biochemistry books

	Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry, Fourth Edition
	By: David L. Nelson, Michael M. Cox ISBN: 0716743396 Publisher: W. H. Freeman Release Date: 23 April, 2004 Bioscience book rank: 15990	Excellent book! I would recommend this book for any person taking a beginners biochemistry class or just wanting to know more about the subject. Usually required reading for college students, this book was used for undergrad biochem and my pharmacy biochem. Pretty good tome. When I took this book for the first time I thought - wow they probably made the well-known Leninger book more illustrated, maybe added something new - let's read it. But from the first chapters I realized - there is nothing left from the original book. There is too much water in this book. You can for example read like 30 pages and then stop and ask yourself - Ok what have I've learned. And the answer is "not too much", because what was written in 30 pages in fact can be written in 5. I recommend the editors to change the name "Leninger - Principles of biochemistry" for something like - "Very general principles of biochemistry". Though I can not tell that the entire book is bad - starting with metabolic pathways I found some new details and information I didn't know about, but in general it was a waste of time and money to buy and read this book.
	Rapid Review Biochemistry: With STUDENT CONSULT Online Access (Rapid Review)
	By: John W. Pelley, Edward F. Goljan ISBN: 0323044379 Publisher: Mosby Release Date: 15 November, 2006 Bioscience book rank: 30052	When I first took biochemistry, it was the 1st term of medical school. I knew absolutely nothing when I was done, and felt like I was just memorizing a bunch of random facts/pathways. <br /> <br />After taking 90% of our basic science curriculum, and then reading this book, it tied in Biochemistry with all of the rest of my knowledge very well, and in a very easy to read outline format with EXCELLENT diagrams and charts. If you care about biochemistry at all for your boards prep, this is a great choice. Also, co-authored by Goljan, and you can see his hand all over this book with the clinical tie-ins. I have heard so much about the RR series, and I decided to give it a try, and boy, was I impressed? Talk about how splendiferous this RR Biochemistry is. Also, I have heard so much about Goljan, Goljan, Goljan. So within 5 days or so of laying my hands on the RR Biochem, I ordered for the Pathology brother written by Goljan. They say the man sure knows how to tie Path, Biochem, etc together. I can't wait to get my hands on that as well. RR Biochem rocks, and I am now almost certain RR Path rocks more, if what I hear from reviews follows If you are a MS1 I would suggest using Lippincott's Biochemistry. However, when it comes to the Boards this is the book you want as following Goljan's tradition of integration in not only includes relevant Biochm but also alot of Pathology. I would suggest to use this book for review alongside with the Rapid Review Pathology and Goljan's audio lectures.
	Biochemistry (Biochemistry (Berg))
	By: Jeremy M. Berg, John L. Tymoczko, Lubert Stryer ISBN: 0716787245 Publisher: W. H. Freeman Release Date: 19 May, 2006 Bioscience book rank: 28116	Well it's a boring book but biochemistry isn't the most interesting thing to read on your free time. The book is in good condition and came quickly. Most people are probably buying this book because they are a college student and they have to, but compared to some other books, this one is clear and easy to read, so don't be too afraid of Biochemistry if you have this in you bag. What is the difference between this edition and the 6th revised edition, and why is the latter so much cheaper?
