Cómo vivir y trabajar en los Estados Unidos. (How To Live and Work in the United States)

Reviewed by Sarah Hoeffel, Selby Lib., Sarasota, FL -- Críticas, 5/1/2008

The most useful aspects of this book are the English-Spanish glossary and the summary of important themes at the end of each chapter. The first two chapters, residence and citizenship, make a logical beginning, but the progression of information does not follow suit, jumping from documents to the United States and later chapters on health followed by business and jobs. While it is convenient to find so much in one place, this seems like too much information for one book; and there are volumes of the same length dedicated solely to one of the many topics covered in this book, yet the subtitle claims this to be “a complete guide.” Further, it contains more than a few errors. It is not apparent whether they are typographical, if the book was originally written in English and the errors occurred in translation, or if the book was a collaborative effort with portions written by a non-native speaker. Another distraction is the constant reference to websites and toll free telephone numbers “for more information.” As the websites and in many cases telephone numbers are written and answered in English, they are not guaranteed to help the reader who is referencing this book in Spanish. It’s also possible that this book is referring someone who doesn’t know how to navigate the internet to particularly complicated websites. If your library happens to have the 2004 version of this book, which contains a directory not included in this version, don’t replace it with this one. Due to the errors in the text, and the fact that every other page refers the reader to the Internet or telephone, this book is not recommended.

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