Algospeak: How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language

About the book

Author: Adam Aleksic
Publisher: Knopf

More info:
The StoryGraph | Goodreads
Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the review.

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My Review

Algospeak is the first book by Adam Aleksic, a linguist who has millions of followers on TikTok and Instagram as @etymologynerd. As promised, he breaks down “how social media is transforming the future of language.” Reader, I’m obsessed.

As a word nerd and book person, I’ve read a LOT of books about shifting language in the modern era — it’s a catnip topic for me. But I’m happy to report that this book is NOT just more of the same. It stands firmly on its own two feet for its deep focus on the algorithms themselves as an accelerant and instigator of language’s rapid evolution. Everything he teaches feels recognizable (“ah yes, of course that’s true”), but it’s taught and arranged in ways you may not have fully considered before. I inhaled it.

I think anyone who loves language or is a creator (or is simply very online) will love this book, but if you’re both of those things, it’s an absolute MUST read. It’s also short (only about 5 hours on audio) and particularly timely right now. So I would advocate to read it sooner rather than later — it will still be relevant down the line, but I think it will hit harder if the slang and trends he discusses still feel current.

Do it do it do it!

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Content and Trigger Warnings

• Misogyny (discussion of incel culture)

Catastrophe Ethics: How to Choose Well in a World of Tough Choices

About the book

Author: Travis Rieder
Publisher: Dutton

More info:
The StoryGraph | Goodreads
Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the review.

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My Review

Catastrophe Ethics is pitched as “a warm, personal guide to building a strong ethical and moral compass in the midst of today's confusing, scary global problems.” As someone who often agonizes over decisions like whether it’s okay to throw away an old, unusable comforter because it’s just so hard to find a way to ethically recycle it, this book was calling my name. And even though it kind of answers that question and kind of doesn’t, I found it to be very helpful and clarifying.

I would only recommend this book to someone who has never studied ethics. I get the sense that if you took even an introductory class on ethics in college, a lot of this might feel basic. But for me, I enjoyed and deeply appreciated the tour Rieder gives us through modern moral reasoning, laying a foundation and building layers on top of it like all good teachers do. He uses both big and small, timely questions to put that reasoning to the test — from recycling to abortion to activism to whether to have kids. Because he’s so clear and engaging, the book also works very well on audio.

Even though there are no clear answers that apply to everybody, I feel genuinely better prepared to decide what kinds of things are personally worth my effort (and my guilt). The time I spent listening to this audiobook was time extremely well spent.

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Content and Trigger Warnings

• Climate anxiety

• Abortion

How to Read Now: Essays

About the book

Author: Elaine Castillo
Publisher: Viking

More info:
The StoryGraph | Goodreads
Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the review.

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My Review

How to Read Now has been on my TBR since it was published in 2022. This year, I’ve been on a mission to sharpen my critical reading skills, so I finally picked it up. Alas, this book is not what I had naively expected — my brain ignored the “essays” part of the title in favor of the “how to” part — but it is, without a doubt, excellent.

Written with more than a dash of spunk, personality, and sarcasm, How to Read Now is a collection of whip-smart essays on the current state of the politics of reading. Castillo draws from a lifetime of deep, wide, critical reading to call out all the BS: the impossibility of nonpolitical art, the empty allyship of “reading for empathy,” the false promises of the publishing industry’s box-checking, the hypocrisy of calls to “separate the art from the artist” for white authors while BIPOC authors cannot have their work evaluated separately from their identities, and so much more.

What will stick with me longest, I think, is Castillo’s construction of the “unexpected reader,” ie the person an author never would have or could have expected to read their work. For example, Hemingway never would have expected someone like, say, a Black trans woman from New York City. However, white readers have never lived in a world where they were not the expected readers of literally everything. And so when they find themselves to be the unexpected reader, they criticize (or vilify) the author for it.

I can’t wait to inhale whatever Castillo puts out next.

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Content and Trigger Warnings

• Racism

• Xenophobia

• Colonization

• Death of a parent

Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution

About the book

Author: Cat Bohannon
Publisher: Knopf

More info:
The StoryGraph | Goodreads
Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the review.

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My Review

Holy smokes, this book was awesome and fascinating. You should definitely, absolutely read it.

Eve is all about how (and why) evolution has shaped women’s anatomy and biology into what it is today, and how that, in turn, is responsible for the planetary dominance of the human race. This was especially interesting to read as a pregnant person, but I would have found it fascinating any time. For example, despite the fact that our bodies are actually not very good at reproduction (being pregnant is dangerous for humans!), the human population boomed. Why? Because we were smart and social enough to invent midwifery and gynecology. We are the only species that helps one another give birth!!

Plus, while this is a sciency book, it never feels sciency. It’s written in an engaging, conversational way that is never ever boring. I ended up listening to the audio, which is read by the author, and now I want to be her best friend.

