This is a wonderful book. It is helpful to the novice breadmaker as well as giving experienced bakers new and useful tips. The recipes are wonderful and range from yeast breads including French, hearty whole grains, and fancy sweetbreads, to quick breads, to biscuits, bagels and muffins. A great book - I've given several as gifts!

Still in college but deciding dorm life and food wasn't for me, this cookbook was the first and only one I had in my first real apartment in my first real kitchen with my first real boyfriend. This book kept us in healthy meals and I'm pretty sure it helped keep us together (my boyfriend and I) since our main activity as a couple was to come home from school or work and have dinner. The proportions designed for two people made shopping and preparation a cinch for a beginner like me. There is also a great variety in styles and tastes throughout so it is useful when I want to get creative. Simple and economical dishes as well as imaginative and unusual cuisine. A great all around cookbook!

I was pleasantly surprised to see a Teach Yourself Tagalog book was finally offered to the public. Upon opening the book, however, it was clear that the book would not do its job. The authors, for one thing, neglected to write stress marking on the Tagalog words so whoever uses this book and tries to pronounce will end up sounding like a blundering idiot. They had a lot of Tagalog literature at their disposal to help them with their explanations that it appears they didn't use. Whoever buys this book will have to ask a native to write the stress marking on each word so they can really learn to speak the Tagalog language. What a shame they published it in its current state!

This book has a story which starts from their arrival at the airport. You will see dialogs of conversation. I am a local who is very familiar with Tagalog. I bought this for my European wife who wishes to learn. One thing we found is that the translations is around 98% correct. But the format is enough for one to learn the language. The approach is practical. We don't have the accompanying tape and I didn't know it had one as an option. So I would do the talking for my wife to get the proper pronunciation. I don't know how foreigners would read this book but I assume they are likely to get the wrong pronunciation without help. The phrases have no indication how you would pronouce them but I think it might be a distraction.

I found that the best way for a foreigner to learn is to be exposed to it by speaking it and being spoken to in Tagalog, or listening to an actual conversation. If this isn't available to you, then this book is close enough. I assume the tape would be a bonus if you can get it.

You can also join http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tagalog-e/ Here you can learn with others how to speak it or write it.

At last! A Tagalog course I can use! And tapes to go with it!

The Tagalog language has been long-neglected by publishers of language materials. This fine course helps make up for the deficiency. The lessons are very well-designed, the explanations of a grammar very different from our own are not difficult to follow, and there is a lot of interesting material about Filipino culture. Also, the tape I purchased with the book is excellent and an invaluable help in picking up the pronunciation.

Much has been made of the lack of accent marking in the text. I for one don't see why accents are not marked in the vocabulary lists for each lesson- that is the usual practice in texts on other languages with unpredictable accentuation- Russian, for instance- so that if the reader forgets the stress in the main body of the text, she can always refer back to the vocabulary. The book does have all entries in the back marked with accents, however it is a nuisance to have to consult the glossary to learn the stress of each new word, if you don't have the tape right at hand. That's a minor fault, however.

And I'm so happy to have a usable Tagalog course at last that I don't even mind.