Books
Click on an entry for more details on the book.
Legends & Lattes
Author: Travis Baldree
Genre: Fantasy
Year published: 2022
Summary from Google books:
High fantasy, low stakes – with a double-shot of coffee.
After decades of adventuring, Viv the orc barbarian is finally hanging up her sword for good. Now she sets her sights on a new dream – for she plans to open the first coffee shop in the city of Thune. Even though no one there knows what coffee actually is.
If Viv wants to put the past behind her, she can’t go it alone. And help might arrive from unexpected quarters. Yet old rivals and new stand in the way of success. And Thune’s shady underbelly could make it all too easy for Viv to take up the blade once more.
But the true reward of the uncharted path is the travellers you meet along the way. Whether bound by ancient magic, delicious pastries or a freshly brewed cup, they may become something deeper than Viv ever could have imagined . . .
My thoughts:
It's a nice, though extremely fluffy read. I only read it cause my father likes to read all of the nebula nominees and we somehow ended up with to copies of this book. I will say that it leans more than I would of liked into the genre of "comfy fiction", which is a trend I'm not particularly fond of. It does manage to at least have pretty good stakes though.
Sociolinguistic Theory
Author: J.K. Chambers
Genre: Nonfiction
Year published: 1995
Summary from Google books:
Sociolinguistic Theory presents a critical synthesis of sociolinguistics, centering on the study of language variation and change. Since the inception of sociolinguistics more than three decades ago, the correlation of dependent linguistic variables with independent social variables has provided the theoretical core of the discipline.
My thoughts:
I thought this was a really interesting book, it's very dense, as can be expected from an academic textbook, but it's interesting. I disagreed with some of the conclusions the author came to in the section on language variations between the sexes, but that is to be expected.
Beginning Linguistics
Author: Laurie Bauer
Genre: Nonfiction
Year published: 2012
Summary from Google books:
In this core textbook, Laurie Bauer's engaging style brings linguistics to life and introduces readers to the fundamentals of the subject. Each essential area of linguistics is dealt with in turn, thereby providing readers with a clear and comprehensive overview of all the core topics, including semantics, syntax, phonology and pragmatics.
My thoughts:
Pretty comprehensive introduction to the various fields of linguistics. I thought it was presented in an engaging manner and managed to keep the text from being too dry. Definitely will be rereading when I have the energy. Would recommend as an introduction to the field, proobably get the revised version from 2017 if you are interested though.