The Basics of General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry
Assuming this book is for an entry level class of students preparing to take a human anatomy and physiology course, it is very thorough in the area of chemistry and acceptably thorough in cell biology. There is a complete glossary at the end of each relevant chapter and a complete index at the end of the book.
The accuracy is excellent and up to date. I found no errors or bias.
This book would be very useful for an instructor who wishes to introduce students to the basics of chemistry and cell biology in preparation for enrolling in a more advanced human physiology course. The topics are general enough that they are not likely to become out of date. The inclusion of historical information and descriptions of professional fields related to the topics adds to the relevance.
The logical sequence of information in this book keeps it clear for the reader. The availability of the glossary at the end of each chapter also keeps the terminology accessible and understandable.
The consistency for the most part is very good. There is a break in how chapter questions are organized between the sections on chemistry in contrast to those about biology.
Two large chapters with many subheadings are chapter 3 (general and organic chemistry combined) and chapter 7 (combining nutrition, digestion, energy, reaction rates, photosynthesis and enzymes). Within the subtopics some instructors will probably want to eliminate some details (i.e. calculating pOH, discussion of s,p,d,f orbitals or free energy).
This is a very well organized book and the topics are well connected.
This book is free of any poorly constructed images. The color and detail is excellent. The copy I examined did have a structural problem at the end of chapter 7 where the summary and review questions were repeated.
No errors found
Contributions by more women and minorities could add to the historical notes in this text.
It is always tempting to want to add more to texts we use in our classes. In this case I would have liked to see more details about cellular structure (ER and Golgi Apparatus). I would also add a section to Unit 3 on patterns of human genetics/inheritance.