Schaum's Outline of Molecular and Cell Biology

This guide contains details about biology that are concise and at least as good as, if not more detailed than 2+ years of introductory biology courses. Though not an introductory guide, an excellent resource.

I am a Macromolecular crystallographer and have never formally attended any courses on molecular biology or biochemistry. I find these Schaum series books to be very useful. They are very concise, and provide all the information one needs to achieve a good understanding of the basic concepts and terminology. Another advantage is that they are paperbacks and easier to read compared to the heavier and more detailed texts like Stryer or Lehninger.

I love this book! It's so easy to read and it provides a good review for students taking molecular biology. However, I wouldn't recommend it as a resource for someone who is just starting to learn. The writing style assumes that you know the basic concepts already and sometimes skims through material quickly. However, I would have to say that this book is very readable and contains some excellent illustrations. However, my one complaint is the lack of coverage of cell biology. This book seems, frankly, to be almost all molecular biology. It lacks any sort of discussion about actin, microtubules, and so on. I find that disappointing, but I understand that it's a "quick outline."

I bought this book so I would not have to shuffle through the pages of my cell/molucular bio textbook. Although this book was great with having the main concepts, there wasn't much detail. But that is the purpose of the book- to have the main molecular biology topics in a clear and organized manner. For more detail and test questions get the full outline book from the same series. If you just want the info you need to know this book is outstanding!

I consider molecular and cell biology an excellent review book for people who want an introduction of the field. Also it can help readers who want to refresh their knowledge. It is well organized, in fourteen different chapters, with multilple review questions and answers in each of them. I found the coverage of each chapter comprehensive. Objective questions at the end of each chapter helped to assess your level of understanding. I certainly recommend this book to people who study biological related sciences.