Book-Review

I recently received a review copy of Agentic Architectural Patterns for Building Multi-Agent Systems by Dr. Ali Arsanjani and Juan Pablo Bustos from my friends at PackT.

Authors

Dr. Ali Arsanjani is Director of Applied AI Engineering at Google Cloud where he leads a center of excellence bridging research, forward-deployed engineering, and enterprise implementation.

Juan Pablo Bustos is also currently at Google, and serves as a strategic partner to Fortune 50 corporations and global institutions. He specializes in operationalizing AI for the enterprise.

2026-07-13

I recently received a review copy of The New Quantum Era: An Outsider’s Introduction by Sebastian Hassinger from my friends at PackT.

Author

Sebastian Hassinger has held key positions at Apple, IBM, and AWS. He is now an independent consultant and advisor. You can find him on The New Quantum Era podcast.

Content

This is a rare kind of technology book: ambitious, historically grounded, technically serious, and still readable for people who do not have a physics degree. And Sebastian is well placed to write it. He’s had both insider access and outsider sympathy.

2026-07-11

I recently received a review copy of Agentic Coding with Claude Code by Eden Marco from my friends at PackT.

Author

Eden Marco is an LLM specialist at Google Cloud and a LangChain Ambassador with years of experience in software engineering and cloud architecture. Over many years, he has created practical courses based on his real-world experience.

Content

This is a timely and practical guide for developers who are ready to move beyond casual AI-assisted coding and start treating coding agents as serious development tools. Eden’s main argument is that effective agentic coding is not just about writing better prompts. It is about engineering context: deciding what the agent should know, what it should ignore, what tools it should use, and how its work should be structured so that results are repeatable, controlled, and maintainable.

2026-07-03

I recently received a review copy of Extreme DAX: Take your Power BI and Fabric analytics skills to the next level by Michiel Rozema, Madzy Stikkelorum, and Henk Vlootman from my friends at PackT.

Authors

Michiel Rozema is a long-term IT industry veteran. He was the data insight lead at Microsoft Netherlands and launched Power BI in the country. Michiel works as a data analyst and architect for his company Qanto. He is a fellow Data Platform MVP.

2026-06-01

I’m hoping to have Drew Robbins on my new Tech Career for Life Podcast later this week, and I noticed that he had a new book out, so I decided I’d read it before I had him on the show.

In a working world obsessed with metrics — titles, promotions, performance reviews When No One’s Keeping Score lands with a quiet but deliberate challenge: what if the work that matters most is the work that never shows up on a scoreboard?

2026-02-10

I recently received a review copy of DAX for Humans: The No CALCULATE Guide that Makes DAX Easy by Greg Deckler from my friends at PackT.

Author

Greg Deckler is the vice president of a global consulting services company. He’s a fellow Data Platform MVP and an active data community member. Greg also wrote DAX Cookbook: Over 120 recipes to enhance your business with analytics, reporting, and business intelligence .

Content

If you’ve worked with Power BI or semantic data models for any length of time, you’ve probably encountered the same challenge millions of others have: DAX is powerful… but it often feels unnecessarily difficult to learn. Much of that frustration stems from the traditional teaching approach, which centers heavily on the CALCULATE function — arguably the most complicated and unintuitive function in the entire language.

2025-12-18

I recently received a review copy of Introduction to .NET Aspire: Mastering Cloud-Native Microservices Development with .NET Aspire by Naga Santhosh Reddy Vootukuri and Tommaso Stocchi from my friends at BPB Publications.

Authors

Naga Santhosh Reddy Vootukuri works for Microsoft as a Principal Software Engineering Manager in the Azure SQL product. He has deep knowledge in cloud computing, distributed systems,AI, microservice-based architecture, and cloud-native apps. Santhosh has authored and published numerous research articles in peer-reviewed and indexed journals and in major trade publications. He is a core MVB blogger at DZone and an active senior IEEE member handling various conferences as technical chair in the Seattle IEEE region. Naga has been awarded the prestigious Docker Captain membership program for his outstanding contributions to the Docker and containers community.

2025-12-12

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