5 comments about Pushing Electrons: A Guide for Students of Organic Chemistry.

1. Having had Dr. Weeks as a professor in my college days, I could not reisist purchasing and reading this book. As an educator, Dr. Weeks was gifted in his ability to take difficult course material and convert it into material that was not only understandable, but enjoyable. He has accomplished this again with the third edition of his book. The mastery of electron movement in organic reactions makes the understanding of more complex aspects of organic chemistry more easily achieved. No organic chemistry student should be without this book.



2. This book starts out great, because it really makes it clear for us idiots the reason electrons are pushed. It is an engaging study tool that makes you want to open the book everyday. The problem with the book, I'm now learning, is that I now know how to push electrons, but I still don't know when to apply what rules. I thought that the book would have talked more about how to identify electrophiles, and nucleophiles (with regards to reagents). Instead the books jumps for being really easy to follow, to asking the reader to attempt really complex mechanisms. That's like asking a kid who just learned his ABC's to write a book. Very poor ending.

   However, for those of you who are clear on electrophiles and nucleophiles, this book would be perfect for you. I suspect that if you know those well, you might not need this book.




3. This book is not a substitution for organic chemistry by any means. It's mean (the first 2 chapters) to prepare, review, and reinforce concepts learned in Gen Chem but vital to organic.

   The last 3 chapters are not review. They require some understanding of organic first. They are meant to reinforce and review what you learn in class.

   So you can't just jump for chapter 1 and 2 directly into 3. One and two are meant for prior to organic. And 3 through 5 are to be used during the class.

   It's definately got me several steps up on my classmates so far.

   Ken




4. I'm taking Organic Chemistry this semester at a Big 12 university, and bought this book on recommendation from my professor. The simple truth is, past a certain point, you can no longer rely entirely upon memorizing reactions to do well in this subject -- you really have to understand the mechanisms. This book provides the basis for that, and is therefore very valuable. It's only downfall is that it's very expensive... If you're ok with parting with 50 dollars I'd recommend it.



5. The cost wasn't too bad, and the shipping was great. However, the book has writing all through... which for a workbook makes things slightly difficult. I remember the review saying there was a bit of writing, but it is all through the beginning of the book.

5 comments about Organic Chemistry (with Organic ChemistryNOW).

1. i am using this for my organic class currently. we don't use it often, it is more for using tables and the homework examples, but it really isn't that bad.
   granted i haven't looked at a lot of other organic textbooks, but, as far as texbooks go, it isn't bad.



2. My only real qualm with this book (other than the fact that I had to buy it for Organic Chemistry) was that sometimes the explanations were very simple to understand and helped what was said in class immensely, and sometimes they really didn't make any sense at all. Good enough book though.



3. You can learn o-chem from this book, especially if you have a good professor, but others are better. When I took the course, many of the students who did well were using Wade or McMurry as supplemental texts. I later tutored for a section which used the McMurray book and realized why - most of the mechanisms are explained better in those other books than they are in Brown, and some of the material, eg epoxide reactions, in Brown is so simplified that I realized when I was tutoring that I had learned it wrong the first time.
   
   The chapter organization of the book is nice, as is the artwork, and I thought the problems were reasonable. The solutions manual came in very handy though.
   
   If you are required to use this text, I would recommend looking for a used copy of Wade or McMurray as well



4. They had everything I needed along with course software in the book. It was delivered promptly and without any problems.



5. I ordered this book on a Monday and it was on my doorstep on Wednesday, I was very impressed by the speed and courtesty of the seller. Thank you so much!

No comments about Chemistry and Chemical Reactivity, Enhanced Review Edition (with General ChemistryNOW).

No comments about Laboratory Experiments for General, Organic and Biochemistry (Brooks/Cole Laboratory Series for General Chemistry).

2 comments about Quantitative Chemical Analysis Student Solutions Manual.

1. The book was in great condition and it was really good condition. I paid for two day shipping. I ordered it on Wednesday and should have gotten it on Friday but I didn't get it until Monday or Tuesday afternoon. I watched the order tracker and it was in the warehouse ready to be shipped to me on Wednesday but it didn't ship till Thursday so I didn't get it till Monday or Tuesday.



