Jones and Bartlett: Sudbury, MA, 1997. 928 pp. ISBN 0763703672. $71.25.

"This version...answers your request for an organic chemistry text that you can cover completely in a two-semester course." Such is Jones and Bartlett's rationale for omitting the special-topics chapters 17-23 from the second edition of Fox and Whitesell's more ambitious Organic Chemistry text. The 16 chapters that remain as this Core Organic Chemistry text are identical to those in the parent text. The strengths and advantages of the authors' approach to presenting organic chemistry remain, of course (J. Chem. Educ. 1997, 74, 1045-1046). To select a text on the basis of whether most pages can be covered seems a tenuous choice. A more important question is what value to the student is gained or lost by the choice made. Is it of greater value to provide a less voluminous (by 320 pages), less weighty (by about 1.2 pounds), and less expensive ($88.75 vs $71.25) book, or to provide the students with the opportunity to read, perhaps on their own initiative, chapters on polymeric materials, naturally occurring oxygen and nitrogen compounds, noncovalent interactions and molecular recognition, molecular recognition of chiral molecules, catalyzed reactions, cofactors for biological reactions, energy storage in organic molecules, and molecular basis for drug action? I would argue that the potential for benefit to the student is better served by having those topics available for perusal, even if not formally presented in the class. It should be noted that arrangements can be made to purchase any of these special topics separately, and integrate them into a course as desired.