End of 2008 Very short Book reviews -

Behind every good manager lurks dozens of bad ones. While Behind Closed Doors is full of mostly common sense tips it’s uncommon to deal with management that actually apply more than a couple of them. It’s an easy, quick read and an ideal gift for that special manager in your life that you really wished wasn’t. 7/10

The Python Phasebook is a concise, well written set of examples. Each ‘phrase’ is a short task with some sample code that shows one of the possible solutions. Think of it as an O�Reilly cookbook, but not from O�Reilly. This is a good book but it needs a second edition to cover all the changes to the languages over the last couple of years. It could also do with a chapter on unit testing. 4/10 (because of age) but looking forward to the second edition.

I also read the Ruby Phrasebook but I’m not giving this book a score until I’ve worked my way through the Ruby Cookbook. Lastly was Practical Ruby for System Administration. I didn’t like this book but I’ve not worked out the exact reasons why so I’ll have to wait to post a full review.