Omicidio alla Moda (Italian Easy Reader) (Italian Edition)

I am a medium beginner with Italian, and I got a lot out of this book. I still had to look up quite a few words, but the book's grammar and vocab was at a manageable level. It is certainly not meant for a raw beginner, but if you have basic verb conjugations and if you have at least looked at some basic tenses and have been introduced to the propositions, you can figure out most of it from there. You may not get all of it, but the practice will help you improve.I find that reading newspapers and online journals is a bit too hard for me yet, but this was much more doable. The story was good, not fantastic, but for the length, it was well done. I liked the characters, and I felt I was learning some Italian everyday culture.One of the difficulties I have with Italian is the general lack of subject pronouns and keeping track of who the subject of the sentence is. By doing this reading, I have gotten better at paying attention to the conjugation of the verb to automatically identify the subject. This is a matter of practice and training, and I just need to do more of it. I suspect I should re-read the book because I found that as I got farther along, I was doing much better at reading and understanding.Another note: mid-way through the book I purchased a Kindle Italian dictionary which I then set as the default dictionary. This made looking up words much easier (although nothing will replace a good paper-based dictionary). It is called "An Electronic Italian Dictionary" for those that want to check it out.I'll be buying Cinzia's other Easy Reader book, "Un amore per la tua cucina." Cinzia -- write more of these, please!

This is a cute enough story for reading aloud to practice your Italian pronunciation or develop your general comprehension thanks to periodic translations of new phrases.I was looking for a way to practice reading out loud in Italian when I came across the Italian Easy Reader series. All in all, the story served its purpose. I got to work on my pronunciation, it kept a twelve year old Italian girl engaged as she helped me, and the other two Italian adults riding in the long car ride from Italy to France weren't bored by it.There were some typo's along the way so just be aware of that and don't use this book at the ultimate example of all Italian writing. (By the way, when I caught an error, I double checked with the adults in the car - both of whom are highly educated - just to be sure).Also, the ending felt rushed with one major loose end that left you feeling like the book was unfinished.Still, this is an Easy Reader book, not a classical fiction / murder mystery. So I give it four stars it in its category as an educational tool and not on its story line merits.

This writer is exactly what I need. For context, I have done all the levels of the Duolingo course over the past year and a half, practice for about an hour a day, and go to Italy for one or two weeks a year to practice in the country. I watch Italian movies and do pretty well at grasping the substance of conversations, ma la gente parla troppo velocemente per me. I have taken to reading her books and am finding them extremely useful. Her use of slang is pretty minimal, but very useful for someone at my level. The vocabulary is not challenging, and I find that comforting.

A really good story in relatively few pages. It is a great vocabulary builder and I liked the cultural/historical notes along the way. Basic comprehension quizzes reinforced reading. Pretty good stuff!

I wish I had a dozen books like this!It was perfect for an intermediate level- a good mix of verbs and verb tenses, use of pronouns, etc. Handy cultural info included and enough vocabulary to let you learn a bit without making it tedious. The story is cute and keeps you interested (which also stops the urge to constantly grab a dictionary for words you don't know).It's not long, but it's an excellent value for the price.Only one complaint- towards the end in a pivotal scene for the plot I am quite certain the author used the wrong name a couple of times in a dialogue. I read over it a few times and it just couldn't make any sense unless the names were backwards. I understand that this comment might sound suspect, as I am the language learner here, but I wouldn't include it in my review if I wasn't certain.

4.5 stars. A good 'romanzo giallo' for intermediate Italian students. Minus .5 star because of a few inconsistencies in names of characters used in dialogs but the storytelling via dialog is quite good (that is exactly the style used by Jane Austen). The sequel to this book is "Omicidio in passerella" which I'm reading now. So far it is also a fun read. I hope the author continues to add more 'who-done-it' stories to her Easy Reader Italian collection.