2. This is a fairly good quantitative analysis book. However, there are no color pictures in the book. The book also seems to go into a lot of detail about some things that may never be tested on a test such as the ACS test. For example, sometimes it includes a lot of detailed information about outdated analytical instruments.

1 comments about Techniques in Organic Chemistry.

1. A simple book of organic labs. It shows what you need to do and other possiblilities of what you can expect of common mistakes and how to do it right. Not bad.

5 comments about Chemistry: Principles and Reactions.

1. I am a UCONN student, where Prof. Masterton and Prof. Hurley are my chemistry teachers. I have to say that this book is very well written, and interesting to read. It explains the priciple in clear and easy to understand fassion, not wordy, not repetitive. The exercises are step by step, and get to the point. The author often makes connection between chemistry and our everyday life. For example, he will expain that sea water is a bit slipery because it's slightly basic. There are some comments that this book is too simple, and not at college level. Well, I'm taking general chemistry course here, with this textbook, and this course is one of the hardest course at UCONN. We judge a book by it's content, not by it's thickness or how pretty the title page is. There are not too many organic stuff here, but most people who is major in chemistry related fields go on to take Organic Chemistry, at here this is the way it is here. This book is supposed to be General introduction to chemistry. And you can certainly get a lot out of it.



2. I used this book for AP chem. I know one of the reviewers claims that it doesn't prepare you for the test. I think though, that it covers all the information you'll need to get a five on the AP, as I used this book, and I got a five. Perhaps, the practice problems aren't exactly AP chem test type problems. Therefore, to study for the actual test, go find a practice AP chem book like Barrons. They give you myriad practice problems. This book though, explains chemistry, not just how to do problems. Some people think that its over simplified. I think that its just written well and doesn't over complicate matters. Everything you need to know for a first year non calculus based chemistry course is in this book...and its accessible. The language is clear and concise. The sample problems are very useful because they cover basic problem solving techniques. I also enjoyed the little notes in the margins, they're kinda funny (this refers to the third edition). Anyway, if you want a general chem book that is not too complicated but still covers alot of material, this one's for you!



3. A bit too complicated for a General Chemistry text, yet it still fails to touch on certain important aspects (steric numbers, among others). The practice problems at the end of each chapter are highly abstract, but may be viewed as somewhat useful when compared to the extremely wordy and complicated study guide. College students studying Chemistry for the first time, especially older non-traditional students, will find the authors' approach to several concepts to be unnecessarily complex. This text is far more useful when accompanied by a study guide such as Houk's Chemistry: Concepts and Problems, A Self-Teaching Guide. The text's study guide is fairly useless unless the instructor pulls tests from the publisher's web suite.



4. Although this book may be useful as a reference, it is a disaster if you are new to chemistry and don't have a professor, who could explain some topics from this book.
   In order to understand the book's problems you have to buy separately a solution manual.



5. This book is about 1/4 the size of the average Intro/Freshman Chem class, and so is about 1/4 of the information. This book does a DECENT job on BASIC principles of chemistry, but like has been said before, a good chemistry professor might aid in the understanding these principles. If using this book for a Freshman Chemistry class with the intent to move to Organic Chemistry, you might be in a tad bit of trouble.
   
   In short: Too short, little detail. Seems elementary compared to most chemistry books

1 comments about Macroscale and Microscale Organic Experiments.

1. Simply excellent. It provided adequate theory behind each of the experiments while explaining the experiments' procedures step by step.

5 comments about Physical Chemistry: A Molecular Approach.

1. To be succinct:
   1) Thorough explanation of each subject.
   2) Subjects broken down into manageable chapters.
   3) Lots of worked problems.
   4) Lots of problems at the end of each chapter.
   5) Material presented in a logical, not necessarily historical, fashion.
   6) Layout is generally superior to other texts (spacious, not cramped)
   7) Get the solutions manual.
   
   Bear in mind most schools teach thermodynamics and kinetics, followed by quantum chemistry. This methodology is merely a reflection of the order of discovery, and not because quantum chemistry necessarily builds on thermo or kinetics. This text teaches quantum first, followed by thermo and kinetics. It's more logical to teach quantum first, but you can jump right into traditional physical chemistry with this text.
   
   Only recommendation:
   The publisher should package the book with the solutions manual. I'm a big fan of solutions manuals and a student is somewhat hobbled without one.



