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Rating: 
Summary: What is this book for?
Review: If this book is for a beginner, then it should give better basic information on the language. Everything is oversimplified, and much is misleading. Some statements are positively wrong, like saying that the gender of words for people and animals is determined by the sex. Not always, eg, 'pessoa', 'crocodilo', and many other examples. A beginner also does not need to learn things like the archaic form for the second person, used in church services. Equally not for the beginner are the complicated tenses that usually you can find in more advanced grammars, like 'we would not have visited the castle' (nao teriamos visitado o castelo) or I would have been speaking (eu teria estado a falar / falando). If this is for someone who already knows the basics and wants to brush up his or her Portuguese (my case), then the reader spots the flaws. Flaws are not just oversimplifications and misleading statements; there are also true mistakes. In particular need of revision are the sections on the personal infinitive, the passice voice, and radical changing verbs etc.
Rating: 
Summary: very adequate
Review: My jaw dropped at reading the horrible reviews of this book so I followed the advice and bought Prista's, expecting to see some magic and here's what I found. Prista's book, though ok, is NOWHERE near as thorough as this one. This small book, by Sue Tyson-Ward, covers just about every section of portuguese you will need to be a fully functional speaker and I credit what I've learned to this book. I speak Portuguese with native speakers who correct me when necessary and I can say that they don't do that so often. I see Prista's book as something for someone who is in a massive rush and who will not grasp the necessary intricacies of the language because the explanations are chopped short for the sake of saying SEE, WE TOLD YOU IT WOULD BE SHORT! I confidently recommend the book on this page for those who need thorough explanations backed with examples. Prista's book has some pros - for example clever ways to remember Port words by learning english suffix equivalencies, etc., but at the end of the day you will walk away from the Tyson-Ward book with the capability to to read and speak Portuguese on a high conversational and literary level.
Rating:
Summary: Self-promoting and flawed
Review: When i bought this book i looked up the word 'pessoa'. This means person and plural 'pessoas' means people. Grammatically this word is always feminine but applies to both male and female. This does not fit in with what this grammar teaches. I sought help. Then i was shown several faults in this book. The worst apears to be the verbs. I bought this book because i believed what it says, that it is a practical guide to the mastery of Portuguese. I fell for it and am quite annoyed with myself for being so gullible. Perhaps some good will come out of this bad experience. If this review stops other learners from making the same mistake, then it wasn't a cmplete waste of time and money.
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