TLDR, I will be talking the ear off of anyone willing to listen about this book, and it’s going to make my favorites of the year for sure. Read it!!

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Content and Trigger Warnings

• Pregnancy and birth complications

• Rape (throughout evolution)

Like, Literally, Dude: Arguing for the Good in Bad English

Author: Valerie Fridland
Publisher: Viking
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

Click above to buy this book from my Bookshop.org shop, which supports independent bookstores (not Amazon). You can also find it via your favorite indie bookstore here.

Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

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Cover Description

A lively linguistic exploration of the speech habits we love to hate—and why our "like"s and "literally"s actually make us better communicators

Paranoid about the "ums" and "uhs" that pepper your presentations? Concerned that people notice your vocal fry? Bewildered by "hella" or the meteoric rise of "so"? What if these features of our speech weren't a sign of cultural and linguistic degeneration, but rather, some of the most dynamic and revolutionary tools at our disposal?

In Like, Literally, Dude, linguist Valerie Fridland shows how we can re-imagine these forms as exciting new linguistic frontiers rather than our culture's impending demise. With delightful irreverence and expertise built over two decades of research, Fridland weaves together history, psychology, science, and laugh-out-loud anecdotes to explain why we speak the way we do today, and how that impacts what our kids may be saying tomorrow. She teaches us that language is both function and fashion, and that though we often blame the young, the female, and the uneducated for its downfall, we should actually thank them for their linguistic ingenuity.

By exploring the dark corners every English teacher has taught us to avoid, Like, Literally, Dude redeems our most pilloried linguistic quirks, arguing that they are fundamental to our social, professional, and romantic success—perhaps even more so than our clothing or our resumes. It explains how filled pauses benefit both speakers and listeners; how the use of "dude" can help people bond across social divides; why we're always trying to make our intensifiers ever more intense; as well as many other language tics, habits, and developments.

Language change is natural, built into the language system itself, and we wouldn't be who we are without it. Like, Literally, Dude celebrates the dynamic, ongoing, and empowering evolution of language, and it will speak to anyone who talks, or listens, inspiring them to communicate dynamically and effectively in their daily lives.

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TL;DR Review

Like, Literally, Dude is a joyfully fun, delightfully nerdy book that I absolutely loved. In the running for a top nonfiction of the year for sure!

For you if: You’re a word nerd and/or love having fun facts to whip out at parties.

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Full Review

From the moment Like, Literally, Dude landed on my radar, I knew I had to read it. John McWhorter’s Words on the Move and Gretchen McCulloch’s Because Internet — both of which explore how language changes and uncover some of the shifts happening right now — are two of my favorites. Add in a little bit of feminism, and you’re calling my name.

In this book, Valerie Fridland not only gets delightfully nerdy about linguistics, with whole chapters on the history and fascinating unconscious use cases of um/uh, dude, literally, and more. She also explains how and why women and young people tend to lead the way in language shifts — and why they’re often criticized for it. Plus, Fridland is witty and freakin’ funny (PSA, there’s also a chapter on our use of -in vs -ing!) and doesn’t pass up the opportunity to take a swipe at bigotry.

If you need some convincing of how fun and fascinating this one is, here’s my favorite party fact I walked away with: The way people use “literally” to actually mean the opposite of that word? Very normal! This is a natural evolution of words called intensifiers, as they come to be used simply to signify that intensity and lose their attachment to the original definition. Other common examples that don’t make us clutch our pearls: “horribly handsome,” “terribly funny,” etc. I LOVE IT.

Pick this up! You won’t regret it!

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Content and Trigger Warnings

• None

Between the Lines: Stories from the Underground

Author: Uli Beutter Cohen
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

Click above to buy this book from my Bookshop.org shop, which supports independent bookstores (not Amazon). You can also find it via your favorite indie bookstore here.

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Cover Description

For the better part of a decade, Uli Beutter Cohen rode the subway through New York City’s underground to observe society through the lens of our most creative thinkers: the readers of books. Between the Lines is a timely collection of beloved and never-before-published stories that reflect who we are and where we are going. In over 170 interviews, Uli shares nuanced insights into our collective psyche and gives us an invaluable document of our challenges and our potential. Complete with original photography, and countless intriguing book recommendations, Between the Lines is an enthusiastic celebration of the ways stories invite us into each other’s lives, and a call to action for imagining a bold, empathetic future together.

Meet Yahdon, who reads Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem and talks about the power of symbols in fashion. Diana shares how Orlando shaped her journey as a trans woman. Saima reads They Say, I Say and speaks about the power of her hijab. Notable New Yorkers open up about their lives and reading habits, including photographer Jamel Shabazz, filmmaker Katja Blichfeld, painter Devon Rodriguez, comedian Aparna Nancherla, fashion editor Lynn Yaeger, playwright Jeremy O. Harris, fashion designer and TV personality Leah McSweeney, designer Waris Ahluwalia, artist Debbie Millman, activist Amani al-Khatahtbeh, and esteemed authors such as Jia Tolentino, Roxane Gay, Ashley C. Ford, Eileen Myles, Min Jin Lee, and many more.

