Review_NONFICTION
Run-DMC) and
his wife,
Justine, who
have been mar-
ried for 25
years, offer
advice for a
lasting union in
this sincere and
heartfelt col-
laboration. The
couple—known
for their reality show, Run’s House—trade
chapters on what makes their “Old
School” style of marriage successful.
Joseph, who was previously married and
a father of three, began dating Justine
when he was in his 20s; they remained
celibate for two years until they married
in 1994 and had three children together,
one of whom they adopted. Their rela-
tionship, they explain, is based upon love
for each other and love of God; many
chapters begin with biblical quotes (Rev
Run is an ordained Pentecostal minister),
and the authors acknowledge that not
every reader will be a “believer.” The
couple share amusing anecdotes (Rev
tells of forcing himself to go to Hooters to
satisfy his pregnant wife’s chicken wing
craving), but their declarations of mutual
admiration can be overly sentimental
(Justine includes a treacly love poem to
Rev). The traditional values the authors
espouse will appeal to young couples
working to remain true to their wedding
vows. (Jan.)What’s Your Pronoun:
Beyond He and She
Dennis Baron. Liveright, $25.95 (288p)
ISBN 978-1-63149-604-2
University of Illinois professor emer-
itus Baron debuts with an entertaining
and thoroughly documented account of
two centuries’ worth of attempts to solve
the problem of the English language’s
“missing word”: a third person singular
pronoun that includes all genders. Baron
affirms the singular “they” is the best
option by documenting the pronoun’s
long history in idiomatic English;asserting that “top-down directives” by
lawmakers and style manuals “don’t
change language use”; and providing
data about the popularity of “they”
among people who self-identify as
“trans, genderqueer, or nonbinary.” He
also digs deeply into the legal and cul-
tural implications of pronoun usage,
such as the generic “he” in the
Constitution and Bill of Rights, and
addresses neologisms such as hiser and
thon, which met with the approval of
grammarians in the 19th and 20th cen-
turies, but never achieved significant
public usage. According to Baron,
“everybody hates” the only strictly
grammatical option: “his or her.” In
conclusion, he offers an “annotated his-
torical lexicon” of more than 250 gender-
neutral pronouns, a gold mine for readers
who delight in the strangeness of language,
as well as a clear demonstration of the
thorniness of the issue. This easygoing,
comprehensive guide will appeal to pro-
gressive word geeks. (Jan.)