Words Like Loaded Pistols: Rhetoric from Aristotle to Obama by Sam Leith, 4/5

Leith achieves a great balance with this book – he’s entertaining without being insulting, academic without being dry and analytical without being annoying.  Where other writers might exhaustively dissect a piece of rhetoric at the cost of common sense and the reader’s patience (see How to Read Literature Like a Professor), Leith keeps his analyses to-the-point and useful.  Less importantly, I enjoyed the English pop culture references – it was fun to see mentions of TV shows and celebrities that I love, but don’t get to share with anyone here.