By Howard Tomb

This travellers’ phrasebook maybe tiny but it packs a battalion of verbal arsenal. Whatever the situation entails, whether it is to pay compliments or refute an abusive salesperson or taxi driver, you can definitely find that killer one-liner here. But of course, the languages covered are limited to French, Italian, German, Japanese and Spanish only.

Overall, this is a fiendishly irreverent phrasebook meant just for fun. It is an especially good read when one is initially unsettled and overwhelmed by the strange sights, sounds and smells in a foreign land and it seems as though you cannot get things going your way. Reading this book with its humorous look at cultural differences will inevitably lift up one’s spirit.