Book Index | xProgramming.com

Book Index

Browse the page, or select a class of book:
agile, fiction, management, other, programming, writing.

Reviews classified as ‘agile’:

Adaptive Software Development Jim Highsmith Check out Jim’s excellent book on how to bring lighter methods to large and complex projects.	Agile Development with Scrum Ken Schwaber and Mike Beedle The first definitive Scrum reference. Good material on a process that works well — and even better if you add in XP-style practices.	Agile Software Development Alistair Cockburn An early view of Cockburn’s view of Agile, including the first look at Cyrstal Clear. There are newer books from this author but this one is still well worth having.
Balancing Agility and Discipline: A Guide for the Perplexed. Barry Boehm, Richard Turner Important, mostly balanced, recommended in spite of unfortunate title.	Extreme Programming Adventures in C# Ron Jeffries Should have been called Pair Programming with Ron. Many reviewers love the book.	Extreme Programming Explained Kent Beck This is the first edition, still fresh. Consider the second edition as well: Kent Beck much prefers it.
Extreme Programming Installed Ron Jeffries, Ann Anderson, Chet Hendrickson Still, in my humble opinion, the best advice on the specifics of Extreme Programming.	Extreme Programming Refactored Matt Stephens, Doug Rosenberg Waste of perfectly good trees, except for some delightful slams at Yours Truly. The review does mention some things to like.	Java Tools for eXtreme Programming Richard Hightower and Nicholas Lesiecki Mike Clark gives this book a favorable review.
Planning Extreme Programming Kent Beck, Martin Fowler Introduction to the XP planning process in the style of these excellent authors.	Pragmatic Ajax Justin Gehtland, Ben Galbraith, Dion Almaer Authors Gehtland, Galbraith, and Almaer describe Ajax and how to use it! From the Pragmatic Programmers.	Questioning Extreme Programming Pete McBreen Jeff Langr feels that this book falls short of what it could be, due to McBreen’s stated inexperience with XP.
Refactoring Databases Scott Ambler, Pramod Sadalage This very helpful book begins to do for database refactoring what Fowler’s original book did for code.	The Pragmatic Programmer Andy Hunt and Dave Thomas Outstanding book, focusing on specific skills we all need to know, alone or on a team.

Reviews classified as ‘fiction’:

Extreme Programming Refactored Matt Stephens, Doug Rosenberg Waste of perfectly good trees, except for some delightful slams at Yours Truly. The review does mention some things to like.	Kiln People David Brin Science fiction detective novel. Send out your clay ‘dittos’ to do your dirty work.	Lawrence Sanders McNally’s Chance Vincent Lardo Fans of Archie McNally are glad that Lardo has picked up the fallen Sanders character. Start from the first of the series, not here.
The Sandman Neil Gaiman Short stories from the world of the Sandman.

Reviews classified as ‘management’:

Leadership and Self-Deception The Arbinger Institute A thought-provoking book that made me look at what I do well — and not so well.	Slack Tom DeMarco Yet another Excellent DeMarco book. A warning about running too ‘lean and mean’.	Software for Your Head Jim and Michele McCarthy Fascinating book if you’re serious about your profession, teamwork, or success.
The Agenda Michael Hammer Emerging business principles describing how the best companies are finding ways to prosper. Some very people-oriented, some, not so much.	The Manager Pool Don Sherwood Olson and Carol L.Stimmel Challenging book addressing ‘Patterns for Radical Leadership’

Reviews classified as ‘other’:

A Short History of Nearly Everything Bill Bryson Delicious, informative, and fun!	Help Yourself Get Everything Done Mark Forster Out of many books on being organized, this is one of the few that have actually helped me improve.	Mentoring Chungliang Al Huang and Jerry Lynch Thoughtful, poetic thoughts on guidance. Same as ‘Tau Mentoring’ from these authors, nicer package here.
The CEO of the Sofa P.J. O’Rourke Chet Hendrickson gives this one a thumb sideways.	The Pyramids: The Mystery, Culture, and Science of Egypt’s Great Monuments Miroslav Verner An encyclopedic book covering every known ancient Egyptian monument.	Turtles, Termites, and Traffic Jams Mitchell Resnick Explorations in Massively Parallel Microworlds. Introduces StarLogo. Interesting and fun.

Reviews classified as ‘programming’:

Dynamics of Software Development Jim McCarthy Excellent guidelines from Jim McCarthy, applicable to projects and teams everywhere.	Extreme Programming Adventures in C# Ron Jeffries Should have been called Pair Programming with Ron. Many reviewers love the book.	Java Tools for eXtreme Programming Richard Hightower and Nicholas Lesiecki Mike Clark gives this book a favorable review.
Pragmatic Ajax Justin Gehtland, Ben Galbraith, Dion Almaer Authors Gehtland, Galbraith, and Almaer describe Ajax and how to use it! From the Pragmatic Programmers.	Programming Ruby Dave Thomas and Andy Hunt The Ruby book we refer to first and last. Excellent!	Ruby in a Nutshell Yukihiro Matsumoto Good pocket guide, not much explanation. Too bad it’s bigger than your pocket!
Software Craftsmanship Pete McBreen Pete makes an excellent case for a craftsmanship model of developing better software people and projects.	The Humane Interface Jef Raskin Wonderful book with a new look at human factors.	The Pragmatic Programmer Andy Hunt and Dave Thomas Outstanding book, focusing on specific skills we all need to know, alone or on a team.
The Ruby Way Hal Fulton Even larger than ‘Programming Ruby’, a bit more current. (But there’s a second edition of ‘Programming Ruby’, not reviewed yet here.	XSLT Quickly Bob DuCharme My favorite XSLT book, used in producing this web site.

Reviews classified as ‘writing’:

Bugs in Writing
Lyn Dupré

Fun book with short chapters that will improve your writing skills, if you pay attention to what Lyn says.

One Continuous Mistake
Gail Sher

From the book: Writers write; writing is a process; you don’t know what your writing will be until the end of the process; if writing is your practice, the only way to fail is not to write.

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