Book excerpt: Les Bons Mots will help you add the piece de resistance to any conversation. Les Bons Mots is an eminently browsable reference that is designed to help English speakers use those witty and wise sayings for which the French are so justly famous. Eugene Ehrlich has created a reference work that defines French phrases and aphorisms both literally and colloquially; employs a unique and foolproof guide to their pronunciation; adds a brief and often amusing explanation that fixes each phrase in the reader's mind; and indexes everything so extensively that each idea is easy to find. An entertaining read as well as an impeccable reference guide by one of America's most cherished wordsmiths.