BOOK REVIEWS CID 2008:46 (1 February) 485

B O O K R E V I E W S
Gary P. Wormser, Section Editor
Clinical Infectious Diseases 2008; 46:4857
2008 by the Infectious Diseases Society of America. All
rights reserved. For permission to reuse, please contact
journalpermissions@press.uchicago.edu.
1058-4838/2008/4603-0033$15.00
DOI: 10.1086/525537
Antibiotics Basics For
Clinicians: Choosing the
Right Antibacterial Agent
Alan R. Hauser
Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins,
2007
320 pp., illustrated. $32.95
The book Antibiotic Basics For Clinicians:
Choosing the Right Antibacterial Agent is
designed to accomplish the daunting task
of creating a basic review on a compli-
cated, multifaceted topic. The book is di-
vided into 4 sections: Bacterial Basics, An-
tibacterial Agents, Denitive Therapy, and
Empirical Therapy. Each chapter has sev-
eral review questions, with answers pro-
vided in the back of the text. In addition,
12 clinical cases are provided, as are 50
overall review questions, both with dis-
cussion and answers. There are also nu-
merous dosage tables provided. The au-
thors intention is that the book will serve
as a guide to antibacterials for medical stu-
dents, residents, and practicing physicians
and that it will provide a bridge between
didactic knowledge acquired during the
rst 2 years of medical school and the en-
trenched prescribing habits acquired by
clinicians. The author states that a busy
student or physician can read the book in
12 weeks.
The author has accomplished his goals,
because this book is an excellent primer
on antibacterials and provides informa-
tion in an abbreviated, nonlofty manner.
The chapters are written in a way that
skimming of sections to get to the im-
portant information is not required; the
authors pares the information down to the
essentials. The book also adds an extra
layer of knowledge usually acquired be-
tween course work and seasoned clinical
experience. In the area of infectious dis-
eases, students and residents are often
ummoxed by having to choose among
different antibiotics and to identify the
most appropriate choice for a given situ-
ation. This book reinforces fundamental
principles to consider and apply when
choosing appropriate antibacterial ther-
apy.
Engaging methods are used to present
material: gures display the sites of infec-
tion for various organisms; charts display
the antimicrobial activity of agents, with
CAUTION, GO, and STOP signs for each
type of organismclass (e.g., quinolones for
anaerobic bacteria is given a caution sign);
mechanisms of resistance are displayed vi-
sually in gures; and memorization cues
are provided for topics such as the anti-
microbial activity of the cephalosporins.
At times, the book can oversimplify
topics, but this is not so much a weakness
of the book as much as it is a collateral
effect in accomplishing the main goal in
providing a basic guide to antibacterials.
For example, acquiring a comprehensive
list of potential adverse effects (e.g., line-
zolid and peripheral/optic neuropathies)
would require referring to other resources.
In addition, there are a few instances in
which major antibacterial indications are
not listed for a particular agent (e.g., tri-
methoprim-sulfamethoxazole and Pneu-
mocystis carinii pneumonia).
If students, residents, and practicing
physicians invest their time in reading this
book, they will be rewarded with a good
antibacterial review that brings together
microbiology, pharmacology, and disease
state management that will make the ques-
tion which antibiotic should this patient
be receiving less overwhelming.
Future volumes planned by the author
include antivirals, antifungals, and anti-
parasitics, which would provide a com-
plete spectrum of infectious diseases
treatment.
Amy L. Pakyz
School of Pharmacy,
Virginia Commonwealth
University, Richmond
The Intelligent Microbe
Jean-Claude Peche` re
Paris, France: Frison Roche, 2007.
240 pp., illustrated. 35.00 EUR (paper).
No, this book is not a science ction book,
as the title may suggest. The Intelligent Mi-
crobe is not the description of an imagi-
nary war between human beings andsome
tiny creatures that, on account of the mu-
tations experienced during a nuclear war,
have become intelligent beings who
threaten the survival of our species. In
contrast, according to the authors own
denition, The intention of this book is
to present the notion of cooperative mi-
crobes being far more benecial to man-
kind than harmful (p. 119). Dr. Pechere
offers an exciting journey into the world
of both prokaryotes and eukaryotesthat
is, a journey into our planet, which pos-
sesses eminent microbial life. In principle,
the book could be classied as a popular
science book; however, when the reader
delves deeper into its content, he or she
may realize that the book is an essay in
which the author offers a very personal
view of microbes and, in particular, de-
nes his philosophy of life. It describes
basic microbial biology in a simple man-
ner, fromDNAreplicationto sexualityand
from energy procurement to message
transmission. This allows the book to be
scientically didactic, which may be of in-
terest to the nonspecialist reader of mi-
crobiology. The chapters are strewn with

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