2. I received the correct book in excellent condition (matching the seller's description) in the timeframe I was told when I purchased it.



3. This is one of the poorest textbooks I've ever owned. It is wordy yet it explains very little. And there is one really annoying aspect to this book:
   The authors only ever introduce an equation once in the text. From thereon, they refer to that equation as "equation 17-1" or whatever number they designate it. So you're constantly having to turn back pages and entire chapters just to find out what stupid equation they are talking about. They also embed all the important tables within random chapters instead of being in an appendix, so good luck finding any constants or any other figures that would be put in a table.
   Another bad thing about this book is that they made an update to it and added two chapters but didn't change the ISBN. So some people get the newer version with the correct number of chapters and some people will pay the same price for the book missing at least 2 chapters that they will need in their p-chem class (this happened to my girlfriend who has the older book and I have the newer one and we didn't discover this until the fourth test!). I hate this book with a passion. It has crappy black and white illustrations,and instead of writing fractions like ft/sec or mol/L they write ft*sec(-1) and mol*L(-1) and it gets quite distracting when they have several terms in the denominator. It looks like it was written in the 70's. I will say as a side-note that it's very much worth getting the solutions manual if you get this book. The solutions manual is pretty well-done.



4. For those students who are REQUIRED to derive everything on their PCHM exams, THIS IS THE BOOK FOR YOU! Excellent supplement to that weak and required text book of yours, for sure. Good luck! PCHMI (Thermo-C) PCHMII (Q. Mechanics-B)



5. It's great. It's quite in depth, though you have to accept some parts of the math if you don't already know differential equations.
   It's understandable even to me, and the last chem course I took was just AP, but it's also very challenging and in depth. Highly recommend.

5 comments about Principles of Biochemistry (4th Edition).

1. The book is decent. To be honest though, reviewing textbooks is kind of funny. Does it matter what I say? I suppose if you're ordering this book because you honestly just have a burning desire to learn about the principles of biochemistry, well... the more power to you. You'll learn it just fine from this book. If you're just buying the book because it's the required text for your college class (like I expect), well yeah, doesn't really matter what I say, does it?



2. I am a biochemistry professor. After years of using another text I decided to try the Voet & Voet text. I was very excited about their latest edition and couldn't wait to teach with it. Unfortunately it was a disaster. There are far too many trees in Voet & Voet, and students couldn't see the forest this year. For next year I am looking at "Principles of Biochemistry" 4th edition by Horton et al.
   
   So, in response to V. Kankanala below, student perspectives in these Amazon Reviews are very useful to those of us assigning the texts.



3. This is one of the most readable texts for biochemistry on the market. It would be most useful for undergraduates and medical students. It is almost useless for graduate students in the biological sciences because it doesn't talk enough about experimental strategies. The older version of this text was much cooler because it has stereoviews. This feature makes the book stand out because the stereoviews are awesome. Whose idea was it to remove them??? This would make a good first book in biochemistry, but for upper level students I would recommend Stryer.



4. This book was adopted by my university for a senior level / first year graduate level biochemistry course. It is well written and contains no messy jargon. Literally all of the text is useful information. In addition, it is concise.
   
   My chief complaints about the book are: 1) the illustrations require substantial updating to be compared to what is presently available even in inferior texts. 2) it lacks clinical/biological correlations and focuses instead on the quantitative nature of biochemistry (acid base calculations etc) Clinical correlations are certainly essential to applying biochemistry concepts. If this book had either or both of these two items, it would have earned 5 stars from me!
   
   Instead, I recommend the following texts:
   - Biochemistry: outstanding illustrations and concept coverage.
   - Marks' Basic Medical Biochemistry: A Clinical Approach: outstanding clinical correlations with concise concept coverage and good illustrations (although not in full color)
   - Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry, Fourth Edition: outstanding text and illustrations!



5. I had to purchase the book because of the General Biochemistry course that I took at school. Although it is a well-written book, it does not provide the materials that are covered in our class. I do not even know why this book is required for an upper-division general biochemistry course! In other words, the book is very superficial and does not have enough substance.
   
   Moreover, there are a lot of errors in the answer key section. You can pay slightly more and buy Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry, but at least you would have something that you can learn from. I would not recommend this book.