During this pandemic-punctured holiday season, why not brighten the lives of your friends and family members with a lively new book — or even a game! — about language?

In "25 Great Sentences and How They Got That Way," Geraldine Woods shows how distinctive sentences by great writers exemplify useful writing techniques, e.g., contradiction: "It's heavy, this lightness" (Margaret Atwood); word coinages: "I trusted myself back into the store" (Maya Angelou). For each trick of the trade, Woods furnishes a raft of examples from other authors and even provides exercises to help aspiring writers crack the knack.

We're all hard-wired to judge other people by the language they use, says psychologist Katherine D. Kinzler in "How You Say It: Why You Talk the Way You Do — and What It Says About You." This can lead to verbal tribalism and linguistic discrimination, she explains, whether it's directed against Black English, regional accents or grammatical errors, and she shows us how to identify and overcome our linguistic bias.

During these times of social isolation, casual chitchat can suddenly become very important. In "Small Talk: How To Start a Conversation, Truly Connect with Others and Make a Killer First Impression," Diane Weston provides tips on how to make eye contact, show curiosity, detect nonverbal cues and find common interests.

One of those shared interests might be crossword puzzles. In "Thinking Inside the Box: Adventures with Crosswords and the Puzzling People Who Can't Live Without Them," Adrienne Raphel fills in every square of the crossword story, exploring the origin and history of these addictive brainteasers and describing their often-eccentric solvers and creators. Her account of one puzzle's construction from conception to rough draft to publication is especially fascinating.

While relaxing with your pandemic pod, try out the new word game Stet! A spinoff of the popular usage guide "Dreyer's English," it challenges players to examine sentences on cards and sniff out any errors of grammar or usage. (If there aren't any, players shout, "Stet!" — the proofreader's term for "let it stand.") A second set of cards asks players to spruce up bland, pedestrian sentences without changing their meanings.

Language, learning and laughing. Let it stand!

Rob Kyff, a teacher and writer in West Hartford, Connecticut, invites your language sightings. Send your reports of misuse and abuse, as well as examples of good writing, via email to WordGuy@aol.com or by regular mail to Rob Kyff, Creators Syndicate, 737 3rd Street, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254.

Photo credit: Free-Photos at Pixabay