Best book on LINQ so far
346938
LINQ is one of the coolest ideas to come out of MS in the past few years.  Its tight integration with Visual Studio 2008 makes data access more intuitive and we can FINALLY drop the "SQL as strings" syntax in favor of something that can actually be validated at compile time instead of "blowing up" at run-time.

I've spent a fair amount of time researching LINQ and even played with it somewhat.  This book would be great for those who at least know the basics of LINQ and what its purpose is.  I honestly can't think of a topic about LINQ that was not addressed in some detail in this book.  The writing was complete with lots of examples to illustrate the points.  An earlier reviewer  has said they "stopped at chapter 4" because of the lack of detailed query language syntax descriptions BUT I don't understand because there is an exhaustive definition of the language in chapter 2.  I think their 1 star review was unfair and borderline malicious.

Until something comes along better, this would be my pick for the best LINQ book on the market.
971660
This is book is a masterpiece. It is true that the basic concepts behind Indexes, statistics and query tuning have not changed a lot since probably SQL2000 but those concepts and the way SQL2008 handles them are explained here in an outstanding manner.

The author starts every chapter with a bit of theory (a paragraph or two) about the particular topic he's ready to explain. Next.... there is a demonstration of "why is bad" not following the theory (via a T-SQL statement) and then a similar example but this time following the good MS-SQL practice (again, with another T-SQL query) Very straightforward and practical approach which makes this book a good one because that's exactly what you need on a SQL performance tuning book: quick solutions and answers via examples.

Chapters #4 - Indexes is my favorite. You will get a full explanation of why your queries are running slow or how you can make them run faster; everything with real examples and real code. On this particular chapter author(s) help you to identify potential pitfalls in terms of Index selection and the main differences in query behavior between Non-clustered and Clustered Indexes on your tables and when to apply either of them.

I also love the book organization. There is a logical order that I suggest to follow: from start to finish; very easy and general techniques at the very beginning and more in-depth and detailed tuning techniques at the end. But still if you jump into the subject you want or need you will catch the concepts easily without feeling lost.

Amazing book! This book deserves a slot in your book-shelve.
3108127
This book is massive and the price tag is a bit heavy as well, but trust me, it is worth the price. I'm a VB6 developer trying to make the transition to VB.NET. I analyzed a number of different books, including those published by Microsoft Press, and ultimately decided on this one for its thoroughness. Overall, the book is very well written, organized quite logically, and doesn't miss any details. On top of that, the bonus CDs you get with this "complete course" over just the book alone are incredible! I found most of the audio commentary extremely dry, and didn't really add much to the printed material, but the extra exercises and having all the code and answers right inline with the text was amazing.
The exercises at the end of each lesson are extremely challenging and really sound down the concepts into your mind. For example, on the chapter dealing with arrays, including sorting and searching, one of the exercises is to rewrite the QuickSort algorithm that Microsoft uses natively in the Array. Sort method. This exercise really impressed on me how to get the most out of recursive functions, and how to build efficient procedures.
Currently, I'm only about 400 pages into this 1500+ book, but I'm eagerly looking forward to finishing it. To be honest, I think this book is better than taking an instructor-led course. I can't wait for Advance VB.NET to come out from Deitel so I can tackle that as well.
Bottom line, buy this complete course. You won't regret it.
389239
Even though this is the beginning book it's better than the Pro C# 2005 book written by some of the same authors. I read this book first and the Pro version second. I found that it explains many of the concepts in a more effective way with less words.
2806275
As other Reviewer's have stated, this is an excellent book.

I work only casually with SQL server and have no formal SQL background whatsoever. My main motivation for picking this book up:

1. To get some formal instruction so I didn't feel overwhelmed
2. Use the above to avoid asking Obvious questions
3. Avoid errors that would go unnoticed by someone like me (improper NULL handling / Joins leading to duplicates, etc.)

This book completely satisfied all those wants. There is a very nice mixture of background theory with practical instruction. The review questions in particular are very high quality and - THANK GOD - they include helpful answers with explanations. Additionally, the differences between T-SQL and standard SQL syntax are highlighted and - where proprietary vs standard solutions are equivalent in performance - the author directs the reader towards the standard method. Very well done.

