Reviews and Comments

This book reminded me of why I was so excited by category theory as an undergraduate. And because of that I found it to be a gripping read.

The only aspect lacking for me: I would have really liked a chapter exploring the connections that category theory has enabled, and the problems that have been solved as a result. But this excellent book has nonetheless fired me up to go and find those for myself.

I've been using the techniques from this book with great success for a couple of years. Everything presented here by Teresa Torres is clear, sensible, practical -- and works in practice.

Of course, this is only one of several product discovery processes that emphasise experimentation, small increments and iterative, conversational relationships with users and customers. But this is the one that works best for me.

Highly recommended.

There's plenty to like in this second book in the Oxford series, and I found myself gripped much of the time. The story does lose its way a little in the final quarter, but the last (short) chapter contains a spectacular surprise when the identity of the bad guy is revealed.

There's less humour here than in the first book, although that is rectified whenever Sarah appears. And as previously, the characters are well drawn and distinguished from each other.

Another gripping yarn -- recommended.

I loved the Jim Hutton series of Ellery Queen in the 70s, so I was really looking forward to reading a collection of Ellery Queen short stories. But after the fourth I was starting to wish there were no more...

The stories themselves are each expertly crafted, perfect examples of logical deduction. And the language used does evoke 1930s New York (I imagine). But I didn't /enjoy/ them, possibly because Queen himself comes across as a real smarty-pants. And so after reading a few of these stories, I found the remainder were quite a slog and I just wanted them to end.

This book is a very clear introduction to domain modelling and functional type systems, and indeed F#. The whole book uses a single, large worked example, and this provides good continuity through the various phases of requirements specification, design and implementation. The only problem I have with the book's approach is that tests / examples aren't used in specifying the application's behaviour; I would have liked to see the author exploring the relationship between type specifications and TDD.

This is the best book I've read for a few months -- a gripping romp in the manner of 'The 39 Steps'. It is clearly a first novel, and yet the characters -- especially in their long and detailed introspective moments -- are very well drawn. I will definitely be reading the other books in the Zoe Boehm series.

If this had been Edwards' first novel I would be saying it's not bad for a new novelist starting out. But for an author who had been writing for a decade by this time, I thought most aspects of this novel -- plotting, characters, dailogue, use of language -- were clumsy. And this applies particularly to the moment of inspiration in which the lead suddenly understands the identity of the murderer.

I'm put off reading the rest of the series now, which is perhaps a shame.

In a word: amateurish.

This is a fairly short "business novel" in which Eli Goldratt's daughter explains Lean and Kanban using Theory of Constraints terminology, by re-hashing most of what's in Goldratt's earlier 'Critical Chain'. I suppose some of the ideas might be new to some people, but there's nothing really important here if you're already familiar with Lean and Agile. And the "novel" is pretty thin on the ground, with little of the allegorical story-telling that made 'The Goal' so wonderful.

In a word: lame.

Gallows Court is a highly entertaining and gripping crime caper, told mostly through the eyes of a junior newspaper reporter. The plot's twists and turns are always unexpected, and so for once I had no advance inkling as to how things would play out. Highly recommended.

I know next to nothing about the British Raj in Calcutta after WWI, so I found this tale both enjoyable and highly informative. The main characters are likeable, the story is told at a good pace, and the plotting is accomplished. Shame the identity of the murderer was telegraphed so clearly that guessed it after reading only 20% of the book...

This is a great little book for understanding the whys and hows of software development. The focus is on delivering the highest value first, and doing so in very thin increments.

I love story mapping as a technique, and this book is a great introduction to the hows and whys. But it's probably about twice as long as it needs to be. I recommend you read it all, but skim the second half quickly.