Book Reviews

Project Zero Trust follows the same approach as "The Phoenix Project" and "The Goal" by teaching through storytelling. In his book, the author took me on a journey where a tech company was under a cyber attack, and how they used that as a motivation to implement a Zero Trust security strategy to prevent that from happening again.

Unlike the Phoenix project, there was a lot less trying and failing and a lot less presence of the mentor character. It also acted a lot more like a book specifically designed to teach zero trust compared to how the Phoenix Project was subtle and let the reader discover the lessons on their own.

This fascinating book helped me understand zero trust and how it can be implemented in real life. It also inspired me to return to my studies and learn about and implement security in my work and life. I really like how Project Zero Trust's focus helped me distinguish zero trust from defense in depth. 

One of the insights I gained was how the Kipling method of asking How, Why, What, Which, Who, Where, and When could be applied when writing security policies.

13. October 2024

This fantastic book was precisely what I needed at my current point on my developer journey. The authors provided many great approaches to doing things well enough and what any aspiring developer should focus on to improve the art of programming.

The book combines witty insights into lessons learned with warnings about what could go wrong if one does not follow the advice given by the authors. I love how the authors made me feel like I was drinking from the fountain of enlightenment by reading this book. This is a must-read that I will read again next year, to refresh what I learned. 

9. June 2024

This book was well written but failed to capture the same magic as the Unicorn Project. I loved and could relate to the story in the book, but the story was not as thought-provoking or exciting as the Unicorn Project. The concepts and implementations the developer teams used were, in my opinion, elaborated too little upon.

Where the Phoenix Project spent a lot of time elaborating on the problem and, finally, the solution to the problem in a way that convinced me that the solution was a good one, the unicorn project skipped a lot of the technical details. Because I have a few years of experience with software design, I was able to connect the dots. Still, I don't think inexperienced developers or non-developers will get the points like any IT practitioner will get the points from the Phoenix Project.

I loved this book and heard it as an audiobook when commuting to work. It truly made the commute enjoyable. I think this book, together with The Unicorn Project, is an essential read for any IT practitioner.

13. April 2024

A friend recommended this book and said it would help me structure the server management process. He was right. Although my environment does not resemble the one in the book, this story made me realize what pain points I was struggling with and helped me connect the dots on how to build a better pipeline.

This is an essential read for anyone interested in more productive IT.

8. March 2024

I have come to love the "In Easy Steps" book series. This was another great example of how to properly write a great introduction book to relational databases and SQL.

The author describes every topic in a clear and concise way by using clear and easy-to-understand language and using examples that made sense to me.

The only problem I have with the book is that I did not read it earlier.

20. October 2023

This was a fantastic book, that similarly to books in the "for dummies" series, helps the reader to quickly get up to speed.

I really loved how easy the book was to read, and how it explained everything in a way that was easy to digest without using unnecessary jargon and without any assumptions about previous knowledge. The examples were on point and told a lot without using a lot of words.

This is perhaps the best introductory programming book I have ever read!

26. August 2023

Since the launch of ChatGPT, Dall-E, and Midjourney I have been truly fascinated with AI and ML. This book did a fantastic job of connecting the dots and filling in the gaps I had from my own research the last year.

After attending a short seminar where the author of this book, Inga Strümke talked, I just had to read the book ASAP.

The book was an easy and fun read on the topic on everyone's mind: What exactly is AI/ML, and what can it do for me? The author does a great job of demystifying precisely these questions and does so in a down-to-earth and easy-to-understand way that does not require a master's degree in computer science or statistics to understand. This is a true achievement.

I especially enjoyed the last chapters of the book which cover the ethical, moral, and philosophical aspects of AI.

27. July 2023

I don't think the book taught me anything new, but it was a nice mental reset for how I approach programming challenges, structure my day, and structure my code. It represented the Zen of Python (PEP 20) in many ways.

This was a fantastic and straightforward book written in a typical self-help book but for programmers trying to become better at their craft. I truly enjoyed this book on a small vacation trip, where I read it while traveling. It was very easy and entertaining to read. It might seam strange, but this was a tech page-turner!

This is a book I would encourage intermediate programmers and programmers who have some experience but want to take a step back and rebuild a stronger foundation.

19. May 2023

This book was a fantastic audiobook that lasted about 3.5 hours. I heard it while spending a Saturday stacking wood at home. I heard it at a time when I felt a bit overwhelmed by the complexity and problem-solving skills involved in data structures and algorithms. Because the book was so well structured I managed to realize how much I actually understood, and it helped me mentally structure the concepts in a much better way. The wey data structures are saved in memory was especially good explained.

An excellent audiobook I wish I had heard a long time ago. I think it would have helped me remove some of the impostor syndrome I felt regarding programming in general. I knew most of the stuff covered, but this book made me really understand it at a deeper level, and make mental connections i lacked.

15. April 2023

In typical cisco press fashion, this was an excellent book that was easy to read, and easy to understand. You could really tell that the author loved to teach, and loved to make the reader understand. Every topic was very well written, but in many ways expected a CompTIA Security+ and Network+ level of understanding of many of the concepts.

I read through the book once, and felt fairly ready for the certification, after doing some test certifications to spot my weak spots.

30. January 2023

The book is structured in a typical Pearson style with good and interesting examples covering all exam topics. The attention to detail and the ease of reading made this book almost (but not quite) entertaining to read. Although not a page-turner i did enjoy reading this book.

31. May 2022

Wow, what an amazing book! This is perhaps the most important and best book I have ever read about computers in my entire life. The author manages to explain in an easy-to-understand way how I'm able to build my very own computer using (extremely many) logic gates.

Concepts like machine language and how assembly language is used became crystal clear to me. After reading this gem of a book I got a completely new appreciation and deeper understanding of hardware and software. Since the book helped me connect so many dots, I'm actually a bit frustrated that I did not read it earlier.

To me, this book is a must-read for anyone interested in computers and programming.

3. February 2022

This book is a fun spin on the famous book by Dale Carnegie, "How to win friends and influence people". This is a fantastic book that gave me tools to better express myself as the person I want to be perceived as. While every other book I have read on social engineering has given me tools to identify and stop attempts on using social engineering against myself and others, this book takes the evil tactics of social engineering and flips the concepts on its head to help you achieve your goals while you prevent that people around you from feeling terrible.

I especially loved the chapter on manipulations, and how easy it is to fall for the temptation to use it to control physically and mentally weaker people. It was thought-provoking how easy it is to use this tactic without even noticing it when raising children. I had never thought about many of the examples presented as manipulation. This made me spend quite a bit of time reflecting on how I talk to my children when I want them to change their behavior.

By focusing on how the tactics and methodology used by social engineering could be used for good, I gained a deeper understanding of how social engineering is so effective for criminals. As a cyber security student, this book felt like a true treasure chest.

30. July 2021

This book was structured just like all other "For Dummies" books I have read, but I'm not sure how beginner-friendly it actually was. As an experienced JavaScript, PHP, C, and C++ programmer this book was perfect because it was very light on explaining basic programming concepts. It did spend most of its time explaining how Python programs are structured compared to other programming languages. This was great for me, but perhaps not as suitable for beginners...

I read this book a rainy week, and it made me feel confident enough about the syntax to enable me to write my own basic scripts.

The chapter about exception handling was particularly interesting to me. In this chapter, I learned a lot I later adapted when writing programs in other languages.

24. July 2021