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This is an interesting one. In the second book of his trilogy, Fermor continues to move from castle to castle, each time being hosted by an acquaintance of his previous host, who has sent word ahead. There is some bittersweet romance this time.

"Between the Woods and the Water" is often held up as the best travel book of all time. I don't know. At times it seems more of a history book than a travelogue. There are just a handful of memorable incidents in the narrative and the rest is a series of history lessons about the regions Fermor passes through.

The lessons are wonderful, though. They focus on cultural outposts that no longer really exist (see also the tragic epilogue) and that really highlights how fortunate Fermor was to be 18 at this exact moment. Had he been forced to wait a four or five more years there would have been (even more) Nazis in his path. And five years after that, nothing.

A modern traveler reproduced Fermor's route around the time of Fermor's death in 2011. I haven't read it, but I understand it involved a lot of industrial parks and suburbs. Read Fermor to learn how Europe once was.

There's an interesting take on modern economics in here. Young Lundy goes through the magic portal and arrives in the "Goblin Market" and the next decade of her life is consumed by the peculiar economic system they've got in the market.

Mild spoilers follow.

Everything one receives in the market comes at a cost. This includes finding a place to sleep for the night, having a glass of water, a bit of food, or just enjoying a warm bath. The cost is always referred to as "fair value" but that's on a sliding scale depending on how desperate you are. For the characters in the story this usually ends up being taken on as debt, and people in the Goblin Market who don't pay their debts your are magically disfigured, part by part, into a freakish bird thing. At first, our protagonist wonders how people let this disfigurement happen to them when it is so easy to just work a little bit and avoid debt-disfigurement. If only it was that easy. People living in a magical world don't want to just spend every day doing other people's dirty laundry (as the characters here do for a time) they want to go out and have adventures. There's your markets-are-terrible message.

Anyways, I do like that all of the action takes place off-page. That allows for a laser-sharp focus on the messages about work and debt and markets. It's a short novel, afterall.

Note that the book does start out a bit slow, as the author spends the first 20% of so talking in great detail about how different the protagonist is from all the other little children. That part was a bit on the nose.

This is a prequel to the other three books in the "Wayward Children" series. I guess you can read it first. Or not.

Quite a lot of good stuff here! The depiction of an alternate Cairo (in the 1910s) where Egypt has become a world power thanks to some magical forces being unleashed some decades previous is atmospheric as heck. We really get a sense of all the sounds, sights, smells and tastes of the place.

The goal here seems to be the depiction of what a decolonized Egypt would look like at this critical juncture, but the story used to set up that backdrop is enjoyable. Depicting a pair of bureaucrats trying to deal with a the titular haunting (on a budget!) it moves briskly enough and is funny at the right moments. The climax hits with some more-than-welcome action.

Yeah, it is "steampunk fantasy" but you'll still enjoy it even if you aren't really into that sort of thing. The steampunk stuff isn't terribly important to the story.

This is a sequel to 2016's "A Dead Djinn in Cairo," but since the plot at hand doesn't overlap I guess you can read them in any order. There appears to be a sequel called "A Master of Djinn," but I haven't read it.

I should begin by mentioning that while Barron’s forgot to mention the website where audio files for this book can be downloaded. That’s a pretty major problem, since they are not easy to find on Google or via the Barron’s website. If you are still looking for those, check this page.

Overall, I don’t recommend this edition of TOEFL Practice Exercises. That’s a shame because it looks like the book has been extensively revised since the previous edition. The questions here just aren’t accurate enough. There was a time when books with “good enough” TOEFL questions were acceptable, but now there is a wealth of research online about how questions are designed by ETS. Heck, just reading the Official Tests Collection books will give any author a good idea of how to design questions.

A few issues stand out:

1. Reading passages contain a ton of questions that require students to scour the whole passage to find the answer. On the actual test students are told which paragraph contains the answer to the question. The only exceptions are the summary and table questions at the end of the passage. Certain reading passages in the book might contain four or five questions where the paragraph isn’t indicated.

2. Many of the “campus announcement” speaking questions include only one speaker in the listening part. This is never done on the real test. Meanwhile, the reading parts don’t always give specific reasons for the stated changes. They are merely descriptive.

3. Most of the integrated writing questions lack the requisite number of paragraphs in the reading. Specifically, they lack separate introductory paragraphs. A few of them lack the right number of body paragraphs.

