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Title: the best available college-level text
Review: This is far and away the most grammatically oriented of the current generation of Arabic language textbooks, which could be enough reason in itself for some people not to like it. It isn't as thorough or precise as the Big Orange Book (aka Elementary Modern Standard Arabic) but the vocabulary it introduces is more relevant and useful for everyday life and the explanations of how the language works are not difficult to understand and build upon each other in a very logical way. The lessons themselves, built around the theme of Arab students studying in the US (and vice-versa) aren't enthralling, but there is a lot of vocabulary that the learner could put to use right away. This book is certainly the best bet for making progress in Arabic in a reasonable amount of time and it beats its better-known rival (the Maha and Khalid chronicles) in every possible way.
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