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katie_hill22's review
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
behinana's review
2.0
The most important thing you need to know is that the audiobook doesn't match the text.
So if you're looking for the audio+text combo for beginners, you're better off with the dozens of podcasts and youtube channels that offer that combo, a lot of them free.
Lucrezia - https://learnitalianwithlucrezia.blog/ (podcast w/ free transcript)
Barbara Bassi - Italian Stories In Italian (podcast w/ free transcript)
Stefano (youtube w/ italian subs)
Podcast Italiano / Davide (youtube w/ italian subs)
Now, if for some reason you want to settle for second-rate fiction without accompanying audio, here is the review:
The stories are a little strange, they end abruptly, and they always have some mystery that never really grabbed me, but that's better than them being completely boring. They don't feel very Italian (one is pretty much The Hobbit).
The highlighted vocabulary feels a tad random. I can't believe a polyglot actually picked those by hand.
This book is easier than "10 Exciting Short Stories to Easily Learn Italian" by Touri Language Learning, but it is not easier than those sources I mentioned at the beginning.
So if you're looking for the audio+text combo for beginners, you're better off with the dozens of podcasts and youtube channels that offer that combo, a lot of them free.
Lucrezia - https://learnitalianwithlucrezia.blog/ (podcast w/ free transcript)
Barbara Bassi - Italian Stories In Italian (podcast w/ free transcript)
Stefano (youtube w/ italian subs)
Podcast Italiano / Davide (youtube w/ italian subs)
Now, if for some reason you want to settle for second-rate fiction without accompanying audio, here is the review:
The stories are a little strange, they end abruptly, and they always have some mystery that never really grabbed me, but that's better than them being completely boring. They don't feel very Italian (one is pretty much The Hobbit).
The highlighted vocabulary feels a tad random. I can't believe a polyglot actually picked those by hand.
This book is easier than "10 Exciting Short Stories to Easily Learn Italian" by Touri Language Learning, but it is not easier than those sources I mentioned at the beginning.
stag1e's review
4.0
It is 4 stars because:
- The Q&A sections at the end of each chapter sometimes were next to each other which means that it had been really hard sometimes to avoid seeing the answers before looking through the questions. For example, this happened on the last chapter of the whole book;
- Sometimes some phrases were bold but they had not been translated at the end of the chapter or wrong phrases had been translated;
- Sometimes some Italian language mistakes were made. For example, in one place it was written "riniti" (which does not even exist) instead of "riuniti" which means "reunited".
- The Q&A sections at the end of each chapter sometimes were next to each other which means that it had been really hard sometimes to avoid seeing the answers before looking through the questions. For example, this happened on the last chapter of the whole book;
- Sometimes some phrases were bold but they had not been translated at the end of the chapter or wrong phrases had been translated;
- Sometimes some Italian language mistakes were made. For example, in one place it was written "riniti" (which does not even exist) instead of "riuniti" which means "reunited".
nadine30's review against another edition
lighthearted
medium-paced
2.0
Unfortunately this book was littered with typos and the stories weren’t very interesting. The typos bothered me more than the dullness of the stories. I would’ve given this book a 3 for what it is but the typos made me knock a star.
The plus side is that a lot of the vocabulary in this book is very useful to know, and books like this are a good stepping stone before reading real literature in Italian.
The plus side is that a lot of the vocabulary in this book is very useful to know, and books like this are a good stepping stone before reading real literature in Italian.
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