here's a curated list that spans various aspects of linguistic theory, language learning, and the evolution of language

"The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language" by David Crystal

"Syntactic Structures" by Noam Chomsky

"The Language Instinct" by Steven Pinker

"Metaphors We Live By" by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson

"The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language" by John H. McWhorter

"Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler

"Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages" by Guy Deutscher

"Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal About the Mind" by George Lakoff

"Le Ton Beau De Marot: In Praise of the Music of Language" by Douglas Hofstadter