place that sells used books in Maryland four years ago, but I couldn't manage to read it until this week. The writer complains how people have become too rude in the British society. My dear Miss Truss, thank God you don't live in this region, you wouldn't have survived a couple of hours since your arrival at Cairo Airport.

Lynne Truss provides an interesting look at the stat of manners or rather social interactions among the British in particular. She uses the same quirky humor that spiced up her grammar treatise to advocate being polite rather than being so bloody ride all the time. It might make the world a better place. Or more enjoyable.

Got this one in 2010 in Dundee, Scotland for £1.99 from a shop called The Works. Why can't there be such massive book sales in Greece? For all the uncouthness Talk to the Hand wants to subscribe them to, the Brits seem to know perfectly well the importance of a cheap book.The following two excerpts are two of the parts I thought were interesting in this otherwise unmemorable book:...meanwhile the choice impulse is being exploited to the utmost degree. "More choice than ever before!" say the adve...

This very easy-to-read, entertaining, seemingly desultory discourse has a very serious subject, which can be summed up as an appeal for the virtues of civility, living life socially with others in ways that indicate shared concern for each other. Since making a direct appeal to others for better behavior is very un-English—they still haven’t forgiven E. M. Forster for blurting out “just connect”—Truss must illustrate just how easy it would be to either become a hermit or push a button that erase...

I liked Truss' first book about grammar "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" which was hilarious. So when I saw this book at the bookstore selling for a discounted price, I snatched it up. It's a plea to show some consideration to others, especially in certain areas: (1) "Was That So Hard to Say?" ("thank you"); (2) "Why am I the One Doing This?" (e.g., punching doggedly through the automated switchboard); (3) "My Bubble, My Rules" (forcing others to listen to a private conversation on a mobile phone); (4)...

Surely, Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door does have a long listing title which I highly doubt could it not be any better than a 3-stars review. I was right...This book is one hell of a terrible yet terrific read. Yes, terrible yet terrific! Since I have a pathetically poor vocab-choice in order to fully understand what the eff was going on there. For the British writing style has never been my cup of tea. As a matte...

For hundreds of years, we have had books on manners. The subject preoccupies us. What is acceptable behaviour? After how long should you write your thankyou note? What sort of wedding gift is appropriate for the second marriage of a widowed ex-hermit, twelfth in line to the throne, whose fiancée is set to inherit all of Wiltshire south of Devizes?Talk to the Hand is not a book about manners or etiquette. It is about the rudeness of the modern world, and the sense of outrage that infects us every...

Talk to the Hand. Lynne Truss. 2005. Gotham Books. 202 pages. ISBN 1592401716.Talk to the Hand's subtitle is "The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door". Author Lynne Truss (who wrote bestselling Eats, Shoots & Leaves about grammar gripes) presents a formal rant about rudeness in today's society.This book was given to me as a gift from a fellow bookcrosser after I was rudely bashed in a forum on a website I will not mention here. Internet ru...