It is worth mentioning that this book has an absolute ton of good academic reading and listening practice. Just pages and pages of practice material that is both interesting and at the exact level that students need when preparing for the TOEFL. Not only that, but the inaccurate questions are still wonderful for skill-building. This means that it can still be a key part of a student’s preparation for the TOEFL… as long as they are reminded of how it differs from the actual test experience.

Originally appeared over on TOEFL Resources.

This book, along with Volume 1 of the same, contains the most accurate TOEFL practice tests available. The five tests here are more accurate than any other TOEFL practice tests you will find.

Of course, this book is very similar to the previous two editions. The tests all have the same questions as before, but they have been modified to match the changes to the test introduced in August of 2019 so there are fewer reading, listening and speaking questions. The good news is that the omitted questions include all of the non-standard reading question types found in earlier editions.

This volume (unlike volume 1) contains sample speaking and writing answers provided by actual students. That could make it slightly more helpful.

It should be mentioned that the digital content is no longer provided on a DVD. Instead, students must use a code to access the files on McGraw-Hill’s website. I like that the content can be accessed online, but sadly the code can only be used two times. Make sure to back up those files and be careful about buying a second-hand copy.

This book, (along with Volume 2 of the same) contains the most accurate TOEFL practice tests available. There are five in this volume. The accuracy of these practice tests is what makes them so valuable – most third party books and websites have terrible sample questions. Some major publishers publish tests that are mind-bogglingly terrible.

I should mention at this point the book is very similar to the previous editions. One reading passage has been changed, but otherwise the tests have the same questions. They are, of course, modified to match the changes to the test introduced in 2019 so there are fewer reading, listening and speaking questions. The good news is that the omitted questions include all of the non-standard reading question types that plagued earlier editions.

The only major difference between Volume 1 and Volume 2 (other than the contents of the tests of course) are in how the answers are presented. This book merely talks about what an answer should contain, while in Volume 2 actual sample answers are provided. Both methods are helpful. The explanations function sort of like a template, laying out exactly what information should be included and not included. The samples, of course, are more tangible. I do wish that each book included both. Oh well.

The digital content is no longer provided on a DVD. Instead, students must use a code to access the files on McGraw-Hill’s website. I like that the content can be accessed online, but sadly the code can only be used two times. Make sure to back up those files!

The Official Guide to the TOEFL Test is a book that everyone preparing for the TOEFL should read. I recommend every edition, and the new sixth edition is no exception.

First, though, a few words about changes this year. This edition has, more or less, the same content as the fifth edition. However, it has been modified to match the modifications to the test introduced in August of 2019. This means that the reading, listening and speaking practice tests are all a bit shorter. The chapters that describe these sections have been updated accordingly. The only new questions are the speaking questions in practice test one. Everything else is the same as before. A few of the small inaccuracies scattered throughout the the previous edition have been revised, but some of the big errors (particularly in the writing section, as will be described in a moment) remain. Digital content must now be downloaded via an access code provided in the book. I’m glad that a DVD is no longer used, but it is shameful that McGraw-Hill only allows the access code to be used twice, even if the 600 MB download fails mid-download. If your download fails twice you are screwed. Good luck finding a customer support number for the publisher. It ain’t easy.

Anyways, the content here is mostly strong. The book doesn’t really focus on strategies but instead aims to accurately describe how the test is constructed, and what the questions look like. Descriptions of all of the question types are given, along with multiple sample questions of each. This comes in especially handy when students are studying for the reading and listening sections. Overall, this makes the book a really valuable resource, since most third party books provide misleading sample questions and inaccurate descriptions of test items. I find that if students actually understand the patterns of the test and how it is created they are able to improve their performance and study properly. If you want to know exactly what the test looks like, this is the book for you!

In this regard, the reading, listening and speaking chapters are great. The writing chapter falls short, though. Inexplicably, the authors provide a grossly inaccurate sample integrated writing question, with a reading consisting of only two paragraphs in total. The matching lecture is similarly inaccurate. What’s worse is that the integrated writing question in the first sample test is similarly flawed. These two flaws have been part of the book since the first edition was published 15 years ago, and it pains me to see them reprinted in edition after edition after edition. Likewise, the big list of sample independent questions included on pages 210 to 213 contains a bunch of prompt styles no longer used on the test. I’m pretty sure they are all leftovers from the CBT version of the test, as they have also been in the book since the first edition was published.

I will also point out that while the software used for the sample tests is functional, it is quite dated and clunky, which makes it a poor simulation of the real test. It is about time for Mcgraw-Hill to replace that with something more elegant, similar to what Barron’s is now using for their line of TOEFL prep books.

Originally published on TOEFL Resources.