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TL;DR Review

I loved reading Between the Lines so much. It’s a beautiful, well-paced collection of interviews that blends a love of New York City, books, and our shared humanity.

For you if: You are a fan of @subwaybookreview on Instagram.

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Full Review

I was lucky enough to have received an early review copy of Between the Lines from Simon and Schuster (thank you!) about two months before the book’s official publication. That gave me time to read a little bit of it every day, pacing myself through the 175+ short interviews from @subwaybookreview that creator Uli Buster Cohen has selected and arranged so lovingly. It will be published November 9.

In case you aren’t familiar, @subwaybookreview is an Instagram account where Uli documents conversations she has with New Yorkers who are reading on the subway. She asks about the book they’re holding and their view of the world, with good, deep questions that cut to the center of our shared humanity. For this book, she also coordinated interviews with some well-known modern New Yorkers, like Roxane Gay and Emma Straub.

Long story short, I loved the experience of crawling my way through this book. Every page brings us a new person who serves as a lens to view the world. Every interview expands New York and our connection to it and one another. Reading it slowly allowed me to feel like I was giving each of them the time and attention they deserved, and like I was giving the book itself the time and attention it required to work it’s magic on me.

I recommend this book for everyone, but especially for those who hold a special place for NYC in their hearts. It’s worth it.

You’re Not Listening: What You’re Missing and Why It Matters

Author: Kate Murphy
Publisher: Celadon Books
View on Goodreads

Click above to buy this book from my Bookshop.org shop,* which supports independent bookstores (not Amazon). You can also find it via your favorite indie bookstore here.

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Cover Description

At work, we’re taught to lead the conversation.
On social media, we shape our personal narratives.
At parties, we talk over one another. So do our politicians.
We’re not listening.
And no one is listening to us.

Despite living in a world where technology allows constant digital communication and opportunities to connect, it seems no one is really listening or even knows how. And it’s making us lonelier, more isolated, and less tolerant than ever before. A listener by trade, New York Times contributor Kate Murphy wanted to know how we got here.

In this always illuminating and often humorous deep dive, Murphy explains why we’re not listening, what it’s doing to us, and how we can reverse the trend. She makes accessible the psychology, neuroscience, and sociology of listening while also introducing us to some of the best listeners out there (including a CIA agent, focus group moderator, bartender, radio producer, and top furniture salesman). It’s time to stop talking and start listening.

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TL;DR Review

You’re Not Listening is a well-written, readable, persuasive book that underscores the importance of true, unselfish listening and will inspire you to get better at it.

For you if: You want to deepen your relationships. I recommend this for everyone, even if you don’t usually read a lot of nonfiction.

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Full Review

“Listening takes effort. Like reading, you might choose to go over some things carefully while skimming others, depending on the situation. But the ability to listen carefully, like the ability to read carefully, degrades if you don’t do it often enough. If you start listening to everyone as you would scan headlines on a celebrity gossip website, you won’t discover the poetry and wisdom that is within people. And you withhold the gift that the people who love you, or could love you, most desire.”

If you’re like me (and a bunch of other people, according to an informal poll by the author of this book), you know that you could be a better listener. What you might not realize — at least not fully — is just how important that is.

You’re Not Listening was the Next Big Idea Club’s April selection, and I’m so glad I read it. This isn’t one of those nonfiction books that should have just been a TED Talk; I found it to be well edited and worth your time. It’s a quick read, with short, punchy, focused chapters; a readable and conversational writing style; and the perfect blend of example, anecdote, psychology, science.

And this might sound kind of weird, but by the end of the book, I felt almost like Kate Murphy had listened to me, rather than me listening to (reading) her. She’s a journalist with great listening skills and obviously fantastic at her job. But she also hits the nail on the head with why listening, and being listened to, is so important to all of us, and the common pitfalls that we try, but fail, to avoid. Without shaming you, she guides you to take stock of your own desire to listen and propensity to do so.

One thing I learned that really struck a chord include the fact that people in long-term relationships often stop listening to one another deeply; in fact, when we know someone well, our brains tend to believe that we know what they’re going to say next, so we listen even less. That’s what can lead couples to grow apart and feel like they don’t know one another anymore, like their partner is someone different from who they first met.

In fact, this book is packed with interesting things, like the fact that when you aren’t listening to someone, they can subconsciously pick up on it, which makes them not try hard in the conversation, and actually makes them more boring, leading to a vicious cycle. Even the presence of a cell phone sitting nearby while you’re having a conversation can make both people less likely to open up, knowing that more dopamine-infused interesting things are within arms’ reach.

