Book excerpt: This fully updated new edition presents organic reaction mechanism questions, carefully selected from the primary chemical literature, to understand how reactants are transformed into products. The author explains step-by-step solutions to all problems with appropriate contextual comments explaining the rationale and reasoning underlying each step, and identifying the underlying principles involved in each question. In the process the reader gains a better understanding of the fundamental principles of organic chemistry and how to become proficient in using the Lewis acid/Lewis base concept to complete organic reactions without resorting to memorization. Features : The questions are graded in difficulty with Part A containing questions aimed at students taking the sophomore-level organic chemistry class, while part B contains questions of somewhat greater difficulty suitable for students taking an honors course in organic chemistry or a beginning graduate course. Detailed answers are provided to all questions so students can check their answers and important points are highlighted in each answer. Special emphasis has been placed on the selection of questions to ensure that each question illustrates one or more fundamental principles of organic chemistry. Interspersed throughout the book are minireviews that cover the material pertaining to a particular topic. The specific literature references corresponding to each question are included and students can look up those references for more contextual information. Includes a large number of carefully-selected mechanism questions and step-by-step solutions, including explanatory comments