Lygre has covered most topics in the three areas at a depth that will give students a good understanding of the field. He has shown considerable restraint in omitting the more mathematical aspects of general chemistry and the finer details of organic chemistry or biochemistry. His treatment of kinetics, for example, barely touches reaction rates, but focuses on energy of activation and catalysis. Each of the text's three sections is capped with a strong chapter: general chemistry ends with Chapter 10, Nuclear Chemistry; organic chemistry ends with Chapter 18, Polymers; and biochemistry, with chapter 29, Medical Drugs. Few of the problems at the ends of the chapters are paired. The solution manual, unfortunately, gives solutions to all the problems, making assignments of graded homework from the text problematic. Overall, the problems are clearly designed to avoid math anxiety on the students' part.

Some of Lygre's choices may not satisfy everyone. He has, for example, chosen to include normality in his discussion of titrations. The text also has a few of the first edition gaffs: e.g., in Figure 8.19, showing the effect of pressure on the NO2 - N2O4 equilibrium, the three pictures are scrambled, making the figure quite confusing.

In spite of these rough spots, Lygre's text is definitely one to consider for traditional survey courses.