Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog: The Quirky History and Lost Art of Diagramming Sentences by Kitty Burns Florey, 176 pages
In fifth grade, I learned how to diagram sentences and I fell in love. Combining two of my favorite things - reading and drawing - it made my schoolwork considerably less dull and helped me understand language in a way I hadn't before. Kitty Burns Florey had a similar experience, which she outlines in Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog.
Maybe it's the grammar pedant in me, but this book isn't a dry history of a grammatical fad. It's an engaging essay, an ode to a lost skill, waxing philosophical and poetical in turns. I really enjoyed it.
