Foundations of Organic Chemistry: Worked Examples by Peach and Hornby is the best-selling Primer ever, with more than 25,000 copies having been sold worldwide. This workbook complements its popular and successful predecessor, Foundations of Organic Chemistry (#9, published in 1993), by the same authors. The most useful manner in which to provide a review of Worked Examples #87 is to frame it within its connection to Foundations of Organic Chemistry #9. Several published reviews of Foundations of Organic Chemistry #9 already exist (David Armstead, Education in Chemistry, November 1993, p 164, and Bob Watson, School Science Review, December 1993), each of which gives glowing testimony to that volume’s concise and effective presentation of a subset of fundamental topics within organic chemistry. This reviewer concurs with the published reviews of Foundations of Organic Chemistry #9, affirming that the book is an exceptionally well-crafted tool to enable students to study basic principles. However, #9 was incomplete in that no problems were provided that students could use to test their understanding of the topics addressed. Foundations of Organic Chemistry: Worked Examples #87 is the long-anticipated completion of the initial volume, as it provides problems with answers and tutorial guidance on the same topics that were addressed in Foundations of Organic Chemistry #9. The two books share the same chapter divisions (Molecules, Mechanisms, Acids and bases, Reactions with nucleophiles, Reactions with electrophiles, Reactions with radical intermediates, and Taking it further) and are intimately linked, in that the problems in Worked Examples flow directly from the material addressed in Foundations of Organic Chemistry.

The problems are accompanied by useful hints, and the provided answers have tutorial comments that reinforce the chemical principles involved. The authors have used a wide variety of natural compounds and pharmaceuticals to illustrate principles that serve as the basis for problems. Many of the problems are framed as “why” questions and many others direct the students to illustrate their understanding by explaining, in detail, their answer. The level of difficulty ranges from modest to rather challenging. The associated hints and tutorial guidance offered in the margins of the text alongside the question are superbly crafted, making each question manageable for an undergraduate student who is in organic chemistry or has had some prior exposure to at least the general concepts. The answers provided are equally effective as a teaching tool, in that the answers include a detailed explanation of how the authors arrived at their answer. This reviewer has not seen a better set of problems/tutorial guidance/answers than those provided in Foundations of Organic Chemistry: Worked Examples #87.

Three uses of the book come to mind. The combination of both volumes provides an ideal forum for review/study for students exiting their undergraduate institutions and preparing for incoming graduate school entrance exams in organic chemistry or for preparing for beginning-level graduate courses. Students or professionals who need a refresher on the basics of organic mechanisms/principles and desire a concise treatment streamlined for efficient review can hardly do better than to study from these Primers. No organic chemistry faculty member should be without these volumes as they serve as (a) a resource for excellent questions to provide for their students, (b) a template for the proper crafting of similar or related test questions and (c) a resource to provide to students who are mature enough to study on their own.

Finally, to extend from this particular Oxford Chemistry Primer to the series as a whole, this reviewer strongly recommends that faculty at undergraduate and graduate institutions make available these fine teaching tools to the young scholars in our departments.