Prego! An Invitation to Italian (Student Edition)

Rating:
Summary: Invaluable resource
Review: I read this entire book across two college semesters before moving to Italy. After having spent $500 or so on Italian language books, this is one of the few that was worth the money. Even though I speak fluently, I still refer to this book frequently to resolve difficult tense questions or clarify grammar details. I highly recommend this book to any serious student.

Rating:
Summary: Wait for the next edition, or stick to the 4th!!
Review: I took 3 semesters of Italian, with each semester covering 1/3 of the book, so I completed the entire book. This book is good if you follow it in a traditional classroom setting, especially since the proffessor pointed out all the mistakes in this book, which unfortunately, are quite numerous for a textbook. I have also checked out the 4th edition, which is much better than this one as it is better structured and contains useful charts,(which are now omitted) and is thoroughly proofread. The 6th edition just came out, so hopefully it is an improvement from the 5th.

Rating:
Summary: Not awful, but not perfect either
Review: This is an alright text book. It does what it's meant to do. A person can learn Italian from this book as long as they are also in a class as well, but it definately has some flaws. One -it needs more examples of some of the more difficult grammar points. Two - the order is strange. Why did you start with avere? Somehow essere seems like a better place to start. And the chapter themes! They pretend that they have chapters arranged by topic, but it seems very haphazard to me. Also, several major grammatical topics are missing from this book, and as a result, many of my teachers have had to give us multiple hand outs to compensate. It's ok - but it could be a lot better.