My personal language pet peeve, the misuse of the word literally as a generic intensifier (hearing it literally drives me berserkno, it doesnt), didnt make the cut in June Casagrandes Mortal Syntax (Penguin, $14), a quick and handy guide to 101 grammar, punctuation, spelling, and usage pitfalls. The author of Grammar Snobs are Great Big Meanies and of the syndicated column A Word, Please does include the usual treacherous trapswhich/that, lie/lay, bring/takeand informs us, not regretfully, that the battle against hopefully as used to mean it is to be hoped is lost (though regrettably the word hopeably has never caught on). On the other hand, theres some filler here (how often, really, do people ever use milquetoast and hoist with his own petard, much less misuse them?), and Casagrandes writing style has a serious case of the cutes. Shes a perky and helpful paralegal, though, doing scutwork at the firm of Fowler, Strunk, and Wallraff and managing to make it entertaining. GAVIN BORCHERT
Tue., April 8, 7 p.m., 2008