Bernard Ho, St George's, University of London

At first glance at the title and the size of the book, I thought this book would not include much of the material that I need for PBL/lecture notes. However, this book has much more than it looks. The chapters are very similar to the different lecture topics and spread in a very logical fashion, such that one could read from cover to cover. With abundance of diagrams and tables, it allows many different types of learners to absorb the abstract ideas of immunology. One issue/problem about this book is that although the book is ‘basic’, there are a lot of material that goes above the typical medical school curriculum, so I won’t recommend this book as a ‘crash course’ book, but more as a textbook to learn and elaborate your notes from.

Posted 16th Mar 2011

Emma Jackson, University of Manchester

Immunology is a subject that I have always struggled with and didn’t really fully understand its importance until I started my clinical years. This book is both detailed and precise, but perhaps not the best place for someone with limited knowledge of immunology to start. I think if you have a good grasp of the basics then this book is an excellent aid to improving your knowledge. There are good diagrams to explain the major points. At the end of each chapter there are clear, concise summary points which are good for revision followed by review questions to check your understanding of the chapter. However the information is very detailed and there is probably too much information for general medical students. However if you have a special interest in immunology or you just want to find out more, I think that this is an excellent book for that. In terms of PBL I think it requires supplement with lectures as it is sometimes easier to understand a concept if it is explained orally as opposed to reading it. To conclude this is a detailed and interesting book, possibly above the level of general medical students.

Posted 28th Nov 2010