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Book ReviewAdvanced Organic Chemistry: Reactions andMechanisms.By Bernard Miller, University of Massachusetts,Amherst, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Upper Saddle, NewJersey, Q 1998. xiii + 338 pp., ISBN 0-13-373275-4,$59.00.

As stated in the preface, this is a textbook that isintended as a ‘‘teaching text rather than one thatsimply presents the material in an encyclopedicmanner.’’ The author has thus chosen to presentand expand upon those topics that routinely ap-pear at the end of most introductory textbooks orto delve more deeply into those introductory top-ics that are only touched upon briefly in sopho-more organic chemistry. After a short introduc-tory chapter that acclimates a student to reactionmechanisms and electron movement within andbetween molecular entities, the author then pre-sents three chapters encompassing Woodward-Hoffmann type chemistry. The fifth chapter is anintroduction for students to the concepts of ‘‘Lin-ear Free-Energy Relationships’’ which is then fol-lowed by three chapters that explore a variety ofrearrangement reactions having the classical car-

Žbon intermediates carbocation, radical, and car-.banion as the core around which discussions

revolve. The ninth chapter then investigates thechemistry of the not-so-classical intermediatesŽ .carbenes, carbenoids, and nitrenes and the bookfinishes off with two chapters that are devoted tosix and five membered heterocyclic ring chem-istry, respectively.

This is a textbook that is readable using‘‘ . . . relatively informal language . . . ’’ to make thepoints that are necessary to advance students to

the next level of understanding. The text assumesthat a student brings a good working knowledgeof the basic concepts introduced in sophomoreorganic chemistry to the fore. While the title ofthe text implies that the material is consideredadvanced, this reviewer found that an intermedi-ate label would be more appropriate because thetext is a good, but only partial, bridge from theintroductory level to the advanced level. The au-thor has chosen to concentrate and focus atten-tion on certain topics but not on others. Forexample, the text does not cover much aboutsynthesis but it does discuss many different typesof reactions that may have been introduced andnot elaborated upon in sophomore organic chem-istry. Additionally, the concepts of most molecu-lar spectroscopic methods used for characteriza-tion are ignored although NMR methodologiesare utilized to help explain some specific mecha-nistic concepts of interest. Said another way}thisis a supplementary textbook that will prove veryuseful to instructors who are working with seniorlevel undergraduate and first year graduate stu-dents. In conjunction with other texts and addi-tional materials, the concepts presented in thistextbook can be very helpful to a budding organicchemist. The problems and references that areappended to each chapter will also be of generalbenefit to student and teacher alike. All-in-all,this textbook should find a niche in the teachingof organic chemistry at the intermediate level.

Professor William M. RosenDepartment of Chemistry

Uni ersity of Rhode Island

Ž . Ž .Concepts in Magnetic Resonance, Vol. 10 6 369 1998Q 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. CCC 1043-7347r98r060369-01

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