Book excerpt: When you need just the essentials of organic chemistry, this Easy Outlines book is there to help If you are looking for a quick nuts-and-bolts overview of organic chemistry, it’s got to be Schaum's Easy Outline. This book is a pared-down, simplified, and tightly focused version of its Schaum’s Outline cousin, with an emphasis on clarity and conciseness. Graphic elements such as sidebars, reader-alert icons, and boxed highlights stress selected points from the text, illuminate keys to learning, and give you quick pointers to the essentials. Perfect if you have missed class or need extra review Gives you expert help from teachers who are authorities in their fields So small and light that it fits in your backpack! Topics include: Structure and Properties, Reactivity and Reactions, Alkanes and Cycloalkanes, Stereochemistry, Alkenes, Alkynes, and Dienes, Alkyl Halides, Aromatic Compounds, Spectroscopy and Structure, Alcohols, Ethers, and Epoxides, Aldehydes and Ketones, Carboxylic Acids and Their Derivatives, Enolates and Enols, Amines, Amino Acids, Peptides, Proteins, Carbohydrates and Nucleic Acids Index