What I liked:
The title “….stay home and bolt the door”, as I’m more of an introvert. Thus, instead of complaining, I’ll avoid society as a whole.
As a teacher, I’ve established my own expected guidelines for my students, studying the world of music and piano.
I appreciate Truss’s references to various publications; I.e., Putnam distinguishes two types of social capital - bridging and bonding.
These frequent references gave me an interest in the bibliography with numerous listings.
Well, now I’m rambling.
What I found frustrating: more encouragement and simple instructions to equip us with how to help in the world of manners, and bottom line: it’s about respect for each other. Didn’t find that mentioned too often.
I probably won’t read the book again.

This is a 200 page rant (the author acknowledges this) against the death of courtesy in our society. And she's right She talks about such discourtesies as talking on cell phones in restaurants, movie theaters, etc. She talks about having conversations interrupted when the other participant in the conversation takes a call on her cell. She talks about the overall rude behavior of clerks, waiters, cashiers, etc. Other subjects include the modern trend of companies to foist their work off onto the customer (if the customer wants to talk to someone about a problem or question, the customer must first wade through levels of telephone automated attendant messages in order to FIND someone human to talk to). And, she talks about the "Universal Eff-Off Reflex." She hits the nail on the head. My primary complaint is that she belabors each point, so the reader gets tired after a while. She should have shortened her discussion on each subject (she could have added more subjects to maintain the book length.)

I really enjoyed Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, so when I saw that Lynne Truss had another book out about manners, I thought I'd give it a try. It's a short and interesting read that challenges the status quo in today's society and analyzes why we behave how we do. I must admit that I wasn't nearly as engaged or entertained with this book as I was with her previous efforts, but it was worth a read.

interesting quote:
"If we looked inside ourselves and remembered how insignificant we are, just for a couple of minutes a day, respect for other people would be an automatic result." (p. 166)

"But just because these are the conditions that promote rudeness does not mean that we can't choose to improve our happiness by deciding to be polite to one another." (p. 201)

new words: concomitantly, solipsistic, bathetic, propinquitous, moiling, clerihew

This book doesn't match her previous book "Eats, Shoots and Leaves." Whereas that one made me laugh on every page, "Talk to the Hand" did not. I think the fault lies in part with the subject of manners, which isn't not covered in schools to the extent that punctuation is, was or should be. Also, manners often is an emotionally charged subject; not so with punctuation, which digs shallow, whereas, manners dig deep. "Talk to the Hand" must have been a more difficult book to write - I'll give the author that. I'm afraid I can't whole heartedly recommend it although readers would get some benefit from it.

I really like Truss's previous book, "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" which talks about grammar and in particular the apostrophe.
In this book I enjoyed her humorous and rich rant of the rude manners people display today in public. The world is in a horrific state of modern manners.
In the end, she concludes that manners are about showing consideration and using empathy. I couldn't agree more. And, manners are also about being connected to the common good; they are about being a better person.
To quote Lynn Truss, "The crying shame about modern rudeness is that it's such a terrible missed opportunity for a different kind of manners - manners based not on class and snobbery, but on a kind of voluntary charity that dignifies both the giver and the receiver and it's about a system of mutual, civil respect." Amen!

Talk to the Hand: 08/21/09
Talk to the Hand by Lynne Truss offers to do for manners what her book Eats Leaves and Shoots does for grammar and punctuation. She has six topics: basic manners, who should be doing it, personal space, rude words, respecting authority and personal responsibility.

I really hoped to learn something about the history or cultural differences of her six topics but the book doesn't follow through. Instead the book has six loosely themed rants about society today and the inconveniences of her life.

Instead of learning about manners I learned that Truss hates technology, holds a grudge against anyone who doesn't play by her version of polite behavior, spends enough money on her credit card while traveling to cause her bank to panic, and hates the forced politeness at places like Walmart. None of these rants are especially funny.

Ms Truss is funny and poignant in her evaluation on the history and current state of manners in western culture. It’s important to note that she doesn’t touch at all on other cultures, which could have further nuanced the evaluative perspective.

Although I sympathised with her on occasion, the book was like an essay. Continuously trying to make an excuse for why she wrote the book to begin with, she never found a path...

I agree with Lynne's viewpoints of the utter bloody rudeness of the world today.
This short book is only 206 pages. I like that you can pick it up and put it down at your leisure and get through it in a couple evenings.
I enjoyed the other book I've read by her more, "Eats, Shoots, and Leaves"... because I really enjoy the English language and punctuation malfuntions.
Apparently I did not post my review of that here, but on a previous platform.
Having read both though, I would point you in the direction of the other, 'Eats, Shoots & Leaves' if you want to read a book by Lynne Truss.
But both were enjoyable.

Spot on, covering a wide variety of topics related to manners and society (if there is such a thing anymore). Have to like a book that can mention “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” Yorkie bars (I prefer Yorkie biscuits), and post modern parents inappropriately wanting their kids to be their pals.

Culture isn’t that different I guess. I think some of the things she’s talking about our appropriately described of the US today but I think that there is still a good deal of polite behavior in the world we just like to highlight the bad hopefully to change it but I know that I was raised with good manners and if I can pass them on to someone else that is good. I am not perfect. However, I did relate to one thing she was talking about and that is smoking. There was a time in my childhood when I was around cigarette smoke all the time and it didn’t bother me. But now that I am older I cannot stand it. I guess that talks to the part of us that has changed and she use that example to highlight how something someone did earlier in life may now bother us and we think it’s rude. I certainly think smoking is rude but I won’t going to someone’s house that does that on a regular basis or I won’t stay there because I don’t like it. That’s just my honest so speaking of had a recent experience with that. I didn’t mean other things about that person we’re good it was just something that I have decided I cannot deal with on a regular basis. Anyway, she writes this and her characteristics style. It was a good read. I hope her world gets better. :-)

The Queen of Apostrophe turns into Ms. Manners, even though she swears that this book is not a manners manual. She also swears that she’s not some grumpy old woman. She just wants to rant about how eff-ing rude everyone has become. For a book that complains about rudeness, there’s plenty of F-word for you in this book.

Turss attempts at some humor in this book, but to be fair to her, I don’t think her main point was being funny. A lot of people seem to be disappointed that this book is not as ha ha funny as Eats, Shoots & Leaves. This is a serious book about a serious subject. I think Truss has a good point that politeness is not just some useless code of conduct, but it actually serves a useful and necessary social purpose.