	Lippincott's Illustrated Reviews: Biochemistry (Lippincott's Illustrated Reviews Series)
	By: Pamela C Champe, Richard A Harvey, Denise R Ferrier ISBN: 0781769604 Publisher: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins Release Date: 01 July, 2007 Bioscience book rank: 15805	Im studying medicine and my proffesor recomended the Harper`s Illusrated biochemistry from Lange. This is a very detailed book with a scientific language, withOUT too many explenations for beginners in this subject. Therefore my and my fellow classmates found this Lippincot book to be far better. One of the things I always appreciate in this kinds of books is if the index is large and easy to use and of course that I find what I am looking for. And Lippincot`s index is good. This book is very good about applying biochemistry to clinical settings. It is very easy to read also. Although sufficient for my biochem class, it may not get deep enough for other biochem classes. If you are in a master's program for biochem it probably isn't sufficient. <br />Disclaimer: I am writing this review from the point of view of a first year medical student, having taken a fairly detailed course in undergrad biochemistry. <br /> <br />Having said that, I find Lippincott's Illustrated Biochemistry one of the best books written on the subject. The main advantage of using Lippincott's is in its concise and clear language. It explains almost everything you need to know about medical biochemistry in a very easy to understand language, with the help of some great illustrations. I absolutely love the chapter summaries and the concept maps at the end of the chapter - very useful for a quick review. Highly recommended for a medical students! <br />
	The Absolute, Ultimate Guide to Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry 4e
	By: Marcy Osgood, Karen Ocorr ISBN: 0716759551 Publisher: W. H. Freeman Release Date: 23 April, 2004 Bioscience book rank: 35685	i thought this book would be explained solutions for the problems found in the actual textbook. its actually just a review book relating to each chapter, with new problems/ solutions/ quizzes etc. still useful, but not as correlated to the textbook as i had thought. This book is very useful, though the book may not contain as many problems(e.g muitipule choices) to be solved as you think! <br />Anyway,I buy this book in order to prepare GRE sub-biochemistry exam.and I find it great ,not only assist you for the exam, but enhance your biochemistry knowledge as well!! I don't do reviews, but I'm so angry, I just had to. <br /> <br />The title of this text is misleading. It leads one to believe that it contains worked solutions to questions asked in the text. It does NOT. Instead, it contains warm and furry puzzles and discussion questions (with answers to those.) <br /> <br />Everyone knows what a "solutions manual" is -- or even a "study guide and solutions manual." It is a book with solutions (potentially to "selected problems" if the authors are feeling particularly stingy and manipulative) in the text. <br /> <br />Hello authors and publishers! Wake up! What full time undergrad science student has the time to do anything besides the bare reading and exams (unless they've never been to the gym a day in their life and live on dingdongs and coffee?) "Study groups" are BS sessions with people yammering so loud you can't think. Why would you force your happy fuzzy "it's all about learning" ideology down my throat with your deceptive title? Why don't you let ME and my professor worry about how good a biochemist I'm going to be? Grant me the dignity of charting my own course through our pathetic public university system! <br /> <br />The authors and the publisher should be prosecuted for FRAUD and forced to offer refunds to anyone who purchased the book, new or used, regardless of the source. Then they need to rename it "Warm and furry study manual to accompany... blah, blah."
	Introduction to General, Organic, and Biochemistry
	By: Morris Hein, Leo R. Best, Scott Pattison, Susan Arena ISBN: 0471451967 Publisher: Wiley Release Date: 16 March, 2004 Bioscience book rank: 177875
	Textbook of Biochemistry With Clinical Correlations (Textbook of Biochemistry w/ Clinical Correlations)
	By: Thomas M. Devlin ISBN: 0471678082 Publisher: Wiley-Liss Release Date: 16 December, 2005 Bioscience book rank: 156437	I had to use this book for my Biochemistry class. My major is Nutrition & Dietetics, and I already graduated. This book is just awful. Like someone else wrote, if you need to find a term or a figure, you have to look in almost the whole book, and you may still won't understand what you were looking for, or even worse, you'll get more confused. Devlin finds the hardest way to explain an easy term or fact you can explain a lot easier. This is just not worth it. Do not buy this book, there are other books a lot better. Senior in college, <br />double major Biology and Chemistry. <br />This is the worst book I have ever used. <br />Two brief examples.. <br />looking for a figure? On the previous (or next) page or 100pages further down the book. <br />Thought Marcel Proust could write endless sentences? Hold on! devlin can spend four to five lines, with "bold term" to explain something you won't understand the 10th time around. <br />Don't waste your time, don't waste your money....stay away from this mess of a book. I expected better from a 6th edition medical textbook. There are still grammatical and sentence errors that need to be corrected, and we have found multiple diagram problems throughout the book. The sentences can be poorly worded at times, and the book occassionally makes leaps in thought that are difficult to follow. It does contain a large amount of information, which is good, but the presentation of that information definitely needs to be further refined.