What I liked most was that the reader provided lots of contexts for Italian phrases that an American might want to know and use, especially young people talking among themselves. When I visited Italy I heard some of these phrases on the street or in restaurants, and I could understand them. Gives you enough Italian so that you can get the flow and cadence of the language without being too difficult to read. The story is sufficiently compelling to keep you interested, and there are sufficient characters to make this a real story, so it's fun to read. I give it 5 stars because it does what it says--it's a great introduction to Italian. It's not trying to be Shakespeare!

This is the first full book I managed to read in Italian. Really satisfying and I really enjoyed it, it was perfect for my level and the story is captivating. Very well written! I hope this author writes some more for us. Please! There are a few typos. Like on page 99 where Richetti should be Baruffi in a couple of places. Typos really confuse foreigners because we are sure we are just not understanding. So I would suggest writers for us to be really vigilant on the typos. But there are very few. My only other complaint is the book has no page numbers. I had to write them in by hand.

I really enjoyed this book; it was not 'too' easy. I'd say 'challenging but very enjoyable'. I suppose the definition of easy depends on where you are with your Italian studies. I'm probably at an intermediate level and wanted something that wasn't babyish but wasn't too difficult. This has an adult plot and some of the phrases that are likely to be difficult to translate are translated for you. A great idea; you learn a new phrase and maintain the flow of the story. And let's face it; if you don't like it it won't exactly leave you penniless. I'm now looking for a follow up!

I had a slightly older edition while the students I've been reading it with have the current one. The two editions are quite similar but the newer has added the page numbers (missing in mine!!) and questions at the end of some chapters, a good way to make a summary of what it's happening. There are also a few short English readings for general interest.The characters are quite interesting, it is easy enough to be read by students (with some good knowledge of Italian) on their own, just a dictionary on the side is useful for the less common phrases or words, some of which are translated on top of the Italian.However, these are NOT always properly translated!!NOT ONLY, but the errors in this book!! In both editions a few times the wrong names were used!!! I wonder about everybody else here who positively reviewed this book... whether they noticed this (?).Also, with regards to the questions I mentioned at the end of some chapters ... several are really silly and banal, the word 'patronising' comes to mind... just to fill pages of the book. This is on top of the somehow excessive line-spacing (making the book appearing longer than what it is).POSSIBLY A SPOILERTHE WORST PART is the ending, undefined, there is not an ending because there is not material given even to think about and imagine a possible ending. It felt like the writer could not be bothered any longer!We thought it was a big hit and miss. I wont buy any more or suggest anybody to buy this or any other book from the same writer.

Once we have passed the basics of Italian, it's good to find a book that is easy to read, plausible in its plot and thoroughly enjoyable. Because it is designed as an easy reader, it's no good expecting great depth to the characters but each one is sufficiently outlined to give an added reality. The story is set in the Haute Couture district of Milan where a murder takes place in one of the leading fashion houses. There are not too many demands from the language at this level and the use of the Present Tense is more frequent than might be expected at this level. It's also worth having an Italian-English dictionary on your Kindle for the occasional unusual word or phrase. However, quite unusual words are translated in superscript next to the Italian. And, as you can imagine, there is a lot of dialogue in the book which uses colloquial expressions which are easily understood and well-worth remembering for the future in studying current Italian.

A nice simplified book - a bit of a slushy story but excellent for someone starting out in Italian. On occasion the more exotic tenses appear and the vocabulary hints aren't exactly voluminous but it should be accessible to a student at A1 level with a little work, a dictionary and a conjugation of essere (can be found on the web) because the present subjunctive crops up. It's worth having for the idiomatic dialogue.I'd have given it 4 stars because of the stingey vocabulary (the publisher (Amazon) could have explained that subjunctive moment !) but finally decided 5 because it's supplemented with a few cultural "boxes", explaining various cultural points.

A useful text for those who want to practice their Italian at about PLIDA B1 level, that is to say after say three to four years of night classes. The story 'un giallo' concerns a murder in a major Milan fashion house and manages to maintain one's interest even though the language is straight forward. The authoress, Cinzia Medaglia seems to have the knack of writing simply but effectively. As with her other books there are pockets of information about Milan and its culture, and some of the more difficult phrases are translated into English.