by : Drew Provan, MD Department of Haematology The Royal London Hospital London, England

The first thing I noticed when writing this review is that there is no publisher‚s name on the spine and it would appear that this publication has been partly sponsored by industry (Bayer). The reason for this probably lies in the fact that the book is highly unusual and not written in the typical hematology Œmold‚. What makes this book so different? Well, the authors somewhat ambitiously have decided to concentrate specifically on the mechanisms of disease and take us through the whole gamut of hematology from stem cells, malignancies, non-malignant diseases and blood transfusion. Most hematology texts cover much the same ground but sometimes, when reading mainstream hematology texts, it is difficult for readers to understand why patients and diseases have particular clinical features. Israel and Israel provide us with the core basic science which underpins modern hematology practice.

The book is divided into 31 chapters each of which can be read as a standalone section. The text is clear and is printed in a fairly large font size (which should help the more myopic senior hematologists). The book is not lavishly illustrated but there is certainly an adequate number of images which are very well drawn and complement the text nicely. The diagrams would also be very useful for teaching, and no doubt the CD-ROM allows the images to be imported into PowerPoint (although my review copy did not have the CD-ROM included). Each chapter has the feeling of a succinct lecture which provides all the necessary information to allow the reader to progress and to understand more complex hematology texts.

The authors are aiming this book at the senior student and trainee hematologist, as well as those of us involved in teaching. I think their approach is novel and ambitious and will suit the intended market. The problem, of course, is that there are several other student hematology texts around, some of which are extremely good, and this book faces fierce competition. Possibly their strong emphasis on basic science may make this volume popular with students; I would presume it has already found a niche in the US since this is the third edition since the initial publication in 1996.

Overall, I like this style of book and I admire the way the authors have shed the traditional style of student book writing and have focused on what matters, that is, the science behind the medicine. On a personal note, I am optimistic that this book will help liven up my own teaching material.



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