2016 Favorite Books

Another year has come and gone. Time for another favorite books blog post. I may not be doing the best job of blogging, but at least I am consistent with my year-end entry.
This past year I came closer to burning out than I would like to admit, so I spent more time reading fun books instead of technology books. I still managed to read some good
technical books, so without further ado let us take a look at the list.

Note: None of the links below are affiliate links. I get nothing from linking to these books. I try to link to the author or publisher site when possible, and Amazon as the default.

Favorite Books 2016

  • The Phoenix Project - While not a true technical book, this was still an interesting read. It is a novelization of the problems encountered in a typical IT organziation and how they applied DevOps techniques to solve them.
  • Concurrency in C# Cookbook - I have been getting into more concurrent and reactive programming lately. This book provides concrete examples on how to use the Async/Await and TaskParallel features to build concurrent applications in .NET using C#.
  • Dependency Injection in .NET - This is the definitive book on properly applying dependency injection techniques and tools in .NET. I really like that the concepts are taught without the use of a DI framework. This makes the techniques applicable to multiple implementations.
  • Continuous Delivery with Windows and .NET - This is a free eBook from O’Reilly that gives a good overview of the tools and options available for implementing CD pipelines on the Windows and .NET platforms.
  • Hidden Empire - This is the first book in a science-fiction novel series that I really enjoyed. If you are into “space opera” like Star Wars or Babylon 5, I would suggest checking it out.
  • Storm Front - This is the first book in the Dresden Files, a fantasy series following a private detective wizard who investigates supernatural mysteries in the modern world. Think Harry Potter crossed with Philip Marlowe.