A good and exhaustive book for English grammar [closed]

Before marking this post duplicate or voting to get it closed (the reason for which I simply don't get just because it is a grammar forum after all! If I am seeking recommendation for a book that means I will be coming back someday to the same site for my doubts also provided I get a not so harsh reply!), please read this and help this MBA aspirant.

A little about myself and my research so far. I am a very critical reader of English Grammar and the kind of person who aims at perfection. Currently, I am keen on taking on English grammar again after a certain gap. Well, I am aiming for MBA, so preparing for entrance exams for the same. I bought the religiously followed Wren and Martin and started studying it chapter by chapter. I was surprised when I read the pronouns chapter. I studied all the rules given and then started practising but it came as surprise when I found when many of the attempted questions were wrong. The reason simply being the rules for those specific sentences were not given.

For example:

We scored as many goals as they/them?

According to me, the answer should be they, but it's them according to the solution manual. Worse still, the solution manual offers no explanation for this.

So after a chat with my teachers I was suggested to follow the blogs of grammarians and look for any rules for the sentences that have contradictory answers!

I did so and was clarified by this post of pronouns, Rule 5.

Then I saw a book by the same author. I was momentarily happy. It was Momentarily because the reviews on Amazon were too bad about this book. After reading a couple of forums about the book I found a common statement saying that no grammar book is exhaustive.

So, it's okay for me to have more than one. And my simple question is what will be a good and almost exhaustive (if not fully exhaustive) book of English grammar to help get through the subtle usages of English in my management entrances which is crisp and to the point and yet covers all important rules and syntax, and most importantly having practice tests at the end with solutions and explanations?

Solution 1:

Get yourself a copy of The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. It's very expensive. It's very thick. It's also excellent. And if it's not exhaustive, then exhaustive has no meaning. It will be quick to point out that your "Rule 5 on this post of pronouns" is oversimplified to put it mildly, and stuff and nonsense to be frank, and it will tell you why.

If you can't afford CGEL to look up a particular intricacy of the language, you can always just ask about it here. That's what this site is all about, you know.