	Fundamentals of Biochemistry: Life at the Molecular Level
	By: Donald Voet, Judith G. Voet, Charlotte W. Pratt ISBN: 0471214957 Publisher: Wiley Release Date: 31 March, 2005 Bioscience book rank: 237426	The title of the book is a very succinct description of the content. This is a solid text with alot of good, basic information. As a course text, I think the success with which this book may be employed depends a great deal upon the employer. If all you require of your students is that they skim the chapters and hear your lectures, the book will seem simple and lacking in detail to the student. If you require your students to memorize the diagrams, tables, reaction mechanisms, molecular structures, pathways, etc... (as my biochem professors did), then the book will seem very difficult, convoluted, and complicated. Unfortunately, when you get to a course like biochem with so much information for the students to absorb, and for which every text looks like an encyclopedia, I'm afraid a person's opinion of a textbook actually depends more upon the instructor who presented them with the text, rather than on the text itself. So I suspect many of the reviews on this page are actually reviews of professors who taught the reviewers and not of the book. Just something to keep in mind. <br /> <br />That said, I enjoyed learning from this text and I did well in the course (a notoriously difficult course at my school). Overview: <br /> <br />I am reading this book in preparation for Biochemistry I and find it to be full of gross errors. Simple definitions like that of osmosis are incorrect. Table 4-1 is terrible, and there are other tables and figures (Figure 3-6 for example) that require much more attention than they have been given. I am seriously concerned and disappointed about the authors, editors, and long list of professionals that reviewed this book because of missing basic "fundamental" pieces of information. <br /> <br />Professors: <br /> <br />If you are a professor who is thinking of using this text in class, I would suggest you DO NOT! Your students could be a hazard in the end if they plan to got to medical school or into pharmacology. <br /> <br />Students: <br /> <br />If you are a student currently using this text for class, please find other resources. I am catching only the errors that I know to be false, but there could be many more. <br /> <br />DO NOT USE THIS BOOK!!! <br /> <br />Further Comments: <br /> <br />My professor will be using the third edition of this book in class, and I can only hope that in the third edition Voet got it right. The book i received was in excellent condition, it was listed under the used section, but when i received it, it was still in the original packing. The only problem was the CD was missing somehow, no big deal.
	Biochemistry
	By: Donald Voet ISBN: 047119350X Publisher: Wiley Release Date: 09 March, 2004 Bioscience book rank: 187208	Actually, it's kinda dumb to recommend this book for graduate biochemistry students. If you haven't heard about Voet while being an undergrad, it's because you weren't interested in biochemistry at all. To everyother undergrad who is really into biochemistry and is intending to follow on through research in biochemical science, I say look no further. <br /> <br />Voet & Voet IS the very best biochemistry book you will find right now in the shelves. Of course, don't expect to read through it unless you're taking a 2nd course in biochemistry or doubling a major in chemistry/biochemistry. <br /> <br />If this is your first approach to biochemistry (and you don't care much about the chemistry/physics behind it all), this isn't the book you're looking for. Check Lehninger instead (the best INTRODUCTORY biochemistry book for DUMMIES - aka. Medschool, Biology, etc.). But, sooner or later, if you're the curious type, you'll start wondering, asking questions like "How did they actually find out the genetic code?" or "What's the enzymatic reaction mechanism for this complex enzyme?" or "How do they manage physical data to make all these pretty 3D crystallographic structures?". Of course, you could go to more specialized books to find all about these and other inquiries. But, the fact is Voet & Voet collects all the relevant scientific answers in one big chunk of paper. <br /> <br />I've known uncountable biochemistry grads who've strived between Matthews and Devlin, Lehinger and Stryer, and Garret and Grisham, just to compile the information that's presented in a perfect order in this amazing book. Don't waste your time. If you're