ISBN0132280841

There are two people that would be interested in this book - those that are enrolled in a liberal arts chemistry course, and those that are just interested in learning about chemistry. This book suits either type of person admirably.

While setting up a liberal arts course in chemistry (i.e., Chemistry for Non-science Majors), we previewed a number of possible texts. This one, in my mind, stood above all the others that I looked at. There are a number of reasons why:

1. The scope - this book covers a vast number of topics, from basic structure of the atom to environmental chemistry to toxins and drugs to combustion and energy. We are designing a survey course, and this spread is ideal. Other texts tended to focus too much, especially on environmental issues (e.g., the ACS's Chemistry in Context).

2. Descriptive, non-mathmatical. Since this course has no prerequisites, not even grade 10 math, we needed a book that minimised mathematics. Other books, such as Kelter/Carr/Scott's Chemistry: World of Choices, was too mathematical for this type of course.

3. The pictures - this book simply looks good.

Thus, if you're looking for a text for a liberal arts chemistry course, or if you just want to know more about chemistry and are not mathematically inclined, I would recommend this book.

Chemistry can be interesting and it can be difficult to understand. This book addresses both of these areas quite well. This is a book that you study from, as well as read. For anyone who is preparing to take a Chemistry class, this book is well worth investigating, because this book, in its 20 Chapters, covers every principle, formula, idea, and topic that will be covered in class. My CHEM 100 course used this as our text, and we covered only half of the book (at a Community College in Maryland). I learned a lot from the course and from this book. I heartedly recommend it! For grandmom to read on your drive to DisneyWorld???? Oh, maybe not. Especially if she's driving.

There are a number of errors in this textbook, not just in the end-of-chapter review problems, but also in the chapter Examples that are meant to explain them. This does little to allow students to quickly and easily grasp the material.
The writing style makes an interesting novel but a lousy textbook. Material is presented by giving an example, history and finally the scientific concept meant to be grasped. Makes for a great mystery, but this is science and a subject that scares students anyway. A concept given first is seldom followed by a thorough explanation. The effect is one of an author, who know his material really well, has no idea how to convey the basics to his readers and is trying hard to entertain. Combine this with the smattering of factual errors and this textbook is just annoying.