Apostol's Calculus texts (2 volumes) are the best with the supporting theory. I'm more from an engineering perspective, for readers looking for a book from tha

Apostol's Calculus texts (2 volumes) are the best with the supporting theory. I'm more from an engineering perspective, for readers looking for a book from that direction is Kline's "Calculus: An Intuitive and Physical Approach". Introductory general biology texts have a lot more variation in how the material is presented, but have to cover such an incredible amount of facts that there is actually less effective difference. Some biology texts tend to be more ecologically oriented (Campbell), where others are more cellular and chemically oriented (Curtis), but the difference tends to get lost somewhat with the need to cover everything, and the sheer mass of material each HAS to cover. You might try Pauling's "General Chemistry" text for a more theoretical treatment in chemistry. Both Kline's calculus and Pauling's chemistry texts were from the 1960s and reprinted by Dover in the 1990s; you might try checking the Dover catalog to see if there are any more similar reprints out.