"Biochemistry," by Lubert Stryer, has become one of the standard textbooks for the field. The Fifth Edition has two new authors: Jeremy Berg, Professor and Director of Biophysics and Biophysical Chemistry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; and John Tymoczko, the Towsley Professor of Biology at Carleton College. The new edition does, in fact, continue the successful approach to Biochemistry pioneered by Stryer and retains many of the traditions established in previous editions. The new initiatives introduced in this edition have the potential to provide a framework for biochemistry that is even tighter and more multidimensional.