OUR MAGNIFICENT BASTARD TONGUE by James McWhorter

A smart, irreverent history of the English language (“Shiite Happens” is one of the chapter titles). McWhorter argues that the accepted story of English focuses on vocabulary—words from Latin, Norman French and German—while the more critical and underexplored story is that of our singular grammar and the way in which it was influenced by a mix of cultures, most notably the Celts, Vikings, and Phoenicians. While the latter part of the book can get a bit repetitive, McWhorter’s writing is breezy, clear and fun. I bought many, though not all, of his contentions, and enjoyed the insight into grammatical points I hadn’t thought about. Worth reading if you love words.