Lippincott's Illustrated Reviews: Microbiology

I absolutely love the Lippincott illustrated reviews series and this book continues that great tradition. The book is so well written with the perfect amount of detail. When you read these books you don't feel like your studying. The pictures are amazing and really help solidify the concepts. I highly recommend this book for any health professional.

This book rocks. Seriously. The second edition is a serious improvement over the first. The integration with with other Lippincott reviews (Biochem & Pharm) puts this book on the must-have short-list for Step 1. Watch out Med Micro Made Ridiculously Simple, this could and should be the new number one USMLE micro book.

Notice the word 'Reviews' in the title. This series of books from Lippincott are just that. A review of the subject, in this case Microbiology. This book doesn't spend a lot of time introducing you to the basic concepts of microbiology. The third sentence in the book explains it pretty well: 'In this volume, we primarily consider the role of microorganisms - bacteris, fungi, protozoa, helminths, and viruses - in the initiation and spread of human diseases.' I find that this book is a bit advanced for undergraduate study. It is not a general text on microbiology. As the sentence quoted above clearly says, it is oriented to diseases. But for a graduate student who needs either a rapid review of past microbiology courses, or who now needs to get up to speed in this area it is an excellent choice. In its 450 or so pages it completely covers the subject and in a fairly light, fast, well illustrated, and well summarized manner. It even has time, once in a while to insert a microbiology oriented cartoon.

I used this book through 2 years of medical school and found it to be quite helpful. It doesn't go into a bunch on needless details, but give you what you need to know. The book is well-organized and has some excellent color photos as well. There is a quick reference section in the back which is helpful for boards when you need a quick review. It gives you the bug, the tests you would do, the path, and the drug to treat.

Well organized and easy to read. Some color pictures in the back. Breaks down essentially what you need to know for medical boards. virulence factors, drugs used to treat, etc.