Shoots and Leaves – DaneCobain.com

Title: Talk to the Hand

Author: Lynne Truss

Type: Non-Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 214

Rating 2.5/5

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 out of her way to find things to complain about instead of actually attacking what’s wrong with society with righteous anger. I also don’t think it’s aged particularly well, but perhaps I’m not the best person to judge that.

All in all, I was disappointed by this one, but I will read some more Truss in the future, I’m sure. I think I have to manage my expectations some more and to remember that while I agree with her on some stuff, I don’t agree with her on everything. It’s a shame, but there it is.

Click here to buy Talk to the Hand.

Lynne Truss – Making the Cat Laugh | Review

Title: Making the Cat Laugh

Author: Lynne Truss

Type: Non-Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 216

Rating: 5*/5

Lynne Truss – Making the Cat Laugh

This was better than it had any right to be. I’d already read some Truss before, in the form of Eats, Shoots and Leaves, but this is an entirely different type of non-fiction. It’s basically just a series of short essays about whatever the hell Truss felt like writing about at the time. And the fact that this was published back in 1995 – and that several of the pieces mention details that date them as even earlier, such as a reference to Roald Dahl being alive – actually makes it even more interesting.

So what if it’s a book about a single woman being a single woman? I’m a male who’s in a relationship, and I still found the stories inside highly relatable, especially when she talked about her cats and her relationship with them. The truth of the matter is that Truss writes in an approachable way that’s pretty much guaranteed to make you laugh, whoever you are. And while I’m sure you could classify it as a feminist book, it’s not – not really. It’s more like a collection of comic essays, and I often wondered whether she was an influence on Danny Wallace.