This text is a fairly standard treatment of classical (macroscopic) thermodynamics. It is targeted specifically at students of mechanical engineering. Anyone going into some other engineering discipline that depends on thermo (e.g., chem eng) -- or into one of the hard sciences (physics, biophys, biochem, chemistry, etc.) -- will get very little value from this book. Its main focus seems to be on the use of the right formula to solve specific kinds of problems. ("Plug and chug.")
There are many annoying things about this book. Perhaps the worst are the contrived "special topics" sections. These are an attempt by the authors to bring some kind of real-world relevance to their subject matter. These might also be called "Thermodynamics in Everyday Life." The concept is good, but the execution falls flat on it face. A few examples:
* 12 pages on dieting advice and recipes.
* 10 pages on choosing an automobile and driving it so as to maximize mileage.
* A long and detailed description of the method of electrically stunning, slaughtering, and freezing chickens.
* Several pages on the disadvantages of saying angry things to your co-workers (it increases "social entropy").
All-in all, these "special topics" fill about 20% of the book's total page count. The book would have been clearer, shorter, and presumably less expensive without them; it would also have killed fewer trees - another topic the authors devoted a "special topic" section to.
The artwork in the book is pathetic as well. The majority of it seems to be 2-D vector images taken from a freebie clipart collection. This alternates with some "Dagwood and Blondie" cartoons where (apparently) the authors have replaced the contents of the dialog baloons with clever sayings about thermodynamics.
In summary, this is a very irritating book to use. The level of information not very deep, and all the "good stuff" is hidden away between discussions of salad dressing and frozen chicken carcasses. There's got to be something better out there.