Rating: 
Summary: This book has it all...
Review: This book is incredibly inclusive, covering bacteria, antibiotics, viruses and parasites. I was impressed with the explantions given and was humored by the anecdotes and pictures. I would reccomend this book to both those studying for exams and working in the feild.
Rating:
Summary: One of my alltime favorite usmle books
Review: This book is just awesome. It has all the points you need for the boars exams. WOW its that good. I read it for my course and then for my board exam review. I read it cover to cover 2 times and some sections in it 4 to 5 times. The antibiotics section is so good you don't struggle trying to retain info. A must have!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: An otherwise excellent book compromised by poor editing
Review: This book is of the typical "Ridiculously Simple" style. This is an excellent book that transforms a boring subject into something fun to read. Mnemonics, coded in words or illustrated by cartoons, are scattered all over the book. Many of them do help!
However, as other reviewers have complained, this book is full of spelling errors, typos, and misplaced figures and legends. The overall impression about its editing is "ridiculously chaotic". Try to imagine that. An example is the CD4+ T-cell count. On page 197 and 198, it is mentioned many times when its unit is "ul", "uL", "ml", and "mL". How confusing! The last two are the correct ones. But "ml" may be a preferred format. Or simply leave the unit out if you are not sure about it. Improve this. This kind of problem has nothing to do with being "Ridiculously Simple", I believe.
Some information in the book is outdated. For example, smallpox probably will not show up in the exam any more. And the vaccines for polio. Does the author know that we use a combination of Salk and Sabin vaccines today? Why is this not mentioned in the book?
Cartoons are nice. But I also like some real pictures about the worms and the diseases that they cause.
This book has the potential to get a 5-star rating. However, it is spoiled by abusing the word "ridiculously".
Rating:
Summary: The book that saved me....
Review: This book is the best. It helped me sail through my exams as one of the students that managed to answer all the unexpected microbiology questions. It actually makes you want to read it, even if you don't think you have to. And allthough some of the drawings are a bit far out, the good ones stay with you.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Learning Aid, Must Buy
Review: This book made medical microbiology a lot easier. It is concise and written to teach. It is helpful because it explains conditions in every day language. My study group and I used this book and the following which is also available on amazon.com:
Microbiology Study Guide: Key Review Questions and Answers by Patrick Leonardi (ISBN: 0971999635)
The second book helped me prepare for the type of questions on my medical microbiology exams. I also used both these books as helpful references for the microbiology portion of the USLME 1. It just goes to show, everyone in my study group not only got high grades in our medical microbiology class, but also we all passed the USLME Step 1 the first time.
Rating: 
Summary: Annoying.
Review: This book may be the greatest micro review book in the world. I wouldn't really know. I couldn't get through more than 5 pages without feeling nauseous due to Ridiculously Simple's sense of "humor". I purchased the book because an upperclassman told me it was invaluable and "everyone uses it". Had I bothered to flip through it for more than 10 seconds before buying it, I would have realized I wouldn't be able to stomach it. If you're a fan of Jay Leno and/or Carrot Top, this may be a great book for you. However, it was absolutely worthless to me. That's not to say I'm not a huge Carrot Top fan...or something.
Rating:
Summary: Made micro easy with the great drawings
Review: This book was lots of fun with lots of pictures. These pictures made learning micro interesting and easy. It definitely helped me ace the Boards
Rating:
Summary: Very good review of microbiology and entertaining to read.
Review: This is a good source to help make microbiology easier. The words are easy to understand, to the point, and clear. It is refreshing since it is not boring to read. Actually, it keeps your attention and makes studying more fun.
In addition, I also used Microbiology Study Guide: Key Review Questions and Answers by Patrick Leonardi. This study guide helped prepare me for the type of questions that were asked on my microbiology exams in med school. I even used it to study for my USLME Boards. I passed the boards the first time. This says something about both these books.
Rating:
Summary: Johnny 5
Review: This is a great book to supplement a medical school class. The tables at the end of each chapter are amazing and will really help out on exams if you can commit most of that information to memory. I know that sounds like a lot, but by the end of your medical micro course, you'll understand what I mean.
Rating:
Summary: An update
Review: This is a very well written, concise, and even fun book on clinical micro. The mnemonically oriented illustrations are a nice idea and add to the overall enjoyment of reading the book. Some of these are really pretty entertaining. I give the authors points for creativity for including them. Some people might find them a little flippant at times, but I enjoyed them, and remember, this is mainly intended as a review book, which might be especially useful for those taking their boards.The book does a good job also of including the latest information on the newest antibiotics and treatments, although these things of course change rapidly. To just mention possibly the most important of these: since the book was published, there have been the first reports of a strain of staphylococcus aureus that is resistant to the powerful new antibiotic, linezolid, and also of strains of enterococci that are resistant. Unfortunately, the drug has only been in use for about a year. This one of the few drugs still effective against tough, resistant, gram-positive bacteria. To keep matters in perspective, however, the report from the UK said it was the only patient known out of 3000-4000 who have been given the drug. Since then a number of other cases of resistance have been reported here in the US also. No doubt there will be others but we're still talking about a very low incidence rate. However, it's a reminder that we can't rest on our laurels and the evolved resistance problem is going to be an ongoing issue. But getting back to the book, this is a highly readable, informative, and even entertaining book on an important clinical subject. It's worth noting also that the credits page lists dozens of MD's who reviewed the different chapters, presumably for accuracy and completeness, so I would have confidence that the book has the best information possible as of the time it was published. All in all a good book which should be a useful resource for anyone needing to learn or bone up quickly about this important area, especially for anyone studying for their boards.
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