Hoffman (chemistry, emeritus, New Mexico State University) presents a principles-focused discussion of organic chemistry from a mechanistic and structural perspective, filling the need for a refresher text for graduate students taking advanced courses. He describes general mechanistic considerations vital to understanding functional group transformations, then provides insight on synthetic transformations commonly employed in modern organic chemistry. This second edition features new chapter problems and solutions, and new discussions of organopalladium chemistry, free radical reactions for carbon-carbon bond formation, and Diels-Alder chemistry. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)