The Origin of Language is a very interesting book. The focus is much more on the evolutionary biology of human development than I had initially anticipated, but it does focus on the subtitle: How and Why We Learned to Speak. This is not a linguistics book at all. It's very much focused on genes and genetics (and debunking ideas about these topics and language), alongside human evolution.
The engagement with AI and Machine Learning in the latter part of the book is particularly interesting and permanent for languages. This was one of my favourite parts of the book because it looks at this topic in a nuanced and science focused way. The epilogue of the book was the highlight for me. The ideas set out and questions raised are important and interesting.