Kate Murphy gets in, makes her point, inspires you to become a better person, and then leaves you there to do something about it. And if that’s not what we all want out of a nonfiction read, I don’t know what is.

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Trigger Warnings

• None

*This is an affiliate link to Bookshop.org, an online alternative to buying books on Amazon. A portion of every sale goes directly to independent bookstores! When you buy a book using my link, I will also receive a small commission. Thank you for supporting indies. They need us.

Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men

Author: Caroline Criado-Pérez
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
View on Goodreads

Click above to buy this book from my Bookshop.org shop,* which supports independent bookstores (not Amazon). You can also find it via your favorite indie bookstore here.

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Cover Description

Imagine a world where your phone is too big for your hand, where your doctor prescribes a drug that is wrong for your body, where in a car accident you are 47% more likely to be seriously injured, where every week the countless hours of work you do are not recognised or valued. If any of this sounds familiar, chances are that you're a woman.

Invisible Women shows us how, in a world largely built for and by men, we are systematically ignoring half the population. It exposes the gender data gap – a gap in our knowledge that is at the root of perpetual, systemic discrimination against women, and that has created a pervasive but invisible bias with a profound effect on women’s lives.

Award-winning campaigner and writer Caroline Criado Perez brings together for the first time an impressive range of case studies, stories and new research from across the world that illustrate the hidden ways in which women are forgotten, and the impact this has on their health and well-being. From government policy and medical research, to technology, workplaces, urban planning and the media, Invisible Women reveals the biased data that excludes women. In making the case for change, this powerful and provocative book will make you see the world anew.

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TL;DR Review

WOW. Invisible Women is an unrelenting pop-pop-pop of bruising, important truth bombs. Caroline Criado-Pérez doesn’t hold back. Everyone should read this.

For you if: You want to learn more about gender inequity.

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Full Review

“The presumption that what is male is universal is a direct consequence of the gender data gap. Whiteness and maleness can only go without saying because most other identities never get said at all. But male universality is also a cause of the gender data gap: because women aren't seen and aren't remembered, because male data makes up the majority of what we know, what is male comes to be seen as universal. It leads to the positioning of women, half the global population, as a minority. With a niche identity and subjective point of view. In such a framing, women are set up to be forgettable. Ignorable. Dispensable — from culture, from history, a from data. And so, women become invisible.”

Hey hi hello. If you are looking for one book to teach you something new and important, let this be it. Caroline Criado-Pérez drops fact after fact after fact, study after study after study. She doesn’t hold back as she pulls back the curtain over all of our eyes and shows exactly how the fact that assuming data about men is universal to all people, women across the world suffer.

Here are a few examples:

• Car manufacturers are not legally required to test their cars with anatomically accurate woman crash-test dummies. Thus, women die.

• Medical studies are overwhelmingly performed on people assigned male at birth and / or not separated by gender. Thus, women die. (Did you know women exhibit different signs of a heart attack than men and so many not even be seen at a clinic if she’s in active cardiac arrest??)

• Because entire cities and transit systems are designed by men who go off to work (usually driving) for men who go off to work (usually driving), women who are more likely to meander to day care to grocery stores etc not only end up paying more for transportation but also spend more time traveling ON TOP OF being paid less or nothing. (When a city decided to prioritize snow removal along women’s typical routes (on sidewalks) rather than roads into city center, the city saved money because fewer people were injured.)

This book is a deluge of information just like this — information that is clearly presented, extraordinarily persuasive, long overdue, and so important. I honestly don’t even have much to say beyond that, except that everyone should read this book.

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Trigger Warnings

• None

*This is an affiliate link to Bookshop.org, an online alternative to buying books on Amazon. A portion of every sale goes directly to independent bookstores! When you buy a book using my link, I will also receive a small commission. Thank you for supporting indies. They need us.

Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do

From one of the world's leading experts on unconscious racial bias, a personal examination of one of the central controversies and culturally powerful issues of our time, and its influence on contemporary race relations and criminal justice.

We do not have to be racist to be biased. With a perspective that is both scientific, investigative, and also informed by personal experience, Eberhardt offers a reasoned look into the effects of implicit racial bias, ranging from the subtle to the dramatic. Racial bias can lead to disparities in education, employment, housing, and the criminal justice system — and then those very disparities further reinforce the problem. In Biased, Eberhardt reveals how even when we are not aware of bias and genuinely wish to treat all people equally, ingrained stereotypes can infect our visual perception, attention, memory, and behavior.

