The book bridges the gap between a course on modern physics and an advanced formal treatise on nuclear physics. The treatment of topics is simple and direct. Physical ideas are given prominence and this has been done by informal discussions and many analogies. It starts with the tools of nuclear physics, both experimental and mathematical. The author has taken special care in treating the nuclear shell model throughout the analogy with atomic and molecular physics. It is a suitable text for any student who has been exposed to a college level course in modern physics and who has mathematical competence at the level of calculus and elementary vector analysis. An important feature of the book is that numerous illustrative examples have been given along with 200 neatly drawn figures and problem question sets.