Skip (David) Everling’s Reviews > The Adventure of English: The Biography of a Language > Status Update

Also a great history refresher, putting the evolution of the language to use in fleshing out the historical context

Great for picking out patterns in English word etymologies

Interesting tidbit: "The English labored, the French feasted" during the years of Norman occupation, thus farm animal names in English stayed English words, but the names for the processed meat equivalent are French derived (e.g. cow - beef; deer - venison; calf - veal; sheep - mutton; pig - pork).