Eberhardt's extensive work as a consultant to law enforcement, as well as a researcher with unprecedented access to data including footage from police officers' body-worn cameras, informs every aspect of her book and makes it much more than a work of social psychology. Her research occurs not just in the laboratory but in police departments, courtrooms, prisons, boardrooms, and on the street. Interviews are interwoven with memories and stories from Eberhardt's own life and family. She offers practical suggestions for reform, and takes the reader behind the scenes to police departments implementing her suggestions. Refusing to shy away from the tragic consequences of prejudice, Eberhardt addresses how racial bias is not the fault of nor restricted to a few "bad apples" in police departments or other institutions. We can see evidence of bias at all levels of society in media, education, and business practices. In Biased, Eberhardt reminds us that racial bias is a human problem — one all people can play a role in solving.

Author: Dr. Jennifer L. Eberhardt | Publisher: Viking

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Rating: 5 / 5

I received this book as part of my subscription to the Next Big Idea Club, and as soon as I had it in my hands, I was excited to read it. Biased is a scientific, uncompromising, empathetic look at bias (often specifically racial bias).

I try to read books that will help me become a less biased person whenever they are recommended, but I think this is one of the best ones I’ve read. Dr. Eberhardt is so clear and so compelling, and she comes at the subject in a way that’s unbiased in and of itself — because all her points are so strongly grounded in psychology research, in sociology research, and in neurological research. The result is information that’s straightforward and forgiving — we are all human, and there are real, human reasons for bias, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do everything we can to counteract those reasons.

Woven throughout the book are stories from Dr. Eberhardt’s life — the time she was arrested because a police officer thought her car was stolen, because she had out of state plates, the night before she received her doctorate from Harvard; the time her young son feared that a Black man in dreadlocks would rob their plane for no reason. It adds color, makes everything so real, and pulls you through her narrative.

I think one of the most interesting things I learned from this book is that the human brain is literally hardwired to be able to tell people apart better when they are members of your own community. The fact that your brain does that isn’t racism, it’s a bias that leads to more efficient information processing, but that’s not to say you shouldn’t be working hard to un-train your brain, because if you act on it, that is racism. And it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be working to make sure that communities are as integrated as possible so that it doesn’t happen as severely in the first place.

I definitely recommend this book for everyone — the things I learned are going to make me a better person.

Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don't Know

In July 2015, a young black woman named Sandra Bland was pulled over for a minor traffic violation in rural Texas. Minutes later she was arrested and jailed. Three days later, she committed suicide in her cell. What went wrong? Talking to Strangers is all about what happens when we encounter people we don't know, why it often goes awry, and what it says about us.

How do we make sense of the unfamiliar? Why are we so bad at judging someone, reading a face, or detecting a lie? Why do we so often fail to 'get' other people?

Through a series of puzzles, encounters and misunderstandings, from little-known stories to infamous legal cases, Gladwell takes us on a journey through the unexpected. You will read about the spy who spent years undetected at the highest levels of the Pentagon, the man who saw through the fraudster Bernie Madoff, the suicide of the poet Sylvia Plath and the false conviction of Amanda Knox. You will discover that strangers are never simple.

No one shows us who we are like Malcolm Gladwell. Here he sets out to understand why we act the way we do, and how we all might know a little more about those we don't.

Author: Malcolm Gladwell | Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

Goodreads | IndieBound (buy local!) | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

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Rating: 4.5 / 5

Content trigger warning: Sexual assault, suicide

Talking to Strangers is, without a doubt, Malcolm Gladwell at his finest. And at his most culturally relevant. Gladwell’s skill at combining stories and examples with scientific study in order to keep you engaged and demonstrate complex psychological phenomena is unparalleled.

I highly recommend listening to this one as an audiobook. I own a physical copy of the book and still waited for the library’s audio version to become available, because it’s really unlike any other nonfiction listening experience. Instead of Gladwell reading the transcripts in each of his examples, he includes the actual audio (or, when not available, reenactments) of real police encounters, court testimony, etc. It was incredibly powerful.

The book is all about how easy it is for humans to misinterpret one another and miscommunicate, which has drastic results in interactions like police encounters, college parties, and courtrooms. Big, big warning for readers: He dives very deep into cases that could trigger significant trauma, like Sandra Bland, Jerry Sandusky, Larry Nassar, and Brock Turner. It was very, very emotional and difficult for me to listen to, and I don’t have a history of that sort of trauma. So if those might be difficult for you to read /listen about, tread carefully into this book (if at all).

Gladwell begins by talking about Sandra Bland, a Black woman who was unfairly pulled over by a police officer. The officer escalated the encounter quickly and inappropriately, and she was eventually brought to jail, where she committed suicide. This encounter becomes a case study on all the reasons why talking to strangers is much more difficult than we realize, and why we so often get it wrong. Chapter by chapter, Gladwell examines each facet of this phenomenon before bringing them all back together in the end to offer an explanation of what went so wrong with Sandra Bland.

