A World Without Whom: The Essential Guide to Language in the Buzzfeed Age by Emmy J. Favilla

Goodreads Summary:
A World Without "Whom" is Eats, Shoots & Leaves for the internet age, and BuzzFeed global copy chief Emmy Favilla is the witty go-to style guru of webspeak.

As language evolves faster than ever before, what is the future of "correct" writing? When Favilla was tasked with creating a style guide for BuzzFeed, she opted for spelling, grammar, and punctuation guidelines that would reflect not only the site's lighthearted tone but also how readers actually use language IRL.
With wry cleverness and an uncanny intuition for the possibilities of internet-age expression, Favilla makes a case for breaking the rules laid out by Strunk and White: A world without "whom," she argues, is a world with more room for writing that's clear, timely, pleasurable, and politically aware. Featuring priceless emoji strings, sidebars, quizzes, and style debates among the most lovable word nerds in the digital media world--of which Favilla is queen--A World Without "Whom" is essential for readers and writers of virtually everything: news articles, blog posts, tweets, texts, emails, and whatever comes next--so basically everyone.

My Review:
I recently read and reviewed Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen (read my review HERE) and enjoyed all the word nerd stories the author had to offer about her time at The New Yorker. Between You & Me offers a bit more of a polished and classic look at language and the written word, with just a tiny whisper of "break the rules sometimes". A World Without Whom is an all out exposure of every aspect of our modern English language and its use. From memes to digital punctuation to gender/race/sexuality identification systems, this book gives readers real insight into the constantly evolving state of our language from the point of view of Buzzfeed copy editors. Now, before you roll your eyes over Buzzfeed, keep in mind that they are not just the people who bring you the "What kind of pizza am I?" quizzes; they also deliver breaking news and gear their media toward a particular demographic: millennials. Again, before you roll your eyes, keep in mind that millennials (just as every generational group before them) are changing our language by communicating across a wide variety of digital platforms...and yes I realize how old I sound by making that totally obvious statement.

As a copywriter and editor I loved the detailed analysis for how the Buzzfeed copy team came to some of their conclusions. While they are always logical, their silly reactions and communications make this book almost totally opposite of Between You & Me. Seriously, do yourself a favor and at least pick up A World Without Whom and simply flip through it. Regardless of which random section you flip to you will find some new nugget of information and most likely a laugh or two. While I grabbed this from the library, I will be buying a copy because I definitely believe I will be referencing it in the future. I also hope that just as style guides are constantly updated, that this collection continues to be updated on a regular basis.