Paul St. Pierre does for ranchers in British Columbia what James Herriott does for animals in Yorkshire. He has a knack for turning some of the most insignificant events of daily life into interesting stories. His characters start out as impulsive oddballs, but by the end of the story they become quite rational folks. This is one of those books that sneaks up on you. The first time I read it I thought it was entertaining, but nothing to visit again. But every once in a while one of the characters from the book pops into my mind and I dwell on the character and story for a few days. I usually re-read it every couple of years (I have a worn 1987 edition, now in retirement.)

I took an advanced Spanish class at the University level this semester. This was the book required for that class...The only good thing in this book was the vocabulary after each chapter. It lists different words and it's synonyms. But the grammatical lessons in this book were truly worthless. The exercises provided here were not too good. Even my professor said that they weren't good. Since there was a change in professor after the second week of school...she couldn't go back and ask us to buy new books when we had already bought this one. So she instead wrote up exercises on her own and we practiced this way. If it's required to have this book...I suggest to buy a spanish grammar review book to complement this book. Something like the ultimate Spanish Review for intermediate and advanced learners. Otherwise...I'd go for a better book.

I just found this book on my high school Spanish teacher's shelves. It really must be a classic as the reviews say because her copy is from 1968. The book is great if you want to reach native ability, especially in reading. After each selection, there are notes about specific words which often compare and contrast synonyms and give guidelines on useage which I really like.