This 300-page romp of a read reveals how much dirtier the plays sounded to the Bard's red-light-district audiences. It's a fun way to develop an appreciation for the rough edges of 16th-century daily life, and the line "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark" will never sound the same to you again.
Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, Sixth Edition
Oxford / $175
The new, two-volume, 3,745-page SOED is a work of heroic distillation. The complete OED currently stands at 20 volumes and doesn't include the 2,000-plus new words and phrases that this edition adds. Though many obsolete words have been culled, it remains the "most reliable and capacious" of all abridged dictionaries.
Divided by a Common Language
By Christopher Davies / Houghton Mifflin / $11
Christopher Davies' guide to the differences between British and American English is a "very fun" read for any language fan. This reprint will be especially cherished, though, by crossword puzzlers and British murder-mystery aficionados. For these readers, "there could hardly be a more useful book."
Sources: Publisher's Weekly, Oxford University Press, Bloomsbury
