Introduction to Regular Expressions

Strong content, uneven pacing. I would still recommend it.

I bought this on a whim after seeing it mentioned in a forum thread, and I am glad I did. The chapters on databases & big data are the strongest — the examples are stripped down but complete, and I could follow along without constant guessing. Some of the diagrams are dense and I had to reread a few sections, though that may just be me. Solid, and I would buy another book from this author without hesitation.

Recommended, with the caveat that it is not a gentle introduction.

This is the third book I have read on databases & big data this year, and it is comfortably the best of them. The author avoids over-explaining, which keeps the pace up but means you need to pay attention. It is denser than the page count suggests, and I found myself slowing down around the middle. Recommended, with the caveat that it is not a gentle introduction.

Very good, with a few caveats. The core material is strong.

A colleague recommended this and I can see why. It does something that few technical books manage: it respects the reader's time. The writing is direct and does not waste space on filler, which I value in a technical book. The exercises at the end of each chapter are worth doing — they caught a few misconceptions I did not know I had. Worth picking up if you already have the basics. Set realistic expectations and you will get a lot out of it.