"These days, when such an overwhelming amount of material is published, it is convenient to be able to access summarized information and gain a quick overview of a current topic," wrote Kilian Muniz in Angewandte Chemie International Edition about Douglass Taber's weekly "Organic Chemistry Highlights" column on the organic-chemistry.org Web site.

The first in a new series, Organic Synthesis: State of the Art 2003–2005 pulls together two years' worth of Taber's popular and highly-regarded column, and comprises a concise, extremely useful overview of current accomplishments in the field of organic synthesis. The 103 articles in this volume review the leading synthetic procedures developed over the last two years, discussing their significance and their applications. The more than 100 reactions covered in this First Volume of the series include:

• Heterocycle Construction by Grubbs Metathesis
• Enantioselective C-C Bond Construction
• Organic Reactions in Ionic Liquids

Enhanced by author and subject-transformation indices, Organic Synthesis: State of the Art 2003–2005 offers chemists an effective, much-needed way to stay abreast of what's new and exciting in their field.