What starts as an examination of the sun and its role, becomes an entertaining contemplation on our cosmic universe, earth, our bodies, science and a plethora of other things.

I listened to the (just under three hours)audio version of this short (under 200 pages) book, narrated by Imogen Church. She did a pretty good job conveying the winsome tone and lyrical style of the descriptions that came across with the illustrations and playful font of the hard copy of the book.

Fun and fascinating, this book might appeal to Bill Bryson fans, or those who enjoyed Lost Feast.

Semplicemente: perdersi nel potere delle parole. ♥

Simply: get lost in the power of words. ♥

From the Back:

From the New York Times bestselling author of Lost in Translation comes this charming illustrated collection of more than fifty expressions from around the globe that explore the nuances of language. From the hilarious and romantic to the philosophical and literal, the idioms, proverbs, and adages in The Illustrated Book of Sayings reveal the remarkable diversity, humor, and poignancy of the world’s languages and cultures.

My Thoughts:

I first want to say that this isn't at all what I expected. This is more of a "gift" book than the educational/fun fact type of book I thought it would be, but I did enjoy it. 

This is 110 pages long. Each entry is dedicated to a language and is followed by a full page illustrated representation of the chosen expression. The illustrations remind me of a child's book, but it fits. I do wish the illustration was before the explanation, I feel it would be smoother flowing that way because you don't know the expression of focus until you look at the image. 

What I found interesting is how these expressions came to be, and also how some of the English translations turn out.

About the Author:

Ella Frances Sanders is a writer out of necessity and an illustrator by accident. She currently lives and works in the city of Bath, UK, without a cat.

Her first book, Lost in Translation: An Illustrated Compendium of Untranslatable Words was was published in September 2014 and is an international and New York Times bestseller, and her second book The Illustrated Book of Sayings: Curious Expressions from Around the World, was published in September 2016.

Penguin Random House

I received a review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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.

The Illustrated Book of Sayings by Ella Frances Sanders is a collection of over 50 idioms from languages around the world. What I find most fascinating are the commonalities found. Translated literally, many of the expressions make no sense. However, almost all have counterparts in English and in other languages, illustrating the universality of emotions and thought. In other words, there is more that unites us than divides us. A wonderful book for adults and children.

Read my complete review at Memories From Books - The Illustrated Book of Sayings.

Reviewed for the Blogging for Books program