Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior

From Booklist

"Freshly updated" is a so much nicer phrase than "revised edition." Besides, isn't it just like Miss Manners (aka Washingtonian Judith Martin) to summarize the quintessential guidelines to "feel correct" in all situations by using two brief sentences? One, don't. Two, be sure not to forget to. As in her previous works of heart, Miss Manners gently approves, educates, and reprimands her fan club and answers urgent should we/shouldn't we questions that literally cover cradle to grave. Her responses are always instructive and usually laced with her unique wit, such as the RSVP to childless couples: "The chief kindness is to remember that your friends now have children and to try not to hold it against them." Or the niceties of eating: "Dessert is the only course that may be properly eaten while strolling on the sidewalk, and only certain desserts at that." And the quick-and-dirty retort to "Where exactly does the salad bowl go?" The answer is, of course, "Directly under the salad." Miss Manners is always as entertaining as she is civilized. Barbara JacobsCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"[Judith Martin] is an extremely useful philosopher, and I consult her frequently, in order to behave better." ― Daniel Handler, New York Times Book Review"In the almost twenty years I’ve owned it, Miss Manners’ Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior―an 800-plus page brick of good sense―has rarely rested on the shelf.…When I read Martin, I feel understood. And not understood merely as I am (impatient, exhausted, distracted by that one last text I need to send), but understood as I would like to be." ― Ben Dolnick