Michael Powell (3) (1966–)

Interesting, with several insights new to me. However, Powell seems to stretch a bit to include enough to fill the book. I know there are many more things that could be in this book, but Powell seems to be steering clear of anything controversial or to close to the heart.

This short book is devoted to the bit of travel advice that is often underdeveloped in other guides: the unspoken rules of different countries, the hidden culture. The book dedicates between two to four pages to fifty different countries, detailing in quick bits the cultural mores that attend such daily rituals as dining, meeting and greeting, gift giving, and so on. The text is accompanied by lovely full and half page photographs. We received this book as a gift for our China trip, but I show more had so much fun reading about the differences in other countries that I read the entire thing. Did you know that in some countries it's rude to back away from physical nearness, but in others it's rude to get too close? Or that in another country, nodding means no? That the okay sign is considered obscene in some locales? I was fascinated by how different and similar cultures can be. Some of the "rules" I already knew, but many of them caught me by complete surprise. I even read up on countries I already visited, like Germany and Switzerland, and was embarrassed to recognize some of the mistakes I made. Made me wish that I had read this book earlier! Of course, this is no in depth exploration of cultures, not with a maximum of four pages per country. If you are planning a long trip to another country, or want to learn more about the culture, this isn't the book for you. However, if you are planning a short vacation, this is a great book to check out for quick tips, besides being just fun to read and learn some of the quirks of a lot of different countries.
flag abuse show less

That it is no longer readily available and that no photos of the US cover appear on line demonstrates that I am not alone in finding this book less than adequate. Powell can't decide whether this is to be fact-based humor (e.g., humorous or bizarre true facts) or a parody of history (e.g., amusing lies). The result is an uneasy and not particularly entertaining mix of too little of each, made more distasteful by strained attempts at sexual jocularity that just make me wince with show more embarrassment for the author. In addition, some of the entries contain factual errors that appear to be--well, factual errors, not errors made deliberately for humorous effect. For example, he refers in separate entries to psychoactive mushrooms and cocaine respectively as "amphetamines"; amphetamine is a stimulant, but not all stimulants are amphetamines. Powell gets one thing right, though unwittingly: With only a few exceptions, this "world history" is a US/British/Western European history, just like a lot of "world" history texts. Hah. Good one. show less

This is a humorous collection of many strange historical facts which we were never taught in school. Frankly, many of the tidbits may be deemed a bit too colorful for young eyes. Sophomoric might be the better description. Definitely not to be utilized for historical reference purposes.