#Book Review
206 articles
Web API Design
A review of Web API Design. A book that has you think about API design not just from the interface but from the entry point before it. It offers perspectives for designing good APIs: focusing on what users can do rather than the mechanism, and frameworks for surfacing an API's goals.
SLO Service Level Objectives: A Practical Guide to Implementing SLI, SLO, and Error Budgets
A review of Implementing Service Level Objectives (SLO). A practical guide to adopting SLIs, SLOs, and error budgets. Starting from defining services and users, it frames reliability as whether users can do what they need, showing how to set meaningful targets while avoiding over-engineering reliability.
Web API Testing Techniques
A review of Web API Testing Techniques. A book that explains API testing through frameworks like asking questions with the 5W1H and the ten Ps model for grasping testability. From building test strategy and plans to security perspectives via STRIDE and threat trees, it offers views useful in practice.
Large-Scale Data Management: Best Practices for Enterprise Architecture
A review of Large-Scale Data Management. It points out the limits of managing data centrally and presents thinking for moving to a scalable architecture that keeps up with change. With ideas like avoiding data warehouse silos, it lets you rethink data management from an architectural viewpoint.
Microservices Architecture, 2nd Edition
A review of Building Microservices, 2nd Edition. A book worth reading if you are working on or considering microservices. It thoroughly addresses the architectural qualities (non-functional requirements) distributed systems demand, offering value even beyond a microservices-only view. Chapter 1 is a well-organized concept summary.
From Monolith to Microservices: A Practical Migration Guide to Evolve Monoliths
A review of Monolith to Microservices. A book focused specifically on approaches for migrating from a monolith to microservices. Its longest chapter tackles database decomposition, the biggest hurdle in migration, offering practical guidance for evolving a system step by step.
Building Secure and Reliable Systems: Design, Implementation, and Maintenance from Google SRE
A review of Building Secure and Reliable Systems. A book that frames security and reliability not as things simply implemented but as emergent properties arising from deployment and operations. Drawing on Google SRE's insights, it argues for weaving both into design from a project's earliest stages.
Mistakes in Software Architecture: Development and Evaluation of Non-Functional Requirements
A review of a book on mistakes in software architecture. Though old (published in 2010), it discusses architecture topics that still resonate today, in a casual style. Closer to an essay than a technical book, its later chapters (from chapter 6) are where the technical substance lies.
Unit Testing Best Practices: A Practical Guide for Developers
A review of Unit Testing Best Practices. A book that compiles the thinking and approaches needed for high-quality test design. Centered on what good tests should have, such as protection against regressions, resistance to refactoring, and maintainability, it shows with many examples how to design tests with cost-effectiveness in mind.
Trade-offs and Mistakes in Software Design: Making Better Choices in Programming
A review of Software Design Trade-offs and Errors. A book for learning the importance of weighing design trade-offs against each other, along with concrete examples of software design trade-offs. It teaches that considering even the reasons you did not choose an option leads to better choices.
Mastering TCP/IP: Introduction (6th Edition)
A review of Mastering TCP/IP: Introduction (6th Edition). With easy-to-grasp analogies, it is a standard primer for building network understanding from the basics of TCP/IP. Readable even for those wary of networking, it is a dependable textbook.
The Complete Guide to Health Technology
A review of The Complete Guide to Health Technology. A comprehensive, strongly evidence-conscious book on health. Centering on diet, it frames choices not as simply good or bad but as higher or lower risk. From the view that habits shape health, it also digs into controlling decisions and behavior.
Why Networks Connect: 2nd Edition - Essential Knowledge of TCP/IP, LAN, and Fiber Optics
A review of Why Networks Connect, 2nd Edition. Following the flow from typing in a browser to data arriving, it explains the basics of TCP/IP, LAN, and fiber optics. Billed for beginners, it is fairly substantial, and reading it after other fundamentals deepens understanding.
Learning PostgreSQL from Its Internal Structure: Principles of Design and Operation Planning
A review of Learning PostgreSQL from Its Internal Structure. A book that covers what you should know to operate PostgreSQL, from the angle of design and operations grounded in its internals. Understanding the mechanisms, it guides you toward solid design and operational planning.
Fun with Ruby
A review of Fun with Ruby. An introductory book for beginners about to learn Ruby. Prior experience with object orientation or other languages makes it easier going, but it gently covers the basics of Ruby from end to end.
Perfect Ruby on Rails
A review of Perfect Ruby on Rails. A book for those who want to get started with Ruby on Rails. Its comprehensive coverage of the framework's features helps you grasp the overall picture of what Rails provides.
Perfect Ruby
A review of Perfect Ruby. A volume in the Perfect series that comprehensively explains Ruby's language spec and features. Covering everything from basics to a step deeper, it is a dependable read when you want to learn Ruby thoroughly.
PostgreSQL Comprehensive Guide, 4th Edition: From Installation to Features, Mechanisms, Application Development, Management, and Operations
A review of PostgreSQL Comprehensive Guide, 4th Edition. An introductory book spanning installation, features and mechanisms, application development, and management and operations. Just right for those new to PostgreSQL, it covers the basics with application examples.
Introduction to Ruby for Aspiring Professionals
A review of Introduction to Ruby for Aspiring Professionals. A book that explains Ruby in detail, from the basics to practical, work-ready content. Its careful, readable explanations make it well suited for those aiming to become professionals with Ruby to build a solid foundation.
Why Computers Work: 2nd Edition - Essential Knowledge of Hardware and Software
A review of Why Computers Work (2nd Edition). It lets you understand the whole flow of how a computer works, from hardware to software. Reading it together with Why Programs Work gives you a more well-rounded grasp of the fundamentals.