taking it seriously, it's Voet & Voet. I have finished a 2 semester course in biochemistry which had focused on both biopolymer chemistry and metabolism, as well as fundamentals of biotechnology (i.e. cloning and expression studies). <br />From the early days we were prescribed Voet, and it was a textbook that most often made students cringe and complain. The fundamental reasons for it doing so was attributed to its pedantic style, uneasy writing, disoriented explanations and verbose nature. It requires that you actually start reading it prior to the semester, since the length and depth of chapters is too much to handle; this is not due to the information itself. Biochemistry is relatively easy, but the book does not give clear explanations and often randomly jumps into unwelcome depths prior to establishing an overall context of the subject matter. <br />The chapter on DNA metabolism is a very good example, it starts off giving a history lesson about how radiography and other exploratory studies (nowadays these techniques arent implemented) were conducted and proceeds into the domains, motifs and archetypes of DNA polymerase without first establishing the biological purpose of replication, how it differs in the eukaryotes and prokaryotes, the fundamental "machinery" involved in replication and how the processes occurs (as an overview). So now from this stupid history lesson we jump into the structure and function of various different protein units....no mention of sequence or relevance. <br />Its hard as it is doing four units of different subjects, I was lucky enough to primarily be doing all chemistry units for the first semester. I still suffered. I mean the length and depth of this book is not suited to a struggling undergraduate student, who has to cover a variety of other subjects. When it came to the exams, revision was almost impossible with this book. I had to rely on my own hand written notes. <br />I am principally an organic chemist and I have to say that the authors really got me lost even in the sections pertaining to a structural and mechanistic explanation of metabolic elements. I think it was due to lack of experience of the authors in these fields, in conjunction with a desire to present a sophisticated discussion of glycolysis and gluconeogensis. <br /> <br />They dont even explain WHY plants and animals store glucose as starch and glycogen respectively. Nothing about osmolarity and concentration gradients. These two (hubby and wife) claim to give a robust understanding of the fundamental workings of biochemistry. However all they provide is unnecessary, superfluous information which if I did actually even seek, I would look at journal articles rather than an undergraduate textbook. Meaning that no university on earth expects 1st and 2nd year biochemistry majors to even know a lot of that junk, so why bother presenting it? <br /> <br />We dont care about which genes encode each polymeraze. At most we may care about how they differ in their active sites, possibly in their subunit structure and how they actually process DNA. <br /> <br /> <br />Garrett and Grisham are significantly better than this book for undergrads. Voet and Voet is an excellent introductory biochemistry textbook. The focus leans more towards the chemical aspects as opposed to the biological, which allows it to fill an important gap among undergraduate texts. The scope is broad and comprehensive, with clear writing and informative illustrations. While the book is a valuable resource, the price is truly outrageous. For those adopting textbooks for classes, I recommend assessing whether the added chemical rigor is worth the added price for students. Serious and motivated students of biochemistry will likely appreciate and benefit most from this book. Check out the contents (e.g. at a library or college bookstore), and make sure they meet your needs, before taking the considerable financial plunge in buying this book though.
	Introduction to General, Organic and Biochemistry (with CD-ROM and CengageNOW Printed Access Card)
	By: Frederick A. Bettelheim, William H. Brown, Mary K. Campbell, Shawn O. Farrell ISBN: 0495011975 Publisher: Brooks Cole Release Date: 22 February, 2006 Bioscience book rank: 163389	This book is in its 8th Edition with two new authors. The style continues the high standards set in the previous edition. I find this book to be a very good quick reference guide for chemical reactions, stoichiometry, organic and biological chemistry. I am very sad to see that Bettelheim and March have passed away!