Facts are Sacred: The power of data by Simon Rogers
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Well written book that is stuffed with seemingly useless data until the author ties it altogether. The Guardian has always been at the forefront of data journalism and this book gives some insight to why that is. Quick read that is a must for any data junkie.
Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life by Tonianne DeMaria Barry
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Great introduction into Personal Kanban and even Kanban in general. The author does a wonderful job walking you the history of Kanban and the strengths it has for your personal workflow. Even those that have never experienced Kanban can have a board up and running by the end of the book.
Designing Great Data Products by Jeremy Howard
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Very quick read but the content was light and not that satisfying. Some decent high level stuff on the “Drive Train Approach” but overall I would only pick this up if you are looking for a quick read while your kids are playing at the park.
Php And Mongo Db Web Development Beginner’s Guide by Rubayeet Islam
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was a great book for those looking to get their feet wet with MongoDB. PHP And MongoDB covered many more topics than many of the MongoDB books I have read recently and while I am not a PHP developer gave me a few more ways to leverage MongoDB in my day to day work.
I especially enjoyed the chapters on Geospatial functionality and the GridFS system. Both of these topics we handled throughly and are typically glossed over in other books.
The one place I felt this book was light was the operations and administration side of things. Nowadays, many developers are handling operations as well and I feel that those topics could be explored further in books like this.
All in all, I would recommend anyone in web development looking for somewhere to start with MongoDB pick up this book and give it a read.
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Seven Databases in Seven Weeks: A Guide to Modern Databases and the NoSQL Movement by Eric Redmond
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Seven Databases in Seven Weeks is a great book for giving you an overview of the latest databases in the different segments out there. It is definitely an entry level chapter on each system that will let you know whether or not to pursue it further with more in depth material.
Anyone curious about what is available besides the de facto SQL standard offerings should give this book a read.
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Pulling Strings with Puppet: Configuration Management Made Easy by James Turnbull
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is a good book, but hard to get going with. It is slightly out of date. I recommend starting with the online tutorials first and then jumping to Chapter 3 and reading from there.
Scaling MongoDB by Kristina Chodorow
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Quick read but super informative. Anyone looking to setup shards and clusters using MongoDB should read this book. What is really nice is the author’s first hand knowledge of the system (she is a core contributor) and explaining priorities and milestones of future releases. That helped keep this book from failing behind a technology that is evolving quickly.
Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Happy and How They Can Change the World by Jane McGonigal
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Good book with some great insights and game design theory as could be applied to the real world. Some of the author’s examples of games she has been involved in are used to illustrate the points she is making and can drag on. But stick with it there are great nuggets of information in those examples.
