I'm Not Hanging Noodles on Your Ears

Author: Jag Bhalla
Stars: 4
Review by: Mary NK
An entertaining collection of idioms from many non-English
languages. The title is Russian for "I'm not pulling your leg.".
Chapters on food, colors, body parts, animals and numbers reveal sayings
that make sense ("An octopus in a garage" is Spanish for "A fish out of
water") or often, lose a lot in the translation ("Put saliva on one's
eyebrows" = a fake, in Japanese). A lesson we see frequently in this
little book is that idioms don't work in other languages. for example,
"wool gathering" in Hindi is to be at wit's end, NOT, as in English
"absentmindedly thinking". And an Italian who "has liver" is brave;
while a Frenchman with livers has cold feet.