One of the major points of the book is that humans have a natural default for truth, meaning that we assume people are being truthful with us. Rather than collecting each piece of information in an encounter to decide whether they are being honest or lying, we assume they are honest and don’t switch to thinking they’re lying until there is enough evidence to convince us to switch sides. And yes, this will result in us being duped sometimes. But if we didn’t have this natural tendency, then every encounter would look like the police officer who stopped Sandra Bland, and society couldn’t function at all.

This is just so fascinating, and Gladwell describes and explains it so thoroughly. What I always find so impressive about his books is how he gives me talking points for conversations with others — I find myself wanting to talk about it, share what I learned, exclaim about it all. And I think that’s the mark of a good book.

I did think he got a little dicey when he was talking about the Brock Turner case and the way alcohol inhibits our ability to talk to strangers — it was indeed grounded in science, and I respect that it is difficult to talk about the science of alcohol consumption without making people worry that you’re going to blame the victim. And he danced too close to that line a few times, in my opinion, but did eventually back away from it and make a clear point, in the end, to not blame the victim.

I’m going to be thinking about this one for a long time. I definitely recommend.

Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language

Language is humanity's most spectacular open-source project, and the internet is making our language change faster and in more interesting ways than ever before. Internet conversations are structured by the shape of our apps and platforms, from the grammar of status updates to the protocols of comments and @replies. Linguistically inventive online communities spread new slang and jargon with dizzying speed. What's more, social media is a vast laboratory of unedited, unfiltered words where we can watch language evolve in real time.

Even the most absurd-looking slang has genuine patterns behind it. Internet linguist Gretchen McCulloch explores the deep forces that shape human language and influence the way we communicate with one another. She explains how your first social internet experience influences whether you prefer "LOL" or "lol," why ~sparkly tildes~ succeeded where centuries of proposals for irony punctuation had failed, what emoji have in common with physical gestures, and how the artfully disarrayed language of animal memes like lolcats and doggo made them more likely to spread.

Because Internet is essential reading for anyone who's ever puzzled over how to punctuate a text message or wondered where memes come from. It's the perfect book for understanding how the internet is changing the English language, why that's a good thing, and what our online interactions reveal about who we are.

Author: Gretchen McCulloch | Publisher: Riverhead

Goodreads | IndieBound (buy local!) | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

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Rating: 4.25 / 5

Big thanks to Riverhead for sending me a finished copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

“Language is a thing that lives in the minds of individual humans at individual points in time, a thing that can’t be fully encompassed in a static list of rules like a game of chess.”

Things to know about me for context in this book review: I am a grammar and usage nerd. I love to read about linguistics (the study of language, its structure, and how people use it), especially in the context of the internet. (The social signals and understanding behind when it’s “right” to use one, two, or three exclamation points is fascinating to me.) I also write longform marketing content for a living. So, yeah, this book was written for me.

And, as expected, I loved it. Gretchen McCulloch is (as you would hope, with this subject matter) conversational, fun, and very in touch with internet trends and spaces. She brings relatable examples together with smart research to make clear what so-called “internet people” can naturally sense but not explain.

She explains that this is the very first time in history that informal language has ever been written or recorded. Before, speech may have been informal, but pretty much all occasions to write — essays, news, speeches — were more formal. And this informal writing isn’t replacing formal writing; it’s working alongside it in new and fun ways.

“No one is writing in a formal context, “omggg wtf the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell [4x laugh emoji]” any more than a hundred years ago people were writing, “Oh my heavenly stars, the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell, isn’t that just the bee’s knees!!!!”

In particular, she made some really good points that made me think, yes, that’s exactly it! Two stand out in particular. First was her point about teenagers today, and how everyone assumes that they’re obsessed with their smartphones. But since the beginning of time, teenagers have been looking for ways to connect in spaces separate from adults. They hung out in malls and talked on the phone for hours. Those kids grew up to spend normal amounts of time at malls and on the phone, because they were no longer under watch — they gained the ability to decide when and how often they see their friends, and so relaxed a bit. In her words, teenagers aren’t obsessed with their phones; they’re obsessed with each other.

And second, she was able to pinpoint exactly why it sounds like someone is angry if they end a text message with a period. Just like a question mark indicates that your voice is rising at the end of a sentence?, a period indicates that your voice is falling. That you are punctuating your speech with down-voice, and that you are very serious. And yes, that’s exactly it!!

I also really enjoyed the chapters on emojis and memes, and learning about how the year you “joined the internet” impacts the way you use the internet and how much you understand about its language.

All in all, this was the perfect nerdy read if you love to learn about language, and if you love the internet. Which, if you’re reading this blog, is probably you.

