Book-Review

I recently listened (via Audible) to You Don’t Have to Have a Dream by Tim Minchin. I’m an unashamed fan of Tim’s and I was really pleased to see that he had published new content. Once again, a bonus was that Tim also narrated it. (I prefer books where the author reads it, not a hired voice actor).

Content

I was seriously surprised by how short this book was. I’m not sure how that made me feel: probably that I was hoping for more. This book is basically Tim repeating three graduation speeches that he’s given over the years, interspersed with some commentary about them. Generally, Tim tends to write fictional books.

2025-11-30

I recently listened (via Audible) to How not to Become a Grumpy Old Bugger: A Bloke’s Guide to Living a Better Life by Geoff Hutchison. It was only a few hours long, and the title sounded a little amusing, so I decided to listen to it. A bonus was that the author was the narrator. (I prefer books where the author reads it, not a hired voice actor).

Content

I was surprised by how broad the list of topics covered in the book was. Geoff covers the obvious topics like what on earth it means to be happy, but he also dives into darker areas with, for example, a chapter on death.

2025-11-28

I recently listened (via Audible) to Simply Said: Communicating Better at Work and Beyond by Jay Sullivan. I was going to read it, but I figured, given the topic of the book, it would be good to hear the author read through it. (I prefer books where the author reads it, not a hired voice actor).

Content

I was surprised by the content. I really expected it to be a book that predominantly covered topics on speaking clearly and well, but it tackles far more than that. It’s about many different forms of communication.

2025-11-24

I recently received a review copy of SQL for Data Analytics: Analyze data effectively, uncover insights and master advanced SQL for real-world applications by Jun Shan, Haibin Li, Matt Goldwasser, Upom Malik, Benjamin Johnston from my friends at PackT. It is the fourth edition of this book.

Authors

Jun Shan is a principal cloud solution advisor.
Haibin Li is a lead predictive modeler. He was a technical reviewer for the third edition of this book.
Matt Goldwasser is Vice President and head of AI and Data Science for Global Distribution at T.Rowe Price.
Upom Malik is a data science and analytics leader.
Benjamin Johnston is a senior data scientist for a leading data-driven MedTech company.

2025-11-23

I recently received an early release review copy of Azure Data Fundamentals: A Guide to DP-900 Certification and Beyond by Michael John Peña from my friends at O’Reilly.

Background

Over the years, I’ve taken a large number of Microsoft certification exams. I’ve also helped to write many of the exams. Therecd are people who’ve taken more than me, but not many. This book is designed to help you pass the DP-900 exam. I did take that exam long ago and thought it was a reasonable exam.

2025-11-20

I was recently sent an interesting book to review Exploring Azure Container Apps - Scaling Modern and Cloud-Native Apps and Microservices by Naga Santhosh Reddy Vootukuri, Taiseer Joudeh, and Wael Kdouh. I’ve been reading it over the last week while traveling.

Content

If you’ve been keeping an eye on Microsoft’s container story lately, you’ve probably noticed Azure Container Apps (ACA) gaining serious traction. It’s that just right service that sits between the Azure App Service and the full complexity of Kubernetes—managed. My work with it have found it to be flexible, and surprisingly capable once you dig in.

2025-10-16

Another book that I recently received for review from my friends at PackT Publishing was Getting Started with Graph Query Language (GQL) by Ricky Gun, Jason Zhang, and Yuri Simione.

The subtitle is The complete guide to designing, querying, and managing graph databases with GQL.

I’ve worked with a number of graph-based databases over the years and I was interested to see where GQL is heading.

SQL Server Graph

In 2017, graph databases were all the rage, and so I wasn’t surprised when the SQL Server team decided to implement graph functionality within SQL Server.

2025-08-22

Sometimes I’m sent books to review and I just don’t get around to it fast enough. This book was one of those. Why we argue and how to stop: A Therapist’s Guide to Navigating Disagreements, Managing Emotions, and Creating Healthier Relationships by Jerry Manney .

I found this book quite interesting.

Early on, Jerry notes that journaling is important because memory is unreliable. Jerry said I learned a long time ago that one of the key characteristics of a knowledgeable and successful person is not how much they can remember, but whether they have a method or system for accessing important and relevant information when they need it. I’m certainly learning that more as I get older.

2025-07-13

My friends at PackT recently sent me a review copy of fellow MVP Greg Deckler’s third edition of Learn Microsoft Power BI . It’s not released yet but is available for pre-order.

Production quality and additional resources

The book is written well and the copy and tech editing seem well handled.

I was particularly impressed to see that Art Tennick was a tech reviewer. I regularly mention Art’s books. I like the way he presents recipe style books. He did it with MDX and again with DAX. Many people don’t want a detailed coverage of a language, just a series of recipes on how to use it. That’s what some of Art’s books provide.

2025-07-01

I recently read another Mandarin Companion book called Great Expectations Part 1 adapted by John Pasden from the Charles Dickens original book.

I love these books.

John Pasden is well-known to anyone who’s been learning Mandarin for any length of time. He was one of the presenters at ChinesePod over the years. He set up a company called Mandarin Companion that produces graded readers.

If you haven’t seen graded readers (in any language), they are reading books that limit the scope of the target language to a particular set of words (or in this case characters).

2025-06-27