Bertini Textbook Critique

This semester of school is quickly coming to an end, and this week in Bio Inorganic, we were assigned to give the pros and cons of the textbook, Biological Inorganic Chemistry: Structure and Reactivity, we have used this year. Throughout this semester, I have had many mixed feelings about this textbook; there are times when I really enjoy what I am reading and learning, and then there are also times when I have to read something multiple times just to obtain a basic understanding of the material. My favorite part of the Bertini text was Chapter 8: Metals in Medicine. The beginning of the chapter has a well laid out table, briefly stating what role each active complex/metal plays in medicine. Then, each metal is discussed in detail, along with many useful structures and reactions. This chapter, I felt, was the best in complimenting the lecture. The lecture hit all of the important facts about metals in medicine, and we were able to reference many of the structures from the text, which enhanced my understanding of the lesson. I felt that the biggest flaw of this book was that there was such an immense amount of information and such depth of each topic, due to it being written on a graduate level. I am not trying to say that the book is not well written, I just think that it did not suit this undergraduate class very well. An instance where I found myself having to reread much of the information would be the section in Chapter 10 on photosystem II. Having only had a basic introduction to photosynthesis, it is hard to read the textbook for studying purposes while trying to filter out unneeded info or comprehend not so difficult concepts written on a complex level.

-The High School Chemist