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jenn

Murder by Death

I read cozy and historical mysteries, a bit of Paranormal/UF, and to mix it up, I read science and gardening books on occasion.

Speaking in Tongues: curious expressions from around the world

Speaking in Tongues - Ella Frances Sanders

From the same author as Lost in Translation and done in the same format, this is a lovely collection of idioms from around the world, each one illustrated, with an explanation of the idiom's meaning.  

 

Some translate pretty straight-forwardly, like the Portuguese To feed a donkey sponge cake, or my personal favourite (one I use but didn't know the origins of), the Polish not my circus, not my monkeys.  Some require a bit more explanation, like the Persian/Farsi I will eat your liver, which actually is used as a term of endearment and an expression of deep love.  

 

My only complaint is the same one I had with Lost in Translation: the lack of a phonetic guide to pronunciation.  It's less important here, as most of these are full phrases, but for languages that don't use the Roman alphabet, either a pronunciation or at least a transliteration would really round out the collection's usefulness.