Linguaphile is an interesting deep dive on linguistics and language acquisition, part memoir, part monograph, written by Dr. Julie Sedivy. Released 15th Oct 2024 by Macmillan on their Farrar, Straus and Giroux imprint, it's 336 pages and is available in hardcover and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links.
The author has an exquisite command of the language and the prose is often poetic and moving. She has a lot to say about language, how we acquire it, how we use it, and how it can enrich us and our interactions with one another.
It's not academically rigorous, in fact, it's perfectly accessible for average readers. It is, however, well annotated throughout and the references the author uses are mostly from academia and will require more effort to access and interpret.
This is one for nonfiction readers, and is exceptionally well written, moving, and often profound.
Four and a half stars. It would make an excellent acquisition for public or post-secondary school library, for home use, or possibly for a book club study.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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