Foreword:
When I first received a mail from the author asking to review his book, I was pretty impressed from the way the mail was composed. The whole mail comprised of six lines and those lines contained the basic plot of the book, the publications (which played a big role on accepting to review his book right away) and his liking for our blog (which I presume is genuine and feel grateful).
It has been sometime since I last read a researched non-fiction. Of course, my last read, Wise Enough to be Foolish by Gauri Jayaram, was a non-fiction, but it was a story, while this book is a researched non-fiction on English language, trying and improving the readers' vocabulary.
Overall, the book was pretty helpful for the BR catalog and to me, an aspiring author, to plunge and discover undiscovered areas of literary genres.
I can't continue with the rest of the review without thanking Manish Gupta, the author, for writing and sending the books over to us. Hope you are satisfied with our review, Manish ji.
After a good amount of thinking I decided to add two descriptions of the book - one from the jacket of the book and the one stated by the author in the mail - so that you, the readers, have a better idea of the aim of the book...
Plot:
From jacket:
English Bites! My Fullproof English Learning Formula is the story of a man who goes from being tongue-tied in school to becoming a smooth talking banker. Through a series of hilarious personal adventures and misadventures, Manish Gupta provides easy solutions to problems faced by language learners. So, whether you're a vernacular speaker, a GRE/ GMAT/CAT/XAT aspirant or just a language nut, English Bites! will expand your vocabulary and improve your verbal ability. It may even help you love the English language a little more!
• Add over 1000 new words to your vocabulary and figure out easy and effective ways to expand your word bank.
• Combine etymology, mnemonics, jokes and anecdotes to better your understanding of the English language.
• Differentiate between similar sounding words and learn to use them right.
• Improve your general knowledge with trivia that spans brand names, automobiles, fine dining, love, money, banks, science and B-school jargon.
From the mail:
It is a simple yet hilarious story of a small town guy who studies in the vernacular medium and extremely poor in his communication skills, pronunciation, and vocabulary, and how he discovers and invents interesting tools techniques to best the convent educated lot in his class. He finally realises his dream of an MBA, gets a great job in a multinational bank, marries the women from his dream profession (medicine) for his spouse, and how he gets stumped by English in the new nursery rhymes his kids begin reciting at home.
About the author (from the jacket):
Manish Gupta is a banking professional. When not crunching numbers he is busy engaging with and examining the vagaries and idiosyncrasies of the English language. He also likes trivia, travelling, adventure sports, delving into human psychology, and giving professorial discourses to colleagues, family and friends, and practically anyone who can give him a patient hearing. An engineering graduate from Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh and an MBA from XLRI, Jamshedpur, he lives in Mumbai with his wife Deepali, a medical professional, and daughters Tamanna and Prakriti.
He can be reached at mystruggleswithenglish@gmail.com
Our review:
Cover Design:
The tagline - My Fullproof Enlish Learning Formula - with the word, fullproof, rounded with red marker visibly prompts that the story is comical. (If you didn't get it. The tagline indicates that this book helps you learn English in a more faster way. But the word 'Foolproof' is mispelled as 'Fullproof'. Hope you get the witticism behind the tagline. If you don't get it even now, God help you.)
