Grammar for a Full Life

Why settle for a normal audiobook on grammar when you could learn new things about it and become your own best self at the same time?

If you’re looking for a traditional manual of rules, this much-acclaimed, groundbreaking audiobook by a cofounder of Harvard University’s Writing Center may not be the one for you. Grammar is about much more than rules: It’s about choices, too – since a thought can always be expressed correctly in multiple ways.

In Grammar for a Full Life, author Lawrence Weinstein reveals how our grammatical choices either stifle or boost our:

• Sense of agency in life
• Creativity
• Depth of connection to others
• And mindfulness..

Weinstein shows that certain tweaks to a person’s grammar can bring consequential changes in his or her fulfillment and well-being. In this wonderful audiobook, he describes some 40 transformative moves that can be made with English punctuation and syntax. You’ll learn, for instance, why a greater use of active voice constructions builds assertive energy in us. You’ll discover how – paradoxically – cutting back on the “intensifiers” (exclamation marks and words like really, absolutely) heightens our awareness of the world.

There is not too much about personality and life that Weinstein doesn’t see benefitting from a wiser use of grammar. In a section titled “Bonding”, even sex comes in for some grammatical attention. Even fear of death receives its own, almost lyrical section near book’s end.

The farther one gets into this remarkable audiobook, the clearer it becomes that Weinstein’s wish – for both himself and us – is actualization of “the whole person”, through language.

No listener should be intimidated by Weinstein’s university credentials. As important an audiobook as his is, it’s conversational throughout – and it’s packed with numerous compelling, clear examples. You will never think of commas or possessive pronouns in the same way again. Your regard for the conjunction “but” is likely to soar.

Praise for Grammar for a Full Life has been coming in from thought leaders of all kinds, ranging from well-known authors on language, such as Anne Fadiman, Lynne Truss, and Richard Lederer, to influential spiritual thinkers, like Rabbi Lawrence Kushner.

Please Note: Grammar for a Full Life is not an audiobook intended for the person new to the English language. It assumes familiarity with many of the basics of English.