Fiction, nonfiction, poetry, & technology book reviews, plus social, political, & economic commentary
Mastering Python, Second Edition by Rick van Hatten aims to help you “write powerful and efficient code using the full range of Python’s capabilities.” It’s a big book, some 680 pages in print form, and well written. And it does indeed delve into Python’s “full range.” Even so, a few reviewers have commented that they … Continue reading Mastering Python, 2nd Edition -> Big & Beneficial
Hello World! Computer Programming for Kids and Other Beginners (2nd Edition) Warren Sande and Carter Sande (Manning, paperback) Many politicians, educators and pundits keep arguing over whether the United States should offer computer programming classes to all students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Others say all of us, including senior citizens, should do some coding to … Continue reading Hello World! – Updated book brings new fun to learning Python – #programming #bookreview
Python Cookbook, 3rd Edition David Beazley & Brian K. Jones (O’Reilly – paperback, Kindle) PYTHON 3 users will be very pleased with this new book. Those who still cling to Python 2 likely will not. Even though “most working Python programmers continue to use Python 2 in production,” its authors concede, and “Python 3 is not … Continue reading Python Cookbook, 3rd Edition – Breaking Away from Python 2 to Python 3 – #programming #bookreview
O’Reilly has released two new books to help you get started with two hot new products: the MakerBot desktop 3D printer and the Raspberry Pi, a tiny, inexpensive computer the size of a credit card. Here are short reviews of the two how-to guides: Getting Started with MakerBot Bre Pettis, Anna Kaziunas France & Jay Shergill … Continue reading Make something new, with MakerBot or Raspberry Pi – #bookreview #programming #diy
Python for Kids Jason R. Briggs (No Starch Press – paperback, Kindle) Subtitled “A Playful Introduction to Programming,” Python for Kids is recommended “for kids aged 10+ (and their parents).” But what if your kids are grown or you don’t have any kids? Should you ignore this book while learning Python? Absolutely not. I’ve recently … Continue reading Python for Kids – A fun & efficient how-to book that even grownups can enjoy – #programming #bookreview
Big Data is hothotHOT. And O’Reilly recently has added three new books of potential interest to Big Data workers, as well as those hoping to join their ranks. Hadoop, Hive and–surprise!—Python are just a few of the hot tools you may encounter in the rapidly expanding sea of data now being gathered, explored, stored, and … Continue reading Big Data Book Blast: Hadoop, Hive…and Python??? – #programming #bookreview
Practical Computer Vision with SimpleCV Kurt Demaagd, Anthony Oliver, Nathan Oostendorp, and Katherine Scott (O’Reilly, paperback – Kindle) SimpleCV, or Simple Computer Vision, is “an easy-to-use Python framework that bundles together open source computer vision libraries and algorithms for solving problems,” according to the authors of this useful and informative how-to book. The subtitle is “Making … Continue reading Practical Computer Vision with SimpleCV – ‘Seeing’ with Python – #programming #bookreview
Think Python Allen B. Downey (O’Reilly, paperback – Kindle) First, a confession. My favorite book for learning Python is Head First Python by Paul Barry. It literally does throw you head-first into Python programming. By page 10, it has you working with nested lists. By page 30, you are creating a function that you will save and turn … Continue reading Think Python – A gentle and effective guide to learning Python programming – #programming #bookreview
Introducing Regular Expressions Michael Fitzgerald (O’Reilly, paperback – Kindle) “Regular expressions are specially encoded text strings used as patterns for matching sets of strings,” Michael Fitzgerald writes in this example-rich new book that focuses on learning by doing. Veteran programmers who work with Perl, Java, JavaScript, C# and a number of Unix utilities often consider … Continue reading Introducing Regular Expressions – Finding your perfect match…in strings – #bookreview
The Data Journalism Handbook: How Journalists Can Use Data to Improve the News Edited by Jonathan Gray, Liliana Bounegru, and Lucy Chambers (O’Reilly, paperback – Kindle) Arise, ye downtrodden, unemployed newspaper and magazine writers and editors yearning to be working again as journalists. Data journalism apparently is hiring. Data journalism? I didn’t know, either, until … Continue reading The Data Journalism Handbook – Get new skills for a new career that’s actually in demand – #bookreview
Books, Commentary, & More 