Rea's Handbook of Spanish Grammar, Style and Writing [Spanish]

Wow! This Spanish book is amazing. And it is responsible for drastically increasing my fluency and writing skills. I started reading it over the summer and finished about four months later. It is about 450 pages long and goes into great detail about every single grammar concept. Then, there are exercises at the end of each concept in order to practice what you learned. And as icing on the cake, there is a even a section on Spanish idioms so that you can speak and write more like a native speaker. It is a hefty book and definitely not for the faint of heart. But if you are really serious about improving your Spanish, you should try this book. My Spanish is not yet perfect, but I know that once I return from Spain in 2010 and read more widely in the language, I can finally achieve native-like fluency. Saludos, Veronica

Nicely organized and the big print is why it has 432 pages compared to competing books with less pages. Lots of examples that you won't find in most other grammar books, like contrasting llevar and hacer to tell the time. I would give it 5 stars but for the poor exercises. Most of them are fill-in the blank and multiple choice which is not good for independent study. Translations are what build language skills the most effectively.

Great review of grammar and writing supported by tons of examples