Survive and Resist: The Definitive Guide to Dystopian Politics

Authoritarianism is on the march — and so is dystopian fiction. In the brave new twenty-first century, young-adult series like The Hunger Games and Divergent have become blockbusters; after Donald Trump's election, two dystopian classics, 1984 and The Handmaid's Tale, skyrocketed to the New York Times best-seller list. This should come as no surprise: dystopian fiction has a lot to say about the perils of terrible government in real life.

In Survive and Resist, Amy L. Atchison and Shauna L. Shames explore the ways in which dystopian narratives help explain how real-world politics work. They draw on classic and contemporary fiction, films, and TV shows — as well as their real-life counterparts — to offer funny and accessible explanations of key political concepts. Atchison and Shames demonstrate that dystopias both real and imagined help bring theories of governance, citizenship, and the state down to earth. They emphasize nonviolent resistance and change, exploring ways to challenge and overcome a dystopian-style government. Fictional examples, they argue, help give us the tools we need for individual survival and collective resistance. A clever look at the world through the lenses of pop culture, classic literature, and real-life events, Survive and Resist provides a timely and innovative approach to the fundamentals of politics for an era of creeping tyranny.

Author: Amy L. Atchison and Shauna L. Shames | Publisher: Columbia University Press

Goodreads | IndieBound (buy local!) | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

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Rating: 4 / 5

Big thank you to Columbia University Press for sending me a finished copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

“There are a couple of aspects to being a resilient movement. The first is that the movement has to be able to survive the loss of its top leadership. The authorities will go after the leaders first, on the theory that the group will fall apart once they’re gone. … That’s why, in the original Star Wars (1977), the Empire takes Princess Leia into custody — they can torture her into giving up the Rebel Alliance, and then they can kill her to send a message about what happens when you defy Emperor Palpatine (insert evil laugh here).”

Survive and Resist offers an intriguing premise: to look at actual dystopian political theory through the lens of fiction, film, and television. Um, helloooooo, sign me up! The execution of that premise is a readable, interesting, and thought-provoking guide to recognizing, fighting, and rebuilding after dystopian governments.

The book is broken into eight chapters: one on the basics of dystopia, two on example dystopian governments, three on how economics affects dystopias, four on survival in a dystopian state, five on individual resistance strategies and tactics, six and seven on group/movement strategies and tactics, and eight on rebuilding a new government once the dystopia falls.

This turned into a lot more of a handbook than I had been expecting, but I didn’t mind that. It was a lot more conversational and relatable this way, with “next you’ll need to do this” rather than something like “the next step a resistance movement might adopt could be.” Although I don’t personally plan to overthrow a government, I suppose you never know (especially today), and so it might just come in handy!

I really loved the context they provided with the dystopian fiction examples. It relied pretty heavily on 1984, The Handmaid’s Tale, Fahrenheit 451, The Uglies Series, The Hunger Games, All Rights Reserved, and even the LEGO Movie and Star Trek. I wish there had actually been even more, because I’m shamefully more interested in fiction than in political theory, but it was really helpful and kept me engaged.

Some of the chapters in the book are more engaging than others (I personally struggled through the economics chapter), but overall this book was somehow both fun and informative. I also learned a ton about government structure and global history — wins!

If you like nonfiction, definitely give this one a shot.

Words on the Move: Why English Won't—and Can't—Sit Still (Like, Literally)

A best-selling linguist takes us on a lively tour of how the English language is evolving before our eyes—and why we should embrace this transformation and not fight it.

Language is always changing—but we tend not to like it. We understand that new words must be created for new things, but the way English is spoken today rubs many of us the wrong way. Whether it's the use of literally to mean "figuratively" rather than "by the letter" or the way young people use LOL and like, or business jargon like what's the ask?—it often seems as if the language is deteriorating before our eyes.

But the truth is different and a lot less scary, as John McWhorter shows in this delightful and eye-opening exploration of how English has always been in motion and continues to evolve today. Drawing examples from everyday life and employing a generous helping of humor, he shows that these shifts are a natural process common to all languages and that we should embrace and appreciate these changes, not condemn them.

Words on the Move opens our eyes to the surprising backstories to the words and expressions we use every day. Did you know that silly once meant "blessed"? Or that ought was the original past tense of owe? Or that the suffix -ly in adverbs is actually a remnant of the word like? And have you ever wondered why some people from New Orleans sound as if they come from Brooklyn?

McWhorter encourages us to marvel at the dynamism and resilience of the English language, and his book offers a lively journey through which we discover that words are ever on the move, and our lives are all the richer for it.

Author: John McWhorter

Amazon | Goodreads

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Rating: 4.5/5

"Like is a word, and so we'd expect it to develop new meanings: the only question, as always, is which one? So is it that young people are strangely overusing the like from the dictionary, or might it be that like has birthed a child with a different function altogether? When one alternative involves saddling entire generations of people, of an awesome array of circumstances across a vast nation, with a mysteriously potent inferiority complex, the other possibility beckons as a worthy engagement."

