This book is directed toward an audience of non-science majors. Its choice of topics places it squarely in the camp of those who favor a simplified version of the science-majors general chemistry course for this audience. Topics treated in the fifteen chapters include measurement and the metric system, physical and chemical properties of matter, elements, compounds, and equations. The periodic table is then introduced followed by chapters on atomic structure and chemical bonding. Nomenclature forms the subject of an entire chapter. Chemical calculations are treated rather late in chapters 10 and 12, while the optional chapter 11 covers inorganic descriptive chemistry. Chapters on the gas laws, liquids and solids, and solutions round out the book. This is a manageable amount of material for a one-semester course. No chapters on organic chemistry or biochemistry are included. Each chapter is preceded by a set of learning goals and followed by problems which are (except in the measurement, stoichiometry, and gas law chapters) largely qualitative. Answers to selected exercises are provided in an appendix.

The author does a good job of reminding students of the experimental nature of chemistry by describing and interpreting experiments (which are generally simple enough to be demonstrated live to the class) that bear on the concepts being developed. The writing style is clear and concise, and remarkably few typos were noted. Many worked-out examples are provided.

This is a first edition, and, as such, suffers from some first-edition glitches that could have used the help of a reliable editor. Among them is the habit of mentioning concepts before they are discussed in the text. As one example of this, the formulas of ionic compounds are discussed in chapter 4, but students learn only in chapter 7 what ions are. Lewis symbols for N and O are presented showing unpaired electrons, but Hund's rule is not discussed until the following page. Sometimes, rather challenging concepts are simply "sneaked" in without any discussion, for example sign conventions for heat (p 48), mechanical energy units (p 52) and the relation between color of light and energy (p 99). Too much reliance is placed on the stability of the noble gas configuration without a careful explanation of why it is so stable. For example, it is stated that "the explanation [for the higher ionization of He than H] is that helium has a pair of electrons in the 1s subshell, which gives it greater stability, and it is therefore more difficult to remove the outermost electron".The book is produced by photo offset so that the production quality is not comparable to more expensive works. The computer-drawn figures are not of particularly high quality, although they are clear and generally accurate. Instructors searching for a reasonably priced, clearly written text would do well to examine this one.