Summer reading

This is what I have on my plate, bookwise, these days. As many people--in particular the wonderful and lovely and gracious Poppy--will readily attest, I'm a sucker for books on etiquette, manners and protocol arcana. I'm just wired funny, I s'pose.

As a consequence, I am also something of a fan of Miss Manners...especially given her generally humorous tone and breezy writing style. Which brings us to this book. This book is NOT one of those "Miss Manners, my husband will only eat locusts and wild honey and shows up to parties wearing a hair shirt. What do I do?" sorts of books.

Instead, this book is about the development and current state of American manners, highlighting the differences between American manners and the European manners whence they sprang. She writes on how we differ and why and how that came to be. She highlights the good and bad of today's manners in teh USA.

That said, the subject being a weightier one than getting people to just @#$%ing R.s.v.p. fer crysakes! the writing (and therefore the reading) is not as tapas-like as her previous efforts. Her prose, as usual, sparkles but the subject matter conspires against her. If you think you will zip through this book, guess again. There is much food for thought here, but it's not the kind that will be silver-spoon fed to you.

I give it JJJj (3.5) out of JJJJJ (5.0) on the JokeMeter.

-J.