As the title suggests, this book is not only painless, but also pleasurable to read. Elliott’s clear explanations and excellent examples make learning the rules of grammar and punctuation approachable. Her advice on “Cleaning Up Messy Writing” is invaluable to read and practice. The latest fourth edition is worth an update for reference.

A breezy and practical guide to grammar and punctuation. Clear examples and practical quizzes make it a useful tool for self-assessment. I could see why an instructor in a business grammar workshop recommended The Blue Book to us.

A brief, compelling guide to improve business communication. From business letters, reports, to emails, Garner helps make your case clear, concise, and engaging through the process of the MACJ:

• The Madman gathers material and generates ideas.
• The Architect organizes information by drawing up an outline, however simple.
• The Carpenter puts your thoughts into words, laying out sentences and paragraphs by following the Architect’s plan.
• The Judge is your quality-control character, polish the expression throughout—everything from tightening language to correcting grammar and punctuation.

This little book, recommended to me by a business-grammar instructor, has just what I need to communicate in my day-to-day job.

Garner’s superb grammar book provides a thorough and comprehensible guide to the parts of speech. He explains each part in granular details and with clear examples. I have learned a great deal on my first read and will return to it again and again for reference.

Here what I wrote about Greg Tate’s first book: “Never mind the ill-designed cover (horrendous use of typography and colors), Flyboy in the Buttermilk: Essays on Contemporary America is packed with Greg Tate’s ingenious criticisms ranging from music (jazz, funk, punk-rock and hip-hop) to book to film.” Typeset in Chaparral Pro, designed by Carol Twombly, Flyboy 2 is a huge improvement. If you’re fan of Tate’s insightful writing and thought-provoking criticism, Flyboy 2, a collection of his influential, critical essays in the past thirty years, is a delightful treat. Many topics he wrote, people he interviewed, and works he analyzed in this book I have never heard of; therefore, I will be re-reading it again and again in the future.

Like many beginner’s book on JavaScript, this one offers clear explanation of the basics including data types, conditional statements, and loops, but doesn’t provide practical exercise on how to use them in actual webpages. The only chapter that does that is on DOM scripting; therefore, I don’t find the book to be useful. If you want to learn the basic concepts and then put them to use with step-by-step instructions, I recommend John Pollock’s JavaScript: A Beginner’s Guide instead.

With Helvetica text set against different colored background, the book is a little hard to read. Once I get past that readability issue, I quite enjoy Draplin’s stories, especially how he got into design. Like the man himself, his work is filled with personality, particularly his logo designs. If you haven’t listened to Draplin on podcast, I highly recommend checking him out. He curses like a motherfucker, but a very kind heart. I have tremendous respect for him.

I love the design of this book. Helen Armstrong, who is the editor of the book, had done a wonderful job designing it. The text is set in Seria by Martin Majoor and combined with Interstate by Tobias Frere-Jones. The essays, on the other hand, are not always exciting for me. I liked some, but not all of them.

In this illuminating and inspiring book, Biz Stone reveals the success behind Twitter. It boils down to two words: empathy and humanity. As a designer and co-founder, Stone helped shaped the culture at Twitter by placing empathy and humanity before technology and money. It’s a recommended read for designers.

1. Art Direction for the Web, by Andy Clarke, is a good start if you want to make memorable web experiences.
2. The Brand Gap, by Marty Neumeier, is an informing read on branding because of the author’s concise writing and clear illustrations.
3. Branding: In Five and a Half Steps, by Michael Johnson, is a must-have guide for creating successful branding in any industry.
4. Build Your Brand Like You Give a Shit, by Bobby Gillespie, is for you if you give a shit about building your brand through leadership and compassion.
5. Designing Brand Identity, by Alina Wheeler, is a comprehensive reference on brand design and development.
6. Don’t Make Me Think, Revisited, by Steve Krug, is the go-to guide for user-experience design.
7. Ordering Disorder, by Khôi Vinh, is the first book that taught me the concept of grid design.
8. Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees, by Lawrence Weschler, consists of conversations with Robert Irwin whose work had been stripped down to its pure essence: lines, dots, discs, and light.
9. Things a Little Bird Told Me, by Biz Stone, shares the co-founder’s experience in shaping the culture at Twitter, which puts empathy and humanity before technology and money.