Oh. my goodness. If you love words and language, you have to read this book (literally). Actually, I recommend that you listen to it as an audiobook, as I did. McWhorter is delightful and witty and very funny. Plus, a lot of his points depend on the pronunciation of words and inflection, so I think you'll get a lot more out of it that way.

I have always been passively fascinated by the way we use language, both written and oral. I think emojis are such a cool modicum of communication that goes so much farther than simple pictures. The way you can tell someone is angry if they end a text message with a period? So fascinating to me. And this book was about those things exactly, and more. All of it is interspersed with tangible examples from multiple languages and periods of history.

"In terms of how words actually exist in time and space, to think of a word's 'genuine' meaning as the one you find upon looking it up is like designating a middle-aged person's high school graduation snapshot as 'what they really look like.' There's a charming whimsy in it, but still. A person receiving such a compliment often says, 'Oh, please!'—and words, if they could talk, surely would as well."

I learned so many interesting things. For example, did you know that the word overwhelm is as redundant as irregardless? It's true. (Although as I type this, Grammarly's spellcheck disagrees, as do you probably.) Apparently, whelm used to be a word on its own that actually means what we mean today by overwhelm. But people really wanted to emphasize it, so they added over, and it stuck. That's exactly what's happening with irregardless. And literally. Also, did you ever notice how somehow everyone knows nowadays that one exclamation point is simply the polite way to react ("See you there!"), but to express true enthusiasm, the norm is three exclamation points?

Okay, I don't want to give all these things away, but they are so cool. I'm clearly still very excited about it all. Do yourself a favor and listen to this audiobook!

Text Me When You Get Home

A personal and sociological examination—and ultimately a celebration—of the evolution of female friendship in pop culture and modern society.

"Text me when you get home." After joyful nights out together, female friends say this to one another as a way of cementing their love. It's about safety; but more than that, it's about solidarity.

From Broad City to Big Little Lies to what women say about their own best friends, the stories we're telling about female friendship have changed. What used to be written off as infighting between mean girls or disposable relationships that would be tossed as soon as a guy came along are no longer described like that. Now, we're lifting up our female friendships to the same level as our other important relationships, saying they matter just as much as the bonds we have with our romantic partners, children, parents, or siblings.

Journalist Kayleen Schaefer relays her journey of modern female friendship: from being a competitive teenager to trying to be one of the guys in the workplace to ultimately awakening to the power of female friendship and the soulmates, girl squads, and chosen families that come with it.

Schaefer has put together a completely new sociological perspective on the way we see our friends today, one that includes interviews with dozens of other women across the country: historians, creators of the most iconic films and television shows about female friendship (and Galentine's Day!), celebrities, authors, and other experts. The end result is a validation of female friendship that's never existed before.

Author: Kayleen Schaefer

Amazon | Goodreads

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Rating: 4/5

Thanks to the Girls Night In NYC book club for my copy!

"'I love you,' one of us will say. 'Text me when you get home,' the other will say. We're saying the same thing."

This was a great book! Schaefer is compelling, entertaining, and moving. I've read a lot of nonfiction books, and they can often move slowly, even if they are saying important things. Not so with Text Me When You Get Home; I zipped through this one in just two days and truly enjoyed every second of it.

Text Me When You Get Home is a partially autobiographical look at the depth, nature, and importance of female friendship. She covers history, childhood and adolescence, the intersection of romantic relationships, changing attitudes, portrayal in the media and film/television, and more.

"We won't accept that we're mean girls or that our friends should be also-rans compared to our romantic partners or children or anyone else tied to us with an official title. It isn't true. Our friendships—the ones we're living every day—can stand on their own. They are supportive, enthralling, entirely wonderful, and, often, all we need."

Schaefer tells us about her early experiences—or lack thereof—with true female friendship, how she had never considered them to be as important as romance, family, what have you. How she had tried her best to actually not be friends with women during her early adulthood. But today her strongest relationships are with her female friends, and she feels more fulfilled and content than she ever did before.

I have far more long-term male friends than female friends; this is just how high school shook out for me, and those relationships have lasted. But reading this book helped open my eyes to things that are both missing from my day-to-day and present but underappreciated. It made me want to text every one of my female friends to check in and tell them they are loved, or even to ask them if they wanted to spend time together sometime soon. It made me feel like there's a part of my life that could use some loving attention, and I'm excited to provide it.

“The women I love are like a life raft I didn’t know I was looking for before I got on it. But my friendships are not just about being nice. My people push me to do better. They listen, but not in a quiet, passive way. They’re always on point for correcting me when I put myself down or fall into the trap of thinking things are my fault when they aren’t. My friends are brilliant, funny, fearless, wise, and generous.”