Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Creating a language is no joke. Or, maybe it is, because I laughed a lot reading this book.

In the Land of Invented Languages by Arika Okrent

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CBR 17 BINGO: Diaspora. The author uses the Jewish diaspora to illustrate the remarkable resurgence of Hebrew as a spoken language. You could also argue that Esperanto speakers form a diaspora. When you think of “invented” languages, you might immediately think of Esperanto, the late-19th century experiment in creating a universal language to bring people closer together. Or you might think about Star Trek geeks going all-in on their hobby by learning Klingon. Or you might ponder J.R.R. Tolkien’s elvish languages, created decades before he […]

Calling All Word Nerds

The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got that Way by Bill Bryson

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cbr category Question If you can draw one conclusion from this book, it could be that the English language, possibly more than any other, delights in being silly.  There is simply no other excuse for so many British town names, such as Great Snoring and Farleigh Wallop.  American English is no slouch in this department although one suspects its choice are more deliberate, such as Peeled Chestnut, Tennessee; What Cheer, Iowa; and Maggie’s Nipples, Wyoming. But the richness of the many various forms of English […]

The Necessity of Violence

Babel, or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators Revolution by R.F. Kuang

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I think my mixed feelings are going to come out so I’ll say up front that this is way outside of what I usually read, and while I appreciated that it is a very good book, I often didn’t enjoy reading it. I appreciate it more than I love it. But, I think it’s a worthwhile read. Maybe don’t pick it up right after you put down a book that owns your whole heart. This book is also in conversation with The Secret History and […]

“Now everyone will think she can’t cope with the demands of her job, just because she fell off a balcony.”

Drunk on All Your Strange New Words by Eddie Robson

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For whatever reason, I love books about alien linguistics. Not necessarily first contact, but more in terms of the pitfalls and cultural quirks of learning an alien language and then interacting with those aliens, so when I saw that this book featured a linguist I jumped on it. The quote on the book calls it “weird” and well, yes, this is definitely a quirky mix of science fiction wrapped up in a murder mystery. “Now everyone will think she can’t cope with the demands of […]

“It’s a calming thing, to learn there’s a word for something you’ve felt all your life, but didn’t know was shared by anyone else.”

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig

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That sentence from the introduction of The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows sums up what this book is about. A dictionary of “made-up” words (I know, as if there are words growing naturally in the wild somewhere), it gives voice to the thoughts and feelings that we have every day but didn’t know anyone else shared. Part linguistics, part philosophy, part self-help, and a (very little) part humor, this book will make you feel, above all else, that somebody out there gets you. Author John Koenig […]

“At last we meet again for the first time, for the last time.”

Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell

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All I’ve got in my head right now is that line from Spaceballs (see title of this review). I say that because every year I read a handful of books that I am just absolutely at a loss for how to review. This is my first one of 2022! I just want to say la la la la la and maybe read it again, but I’m expected instead to verbalize my thoughts about a book that covered so much and was so good and so […]



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