My only qualm with the book is the organization - some (just a few) concepts are introduced in examples before being explained; though largely mitigated by the wonderful index and ToC, someone who has NEVER seen SQL before might be confused. That being said, I wouldn't recommend that person to go anywhere else than this book.
836602
I have read many books on game programming, but this one definitely is the best and most well rounded. I had only worked with Java in the past, but after a couple C++ tutorials I was easily able to work through the chapters. The author does an excellent job at explaining the details that a lot of other books leave out. The examples are clearly laid out, and the code is neat and organized. Another great thing about this book is the forum that comes with it where you can ask questions regarding anything in the book. The book's author is very active on the forum, and is extremely helpful.
821048
Doug Lea does an excellent work.
On the one hand, he does much more than cover the API. He teaches you to *think* & understand multithreades. Example: he doesn't just state the java API won't let you modify a datastructure while iterating on it. He goes further to explain *how* java prevents this, and then details several methods to work around it. This particular example has greatly helped me with a project I'm on.
On the other hand, I found the explanations clear and easy to follow. Great book...
4000394
This book provides great insight into unit testing and TDD in .NET. To be honest I bought this book when I started doing TDD and unit testing and it stayed as a reference book. I even ordered a copy for my company's library, and everybody starting out is pointed to this title first.
I think Roy went here far beyond the classic calculator example and covered every single aspect of unit testing. A lot of material is covered from unit testing frameworks to isolators to figuring out what is a stub and what a mock. If you want to start out practically to use unit testing this is a great book to start with.
3680630
This is an awesome book on the revolutionary new Java version: Java 8. This book covers these new Java 8 features:

Streams with Functional Programming, with how to effectively utilize all the cores of a multi-core processor: Java 8 makes this simple, but you have to follow the rules of Functional Programming and avoid shared state between threads. This book explains all this and shows a lot of the tricks and traps involved in parallel streams, along with best practices on how to most effectively achieve this.

Lambdas and Method References: Lambdas are now one of the biggest revolutions in Java 8. You will not probably find a Java 8 program in the future that does not use Lambdas. And a Lambda that consists in merely calling a single method of another object can be replaced with a Method Reference. All of this is explained in this book. You will not finish reading this book without becoming an expert on Lambdas.

Declarative programming: With Functional programming and Lambdas and Streams, you can write code that shows what you want to do instead of how you want to do it. How this is done is taken care of by the compiler and the JVM. You will be amazed at how simple it is now to write Java code to do things with collections and streams that took a lot of boiler plate code and imperative programming in the pre-Java 8 world.

New Date and Time API in the java.time package: No more usage of java.util. Date and all its peculiarities. Now we have a simple and easy to use API for dates and times. And this API with its immutable classes can be used with Functional Programming.

Optional types as opposed to nullable types: This book explains this new feature and what it is best for and how to effectively use it. This basically allows you to use declarative programming with objects that can be null without throwing and catching with null pointer exceptions.

Default Methods and static methods in interfaces: A new feature of Java 8, now interfaces can have default methods having implementations. The rules are simple, and Java avoids the diamond inheritance trap in multiple inheritances found in C++. This new feature is really meant for upgrading existing APIs where interfaces need new methods without breaking existing code using those APIs being modified. This book explains all this.

This book will get you up-to-speed fast on Java 8. Once you know and think in Java 8, the previous versions of Java will seem like a different and less advanced language. And in a way, this is correct, though the Java 8 JVM should still run the older code fine. With Java 8, we enter a new phase of the Java, and this book is a good guide to this new world of Java 8.
3710049
I'm about a thrid of the way through the book and it seems to really tailor to anyone's needs by teaching the information in many different ways. This is a huge help for me because I am the guy who didn't know anyhting about C# programming before I picked this book up and now I'm more conifdent about my knowledge.  I would suggest the Oriely line for others.
143095
I recently bought this book and one titled Advanced Transact-SQL by Itzik Ben Gan.  This is by far the better of the two.  Compared to this book, Advanced Transact-SQL is a beginner's book.  This book leaves out the BOL repeats and the strangely formatted code that takes up half a page and gets down to business quickly.  The writing is crisp, witty, and will keep you engaged -- not an easy task for a book like this.  I've read some good technical books in my time, but this is by far the best, SQL or otherwise.
3727804
The author's writing style is great. The flow is clear. Most importantly, this is the only book so far that talks about how to use Backbone.js and ASP.NET Web API together.

The book not only introduces you the technologies you need in order to build a SPA, but also gives you a brief introduction and comparison of other similar technologies that are available out there. Not too long, not too short, but right to the points.

There is a code example you can follow through out the book, and finally it's not a To-do app. I know somebody would say there are many typos in the book and author's coding style is not consistent (sometimes he uses upper case and sometimes lower case for JavaScript's classes), but hey, this is the only example embedded in the book that works for me so far.

