I bought this book last month and have been using it to prepare for conversation classes and with my own personal writing. If I had to describe it, I would say it’s a book of useful expressions and grammar structures for learners of all proficiency levels.
Expressions are listed alphabetically (kana order) and are easy to find, and there’s also an index at the back. Also at the back is a table of all of the expressions grouped by category, for example expressions used to make comparisons, polite expressions, time and more. I’ve found this incredibly useful as it gets me out of using the same structures and using others, plus each expression has the corresponding proficiency level (JLPT) against it, so it’s easy to search for ones you might already know, or challenge yourself to use a more complex structure. Each expression has example sentences too, which help to solidify the point in your mind.
It’s quite a chunky book so I tend to keep it on my desk for my more formal study sessions or if I want to look something up, and today I used it to look up some N2 expressions I learned in my lesson. I wouldn’t use it as a standalone grammar resource since it’s not structured in a way you want to learn grammar (it is a dictionary after all, and focuses on expressions – for a grammar dictionary, the grammar dictionaries are a better investment and contain a wider range of points, or there are plenty of resources out there online that you can use for free!), but as something to learn new expressions quickly and spice up your language it’s a nice addition to any Japanese learner’s library. I hope to continue using this book even when I get to N1 studies (got to aim high!).
I got mine from Amazon Japan here (no affiliate links) but you can also get it from JP Books (UK) here.
アマンダの勉強 / Amanda Learns! 