One good book leads to another.

Better than I expected. Rare to find a technical book this well judged.

I read this over a couple of weekends alongside a small side project, which turned out to be the ideal way to approach it. The author is unusually honest about where the simplifications break down, which I appreciated. Some terminology is introduced without much ceremony; I had to look a few things up along the way. An easy five stars from me. I look forward to whatever the author writes next.

Very good, with a few caveats. The core material is strong.

I was looking for something that would bridge the gap between tutorials and proper reference material, and this does that well. The author avoids over-explaining, which keeps the pace up but means you need to pay attention. A few of the examples could be more realistic, but the underlying points come across clearly. I particularly liked the way the author builds up from simple cases before introducing the harder material. Four stars, and I suspect a second edition could easily push it to five.

Recommended, with the caveat that it is not a gentle introduction.

I had been on the fence about this one for a while, and I should have bought it sooner. There is a section near the end that ties several earlier ideas together in a way I had not seen before. The chapters on databases & big data are the strongest — the examples are stripped down but complete, and I could follow along without constant guessing. Recommended, with the caveat that it is not a gentle introduction.