'The story of English in 100 words' by David Crystal

 The author has written many books about the English language. Some of them are about grammar. Grammar, in language, is what builds the meaning of what we say and write. But this book is about semantics. It is about words which are the pieces of the language.

One strong point of the book is its method. He digs into the story of selected words. Then, he tells us which is their story. He explains their pedigree. Who the dad and the mom of each word are. Another strong point is that the stages of the History of English are very well drawn. Each stage has representative words analysed by Crystal. However, something you may miss in this book is a complete index of cites. Crystal is a very cult writer. He makes a lot of references. One would like, once finished reading, come back and look for these references.
Reading this book has been very pleasant for me. It will appeal to people who like the history (story) of English, and philological curiosities.