It was less funny and clever than I expected and I was surprised that the plot sucked as much as it did (Borat was much better in my opinion in all these areas). It’s a bit disappointing but oh well.

The other reviewer said it pretty well. For me though, it dragged on a bit in the middle… 3.5 stars… I really don’t know if I want to read the next book which takes place in the same place with the same family.

in moderation

It’s nice that there actually is an affordable and effective book for a beginner to learn quite a bit of Brazilian Portuguese. I thought this book was really well organized and a solid introduction to the language. There are exercises throughout the book as well to practice what you learned. There is also an audio CD which is helpful (A native Brazilian speaker repeats words and phrases which are also written in the book). The chapters are:

1)Introducing the Portuguese Language (Why learn it, similarities to Spanish, European Portuguese vs. Brazilian Portuguese, tips on learning Portuguese, recognizing what you already know)
2)The Sounds of Portuguese (Portuguese alphabet, accent marks, listening practice, consonants, stress pattern in Portuguese, oral and nasal vowels, typing in Portuguese)
3)Beginning Conversation (Greetings, talking on the phone, saying goodbye, etc)
4)Nouns, Articles, and Contractions
5)Introducing “ser” (the verb “to be”)
6)Introducing “estar” (the other verb meaning “to be”)
7)Describing People and Things in Portuguese
8)The Vocabulary of Numbers
9)First Conjugation Verbs
10)Second Conjugation Verbs
11)Important Verbs to Know
12)Verb Tenses: an Overview
13)More Verbs
14)Negative Words and Constructions
15)Questions and Exclamations
16)The Future and Other Tenses
17)Imperative and Subjunctive Constructions
18)Carnaval, Samba, Feijoada, and Futebol (Brazilian culture!)
19)Means of Communication (In person, by mail, making phone calls)
20)Traveling to Samba-Land (getting papers in order, hotel reservations, currency, a bit of information about the most popular cities…)

I was mostly looking to learn the language, not the culture, and this book is indeed mostly teaching the language. I liked the bits of information about the culture though in this book and found it interesting.

I definitely recommend this for a start to anyone serious about learning the language. I went through this while going through Pimsleur lessons for Portuguese and found it to be a great supplement to my learning (In my opinion, Pimsleur goes at quite a slow pace and this book helped me learn more about grammar in a shorter amount of time, as well as expressions, etc, without going at too fast a pace). I recommend it to travelers only if they want to spend some extra time learning a bit more than they absolutely “need”.

There are certain words you just do not typically learn as a beginner in Spanish. Once you do have that “basic” foundation though, this book can help you expand your knowledge and be able to have more confidence talking and reading about 30 different topics. This book is full of exercises as well which is great because you can practice what you learn. I was not very sure how helpful this book would be as I had already studied Spanish (well, it was on and off) for a year and 10 months, and the topics seemed like they would be easy to talk about, like things around the home, in the restaurant, crime, sports, travel, etc, but after going through the book I realized how much I actually didn’t know and how much the book helped me. There are few things that I did not find helpful (but the only chapter I felt I was wasting my time doing was the last one about politics and government because 1)It was mostly about stuff in the United States, and 2)I am not very interested in the subject matter and cannot see myself having conversations about it. Answers are in the back which is nice and the book is very affordable. There were few errors (a few times they forgot to include answers to a couple of questions in the back or they accidentally gave the answers of question #10 as the answers of question #8 and vice versa.) Few typing errors. None of this really matters that much, as it doesn’t really interfere with learning. They are just little things that I notice.

Anyway, I think for anyone (at the high-beginner to high-intermediate level) learning Spanish would find this book definitely worth their money and time. (bought from amazon.ca because of good reviews as I usually do)

Useful book. I find it as useful as “501 Spanish Verbs”. Each of these books has something the other does not. 501 Spanish Verbs has many practice exercises at the end of the book, and there are different types of exercises, including fill-in-the-blank, multiple choice, and crosswords. My version does not come with an audio CD, but I think there is a version that does, but I do not know what is on it. So 501 verbs offers clear explanations with examples at the beginning of the book, charts of conjugations in all tenses of several of the most popular verbs in the middle, and the exercises at the end with answer keys. 2000+ Essential Spanish Verbs offers the charts as well as exercises at the end, but the exercises are not varied. There are exercises such as reading “dialogue” and answering questions based on it, as well as translating sentences. Also, this book comes with an audio CD which has the program “[Spanish] Before You Know It”. There are flashcards of several of the most used words to help with your vocabulary. They are in several different sections such as, “Weather”, “Verbs”, “Foods”, among many others. A native speaker will say these words when you click on them, and you can add your own words on the lists (or make your own list) and there are exercises to help you remember the words. (Writing them when you see the English equivalent, writing the english word for the spanish word that is shown, you can see how many you get right) among others. (I actually have not used the program very recently, so I don’t remember all the details, but it is very useful!) It’s awesome that you can get the book AND CD for about $15.

definitely enjoyed it more than I thought I would

I’ve read Kite Runner before this and finished this book in 2 days. You just get so into the characters and feel for them: hate, disbelief, happiness, sadness, relief, because it all seems so well written, like it could be a true story. Also, through the story of two women you see what life in Afghanistan can be like, a hell for people who have seen so much death in war, which is sad because it once used to be a peaceful and beautiful place where people felt pretty safe. This story makes me feel lucky that I live in a place where I’ve never had to go through anything like this! The story is indeed bittersweet, and there are many surprises which make you keep turning the pages. I love the writing style, just as I did in the Kite Runner and I really want Khaled Hosseini to come out with something new!

So what I did was go into the movie theater expecting a GOOD movie, one that would keep me awake and not drag on. I love all kinds of movies, whether they’re romantic or horror or drama or whatever, and for this I just wanted to be entertained. It was just too slow and meh for me.

I’ve read the book called “A Curious Incident of a Dog in the Night Time” and both that book and this one are written by authors who know how to write from the point of view of a young boy, but the difference to me between the two books is that this one is just not as fast-paced, not quite as interesting because there isn’t quite as much going on and also the main character, Burt, does not seem quite as complete (like another reviewer said) as the boy in the other book. The subject matter is interesting though… I definitely don’t think it’s worth the hype on the back, but I also don’t think it’s a complete waste of time =)