Molecular Cell Biology

No words you just NEED to have it. The best in molecular cell biology, (The one by G. Karp is also good) Perfect for med school

In all honesty, I am somewhat hard pressed to find enough superlatives to adequately describe my feelings for this book. Simply put, this is a must have for any student of molecular or cellular biology.
I am a bioengineering student and I have found this book to be a wonderful guide in my own scholarship. It has been an amazing guide enabling me to successfully direct my own research. In ch complicated tasks such as describing various seemingly unrelated mechanisms that work in tandem, it provides a wonderful description with great illustrations. Not only have I found the book to be clear, but sometimes its lack of conciseness is helpful too. Simply by providing a detailed picture of all of the events taking place it elucidates the topic it is describing.
Though my colleague from California may disagree that something is lost due to its density, I feel that this book would just be pedestrian without it.

AM

I'm a fourth year biology major and I can pretty much say that if you are not an avid reader of difficult texts, you are not going to understand the book. My prof said that this book was meant for graduate students. So if you are an undergrad, you're pretty much going to be frustrated with the language of the book. The book covers recent journals and extensive lab techniques (that as an undergrad, you are NOT going to do). What the authors do is: they will first present to you the information as experimental proofs and data about the subject. If you read carefully, you'll be able to differentiate "the meat" of the topic from experimental information. (analogy: reading this book is like going to a grad seminar as an undergrad). Take my word for it, if you are a second-year or third-year student taking Cell Bio. You can buy the book, but you are surely going to be very frustrated with it. My prof also said that he chose this book, so that we could "build our English vocabulary". Cell Biology doesn't have to be that difficult to appreciate...

I used this book as the text for a UC Santa Cruz extension course in molecular cell biology. I read about 2/3 of it for course reading assignments and I found it to be excellent. It's clearly and well written but is definitely information dense. You really have to focus closely while you're reading it. Expect to need to read most sections at least twice to absorb the material.

The diagrams are plentiful, are well drawn and must also be studied carefully since they contain information not included in the body of the text itself.

Information has obviously been updated as new versions of the book have appeared. This 4th edition has many references to publications as recent as 1999.

The animations in the accompanying CD are sometimes useful. A good example is the animation in chapter 22 of cell-cell adhesion in leukocyte extravasation.

Some of the chapters are confusing (even my Professor agreed). The diagrams occassionally are inaccurate and misleading. And it could be more readable.