Can anyone recommend any recent books about language?

[MardyBra]

Nothing too heavy - I wanted something to download to read on my hols.

I like a bit of David Crystal but have read most of his stuff. And I'm dipping in and out of Gaston Dorren's Lingo Lingo Lingo.

Any other suggestions?

Have you read any of Geoff Nunberg's stuff? Going Nucular and The Year of Talking Dangerously are available for Kindle. He's an American prof who writes a language column for a newspaper too - he's very readable.

Through the Language Glass is good: www.amazon.co.uk/Through-Language-Glass-Different-Languages/dp/0099505576/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1437385698&sr=1-1&keywords=through+the+language+glass

I've read Through the Language Glass and enjoyed it a lot. Also The Unfolding of Language.

But I'm not familiar with Geoff Nunberg, so will look that up.

Thanks both of you for the suggestions.

I'm not entirely sure what you are looking for, but have you seen Bill Bryson's 'Mother Tongue'

It is a really entertaining and informative book about the history of English as we know it. I bought it 10 years ago and I till dip into it on a regular basis.

This was from a couple of years ago but I have a really interesting book on how translation works (and connections and differences between different languages) called Is That A Fish In Your Ear by David Bellos (I think).