Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I used this book to go from virtually no knowledge of Spanish grammar, to pretty decent competence with everything it covers (all parts of speech up including the most common verb tenses). In my opinion, it's probably the best of it's class. There are hundreds of exercises, and if you do them all, you'll end up learning the subject. Much more than grammar is covered, though. It's great for giving an excellent basic vocabulary that covers many aspects of daily life. One particularly clever trick it uses to boost vocabulary is inconspicuously including many cognates unannounced among the Spanish vocabulary that is taught. The result is you find you can use and understand far more words than you were consciously learning. A surprisingly early chapter has you reading a rather detailed and convincing letter about a family trip to Mexico that touches on archeology, music, language, personal feelings, and more. The pace is very fast... If you're brand-new to Spanish, and you don't know how to count to ten, or that "perro" means dog, you might want something a tad more basic first. Also, it's dense. If you already know some Spanish words, all the exercises in each of the earlier chapters can be done in a single sitting, but by the middle of the book, plan on spending several days on each chapter... The exercises will stretch you and make you think and process what's been covered. Lastly, it's not a tourist' phrasebook. It's vocabulary goes quickly far beyond "tourist Spanish," and I recommend it highly for the traveller; but it doesn't replace a well-planned phrasebook oriented to tourist needs