L are rarely used today, except by biologists when referring to natural amino acids and sugars." That seems to be a rather large exception to me! Optical activity is described using tartaric acid as an example rather than glycerol, a monosaccharide, or an amino acid. It seems that the authors intend for the handbook to serve as a jumping off point from which to discuss biological molecules once the chemical fundamentals have been thoroughly mastered.
The textbook also includes a section entitled "Some Metals in Biology"; each metal gets its own subsection: iron, magnesium, manganese, cobalt, and molybdenum. This section is helpful to those who have not had an inorganic chemistry course, and biological examples abound in these sections.
The authors organize the textbook differently than others might; for example, "Water" is covered in Section C; "Molecular Interactions" (such as hydrogen bonds) in Section H; and "Aqueous Behavior" in Section M. But because this text is intended to be used as a reference rather than being read straight through, this is a small criticism. The black and white line drawings are clear and easy to read. References are listed at the back of the text rather than at the end of each section. Because so many topics are covered in this handbook, and covered in a skeletal, summary form, it's possible that readers might need to consult outside references if they wish to explore any of these topics in any depth. For that reason, the authors have listed only textbooks as references, mainly general, organic, and analytical chemistry texts.
This book would be a good supplementary companion text for students in upper-level biochemistry, molecular biology, and other chemically based biology courses. The concise, precisely worded easy-to-read text is intended to review, not to teach; thus it is assumed that students have already taken basic courses in general and organic chemistry and merely need to refresh what they've already learned. It's difficult, if not impossible, to understand the chemical behavior of biological molecules if the student hasn't thoroughly mastered the fundamental concepts in chemistry. Instant Notes in Chemistry for Biologists is a resource that the student won't want to be without.