The Chinese Language: Its History and Current Usage by Daniel KaneMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Many interesting tidbits, although I feel like I found this at the right time. A few years ago most of it would've been over my head, and yet I read it early enough that most of it was new to me.
The points on pronunciation and grammar were especially useful, since they addressed points and details that were never covered in my classes (like why 沒 has that darn water radical).
And apparently our words for "tea" and "ketchup" both came from Hokkien. And 葡萄 came from Greek. huh. The section on ancient pronunciation was fascinating as well.
My new favorite expressions:
畫蛇添足
井底之蛙
and definitely:
天不怕，地不怕，只怕洋鬼子說中國話
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