Customer Reviews

Microbiology: An Evolving Science

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I'm using this text to teach an introductory Micro course. Since I first wrote this review, I'm beginning to think that 3 stars is too generous but I don't seem to be able to change the rating. I had previously used the text by Black, which was great, but I'm really struggling with this one. While the chapters are organized into logical sections, I'm finding that there is a lot of repetition within & between chapters, and that it is just not that easy to understand. While there are a lot of figures and pictures, some of them just don't help explain the concepts all that much. The chapter on adaptive immunity is almost unusable. Immunology is my field, and I've found errors, and the concepts presented are too advanced & ignore the basic biology of the immune system. Plus, the figures are too complicated for an introduction. The chapters on Microbial diversity are excellent, though; they're the reason I changed to this text. But honestly, I wouldn't choose it again.

Update: I'm now lecturing on the very timely topic of influenza, and have found relevant information scattered in no less than 3 different chapters of the text, and I've had to hop around quite a bit for my other lectures on disease.

I love this book! It has a nice full glossary and section summaries. It has chapter review questions but doesn't give the answers. It has though questions (critical thinking) that it DOES give the answer to. (Weird?) This book is very well written, very English (the language, not the nationality). My professor goes along with the book so that always makes you get more out of it.
The topics sometimes seem kinda random, and the same small concepts are repeated several times in different chapters and never (so far) going into details. The website for the book has nice online diagnostic quizzes. It's definitely a book that if your instructor says buy it, you should read it, because you will get something out of it. There's lots of interesting pictures which make it fun to read too.

This book is the first edition and it really shows. The text is often so unclear and the figures are sometimes not labeled clearly or even discussed at all in the text. There are several conflicting statements I have found in the text that make it confusing. Sorry, but I just think it's not a great book.

Its easy to read sections, clear diagrams, and summary reviews makes this microbiology text book an essential tool when learning about microorganisms. This book was recommended to me by my professor at the University of Minnesota, and was well worth the price. I believe it would be a useful product for anyone learning this subject both in and out of a classroom setting.

Of all the science texts I have needed to read to date, this textbook is easily the worst. I say this as a solid "A" post-baccalaureate student, and as a former writer/editor in the trade journal business. It's almost impossible to read more than a few paragraphs of this book at a time. As soon as an idea is introduced, the book distracts us with highly esoteric "examples", diagrams, illustrations, breakout boxes, and case studies. Often within these are yet more examples, diagrams, illustrations or breakout text. Sometimes the breakout boxes fill one page and spread onto the adjoining page, where only a paragraph or two of core chapter text is presented thanks to additional diagrams outside the breakout box on what's left of that page. It's all just too much; the sheer abundance of visual and textual data distracts from any kind of presentation of core principles or key concepts that should be imparted to the reader. By contrast I am taking a higher-level genetics class where the book (nearly 300 pages shorter than this one!) is succinct, well-written and far easier to to comprehend (Introduction to Genetic Analysis - Griffiths et al.). Sometimes less really is more, and the Slonczewski text is absolute proof of that axiom.

Great book! I've been enjoying the reading. This book has great images and it's just an overall excellent product!

the book came before the delivery date which was great! only problem was there is alot of writing in the book. But the book itself is in great condition. so thanks!

My book came faster than I expected. I was also brand new. No complaints from me!

This was a great buy! Much cheaper than I would have paid anywhere else and it was brand new in perfect condition. I'm glad I bought it through Amazon.com!