Book excerpt: This three-volume set represents the first comprehensive coverage of the rapidly expanding field of Lewis base catalysis that has attracted enormous attention in recent years. Lewis base catalysis is a conceptually novel paradigm that encompasses an extremely wide variety of preparatively useful transformations and is particularly effective for enantioselectively constructing new stereogenic centers. As electron-pair donors, Lewis bases can influence the rate and stereochemical course of myriad synthetic organic reactions. The book presents the conceptual/mechanistic principles that underlie Lewis base catalysis, and then builds upon that foundation with a thorough presentation of many different reaction types. And last but not least, the editors, Prof. Edwin Vedejs and Prof. Scott E. Denmark, are without doubt the leaders in this emerging field and have compiled high quality contributions from an impressive collection of international experts.