English Grammar? Bring It On

The Only Grammar Book You’ll Ever Need (Updated Edition, 2025)
by Susan Thurman

Many years back, on a visit to Ollie’s discount store, I picked up The Only Grammar Book You’ll Ever Need (2003 edition) for $2.

I never opened it. The book went straight to my teetering tsundoku pile.

After all, only a glutton for punishment would enjoy reading a grammar book, right?

I reasoned to myself thus: If I’ve managed to get by for over six decades with only a faint grasp of grammar then surely I can survive the few years left without that knowledge.

But when I recently spotted an updated edition of The Only Grammar Book You’ll Ever Need (2025 edition), my interest in English grammar was suddenly piqued.

Why now?

When you’re in the final innings of your life, it’s time to tick off the items on your bucket list. And learning the basics of English grammar has been on my to-do list for several decades.

The 2025 edition is 224-pages long (including three appendices, index, helpful grammar websites, etc. at the back of the book) and divided into 10 chapters.

Each chapter is gold and, overall, the book contains a ton of useful information.

The chapters cover parts of speech, basic sentence structure, verbs, pronouns, punctuation and style, tips on avoiding common errors and more.

In my dotage, thanks to this grammar book, I finally know what copulative verbs (page 36) and interjections (page 44) mean. If that constitutes grammatical wisdom so be it.

Jokes aside, I did pick up a lot of grammar from this easy-to-ready book.

Adverbs and clauses had always bedeviled me but now I understand them a wee bit better.

The book also provides clarity on plurals, something many people need.

Whoever knew that pronouns came in eight kinds and three kinds of cases.

There is a lot to English grammar and this book serves as an excellent aid to good writing. Each chapter has a quiz at the end to test your understanding.

One of the appendices at the back has a list of 1,100 frequently misspelled words.

Guess what?

One of the frequently misspelled words is misspelled.

One reading of this book is not enough. This is a book that’s more of a vade mecum demanding to be frequently consulted.

Of course, you can be a writer without reading this book but reading it will make you better at the job.

If you’re looking to get a handle on English grammar, you can’t go wrong with The Only Grammar Book You’ll Ever Need (2025 edition).