WalkerBooks.com

In Other Words
A Language Lover's Guide to the Most Intriguing Words Around the World
Christopher J. Moore

Reviews of In Other Words

about_in_other_words "The linguist Christopher Moore came out with a book last year, In Other Words, that offers a range of needed words from different languages. What do you call your peace offering - of flowers, candy, baseball tickets, whatever - to an angry spouse when you come staggering home hours late? Try the German Drachenfutter, "dragon fodder." The palliative bribe may not work, but the word fills the vocabugap."— William Safire, New York Times Sunday Magazine, 4/17/2005

"Elegant and compact . . . Almost every page offers a new lexicographic wonder, a carefully chosen word or phrase or cultural trap door to ponder. Subtitled, "A Language Lover's Guide to the Most Intriguing Words Around the World," this is a book to savor . . . The author has done his best work in his selections, some 250-odd entries from 55 countries that are the heart of this book. Moore does not get in their way attempting to be clever or learned. Indeed, one of the great pleasures of this book is its insistence on its limitations, its core conviction that much is untranslatable. This book will deepen a reader's respect for the vastness of human languages. The sheer pleasure here is augmented by the cunning illustrations in blue ink by Neil Packer. These keep the eye dancing. Readers drawn to Sophia Coppola's movie "Lost in Translation," will appreciate this book. Read it slowly. Try out the pronunciations. Let the strange sounds linger on your pallet. Your sensibility will thank you."— Karen R. Long, Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Charming...The perfect stocking stuffer."—Chicago Sun-Times