"The Secret Life of Words: How English Became English," by Henry Hitchings, will appeal not only  to crossword-puzzle freaks, lexicographers, linguists, historians, and English teachers but to anyone who is the least bit interested in how this mighty, worldwide language got so mighty and worldwide. 

For anyone visiting this site, bear with us, as we work on starting up Titlepage again soon--and for a

long time.
 In the meantime, for "lite" your end-of-summer reading, I do not recommend HUMAN: THE SCIENCE BEHIND WHAT MAKES US UNIQUE, by the great neuroscientist Michael Gazzaniga.

But, for wonderfully smart, often funny and always illuminating reading for any season, I recommend it highly. This book combines succinct views of how we became the amazing animals that we are, the biological bases of morality, and some astonishing futurology, including a discussion about tinkering with our own DNA to make changes in our personalities.

It was easy to tell from performance artist Miranda July's first feature-length film, Me and You and Everyone We Know that July is a rare bird -- a storyteller who follows little but her own quirkiness as a guide yet impresses more than she annoys.

Her debut collection of fiction, No One Belongs Here More Than You , continues that tightwire act. You'd have every right to roll your eyes at a few of July's more contrived conceits, but you'll feel bewitched often enough to forgive. Playfulness can be precious in an adult, but a real sense of life's absurdity and sadness permeates her work. Though I haven't heard it, I'm betting the audio recording of the book, which July read herself, is a strong example of the form.

In Rivka Galchen's novel, Atmospheric Disturbances, Dr. Leo Liebenstein is a therapist who one day begins to think that his wife, Rema, is a subsitute for the real Rema he married. His derangement--or is he deranged?--leads him to consult a weather expert, a member of the Royal Academy of Meteorology, whose name, Tzvi Gal-Chen, just happens to bear a striking resemblance to the author's. Leo's quest to find out what has happened to his "real" wife transports him to Patagonia and places him in the middle of the mysterious and cosmic conflict between the Royal Academy and the 49 Quantum Fathers. No, the echo of Pynchon's Crying of Lot 49 is not accidental in this first novel that is part mystery, part psychiatric case study, part love story, part House of Mirrors.

Ed Park's debut novel, Personal Days, has received plenty of praise. Wired might have said it best: "Hysterical . . . Park's story is set in an absurd yet believable workplace where personnel, shutting down their computers for the weekend, earnestly consider the pop-up question, 'Are you sure you want to quit?'"