Overall, it's a must-have.
644608
Core Java for the Impatient feels like a several volume collection fit into a single book.  Remarkable, it manages to to this very well.

The book hits the ground running by describing the native data types along, but also includes notes about edge cases for each.  A lot of ground is covered in every chapter.  Sensible word choice and examples with just the right amount of code allow the author to express a lot of meaning in few pages.  The chapter on collections is a great example of this.

Much of the material is concerned with recent additions to the language including the Streams API, Lambda expressions, and even the new scripting engine.  Still, there's a healthy amount dedicated to older parts of Java.

I really enjoyed Core Java for the Impatient and would definitely recommend it to experienced programmers or those catching up from older version of Java. It is definitely not intended for those learning to program.  For trying to cover an entire mature language in a (relatively) small number of pages, this book does an excellent job.
1449517
Once again, it seems like Wrox is rushing to be the first with a comprehensive work. Fortunately, this one is better than the book Introducing .Net. And, for sheer learning, it is the best book on C# on the market so far (still awaiting Inside C# from MSPress to see if they up the ante).
The first couple of chapters deal with very introductory level information. If you have been studying .Net, you will likely skim through these chapters. While there is some useful information, there are plenty of resources on this material.
The rest of the book breaks into C#. If you are a language purist, and good at reading material that is more like specs, you will likely find Eric Gunnerson's book more up your alley. For the rest of us, this tome is a far better option.
Of particular note is the fact that chapters have been thrown in on using COM and COM+ with .Net. As the help file is largely garbage on this, and experimentation is the way most of us are learning this, it is nice to have a runthrough of how to use legacy code (is it okay to call COM legacy now?) in our .Net apps.
The ASP.Net chapter gives enough information to get you started, but a few more chapters would have really added some meat to the book.
My personal favorite is the assemblies and manifests chapter, as the other C# books do very little to broach these subjects.
One thing I would like to see, once the technology has settled down (beta 2 is supposed to be feature complete), is a book on the .Net framework. I disagree that this book should have been the book to concentrate on that, but a bit more in depth traveling into the base classes would have been nice.
I am thankful that Wrox decided on four authors for this one, instead of the trend, as of late, of publishing yearbooks. It makes for a bit more consistent ride and less overlap of material from chapter to chapter. There are also fewer holes in this book than the Introducing .Net book.
If you want to get into C#, this is the book (at least as of February 2001). Once the technology is complete, all bets are off.
1818517
I just finished reading of Pragmatic Bookshelf's Test-Drive ASP.NET MVC written by Jonathan McCracken. This book gives an excellent introduction to ASP.NET MVC 2 using Test Driven Development (TDD) approach.  Jonathan introduces the ASP.NET MVC framework with a Test First development approach that gives you a better understanding of both ASP.NET MVC 2 and TDD. Jonathan's writing style is very enjoyable and can be easy to follow the whole book. He is explaining all concepts with good sample code. The book explores the topics such as IoC with Castle Windsor, NHibernate, Fluent NHibernate , Nunit, Rhino Mocks,  jQuery, REST and Build/Deploy that can be very useful for building real world ASP.NET MVC applications.

This is a near 300 page book and it is not a reference for ASP.NET MVC but it will give you a better understanding of ASP.NET MVC with a practical and TDD way.  This book along with Steven Sanderson's Pro ASP.NET MVC 2 Framework would be a great combination for learning and developing applications with ASP.NET MVC 2. I hope that this book won't be the last book from Jonathan McCracken and expecting more practical books from him in future.

I highly recommend Test-Drive ASP.NET MVC for those new to ASP.NET MVC Framework or Test Driven Development (TDD). This book will give you a better understanding of ASP.NET MVC Framework with a practical and TDD way.
4921521
After a frustrating search for good( and understandable ) books for learning Data Structures, I chanced to see this book and bought it, as it closely matches our CS syllabus. I was lucky and not wrong in trusting Mr. Drozdek. The explanation is very detailed, with illustrations when needed and understandable code. I love this book! I recommend it for anyone who's serious about learning data structures.
1953247
After searching for a solid SQL book for beginners, this is by far the best book I've found.  It covers just enough advanced topics to help you get through those first-time subqueries.  It's a great building block and has bailed me out of many a jam.  Case in point:  I couldn't get a subquery to work properly and doubted that this book wasn't advanced enough.  I finally caved in and thumbed through the advanced topics and located the answer to my problem.  Absolutely worth the price, and then some.