I absolutely adore learning about why we say the things we do and where they came from. Gareth Carrol's book provided a quick read full of phrases both familiar and not. It was a light read, educational and entertaining. While it does have a British skew, anyone could find it quite informative. I learned a lot, I enjoyed myself and you would too!

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance read copy.

Loved reading about the origins of idioms I hear often. Would recommend this book for most anyone. Just know it is written by a brit, so if that style doesn't work for you, this may not either.

This book is sooooooo interesting and listed a lot of phrases that I use all the time, some without even realizing where they come from. I can’t wait to drop one of these facts into conversation and humble brag about all my knowledge!

I was excited to see this one pop up on my ARC list, and while the premise is right there on the cover, the origins of modern idioms was just a bit too, well, modern for me. There are a few throwbacks to the 70s and 80s, but for the most part, the idioms covered are within the last twenty years and unless you're on the much younger end of that span, you're well-aware of these origins. Outside of the UK-specific idioms, which I hadn't heard before, I didn't feel like I took much away from this book. Also, there was an uncomfortable and excessive amount of political-related examples, specifically around Trump and Boris Johnson. For those of us who would rather excise memories of these bloated, evil men, dredging up either of them as examples (and so often!) detracts from the book and really sets it at a particular place in time. For the Trump factor alone--and even though it's by no means pro-- I'd be dismissive of this book.

Gareth Carrol’s Jumping Sharks and Dropping Mics is an entertaining read. Carrol provides background information with several sources on modern usage. The book is well researched.

Brilliant! Fun and witty with all the background detail of where those idioms began. Lots of TV, film and modern culture references, really enjoyed dipping in and out of this. Especially enjoyed discussing parts of this with my son who has autism, he can sometimes take things literally and struggle to understand what people mean when they use certain phrases. Had some great chats about when we might apply some of these idioms and learned a lot! Ideal for those who love language, great to dip in and out of. We made a quick family quiz out of some of the facts, Great gift for the curious, really interesting and useful book, highly recommend!

An interesting background to modern British (mainly) idioms. It made me think about those idioms that I use and whether I could work out the origination of them. Some humerous explanations and something that could be dipped into for short bursts.

I don't know how much general appeal this book will have, but I enjoyed it.

So many of the idioms in here I was not aware of where they came from. I kept driving my family nuts saying "did you know where _________ originated?". I enjoy books like this with information that you can drop into conversations later.

What a great resource! This book explains idioms: their meaning, origin, and uses. The book features idioms from television, movies, the internet, sports, modern literature, and a miscellaneous section entitled, “The Best of the Rest.” For example, in the literature section, we learn about a “catch-22,” which comes from the novel of the same name by Joseph Heller (1961). Readers learn what the phrase means, a bit about the novel, and modern uses of the term, such as the “Brexit Catch-22.”

This book, as I mentioned, is a great resource for “word nerds” like me, teachers, language arts students, and writers. I highly recommend it!

This is an excellent book for use in classes with students particularly English Language lessons where you can learn where sayings are derived from. Plenty of good examples to keep students interested. Equally good conversation pieces for family get together.

If you have a curiosity about every day language, or have a love for wanting to know why we say what we say, then this book on modern idioms is the place to go.

I was concerned that this was a flash in the pan, a spring chicken of a book. I thought it might know be the right stuff. But as it turned out, the first thing I looked up, the jump the shark, which I knew the origin of, was correct. (I have seen it in other places be wrong.). It is from Happy Days, the TV show.

The book is an interesting mixture of Internet related, book related, TV related and movie related sayings. Written from a British perspective, there are a few I have never heard of, but most have become universal.

Very enjoyable to either read straight through, or to jump from expression to expression to see from whence it came.

<em>Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.</em>

A decidedly British take on idioms and sayings that we all use often, as well as quite a few interesting ones that you’ve probably never heard. This was a quick, enjoyable, educational, read that was quite interesting. If you’re a word nerd, I would definitely recommend this book. Thanks to NetGalley for the advance read copy.

When this book appeared in NetGalley, my interest was peaked as I'm often one to use phrases (which I later learned were called idioms) without knowing their origins.

This light-hearted read not only delves into the stories as to the roots of these strange lexicons we use but also gives you one or two that you might have never heard of.

At times I did feel as if the history was a bit too detailed (arguably 'overegged the pudding' - an idiom in itself) but an enjoyable read nonetheless.

A perfect gift for that annoying person in your life who wants to pause you mid-conversation to ask you "do you know why we say that?" or someone for whom English isn't their first language - just to prove their struggles in grasping why 'a spade is called a spade' isn't just theirs.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher Iff Books for an advance reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I’m very pleased to be the first person to rate and review this lovely guide to modern idioms. It’s absolutely worth checking out, especially if you love words and the way they come together to sometimes say something completely different than the sum of the individual components of the sentence would suggest.
This book was exactly the sort of engaging etymological guide to idiom that nay word nerd can…well, nerd out over. It’s light and fun and gallops through different modern mediums, from books to tv to sports to present the readers with origins for the popular (and some not so popular) sayings.
It is heavily skewed in British direction, but a good idiom is a good idiom, irrespective of its place of origin. I actually learned some of new ones, including the titular one, which sounds like some kind of a great surfing adventure but actually refers to the time when a quality of creative work drops down in and the creators behind it get desperate, this is most popularly used for tv shows, when their makers resort to drastic measures to revive public interest in them.
For that and more, check out this book. It’s etymology lite, informative and entertaining, without ever getting bogged down by pedantism or taking itself too seriously. It’s also charmingly slim, so it goes by like a proper quick fun without ever overstaying its welcome.
Things were learned. Fun was had. The amateur linguist in me was delighted. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.