This is a collection of books that I have found helpful or insightful. I will add titles as they come to me, so check back occasionally to see what’s new.
Books on Writing
Writing Without Bullshit
by Josh Bernoff
“Writing Without Bullshit is the first comprehensive guide to writing for today’s world: a noisy environment where everyone reads what you write on a screen. The average news story now gets only 36 seconds of attention. Unless you change how you write, your emails, reports, and Web copy don’t stand a chance.”
This is a great book for anyone who wants to learn how to write for business. It’s a quick read, filled with tons of examples and practical advice. This is the first book on writing that was immediately useful to me. The blog is also a great resource.
Docs for Developers: An Engineer’s Field Guide to Technical Writing
by Bhatti, Corleissen, Lambourne, Nunez, & Waterhouse
“Ideal for software developers who need to create documentation alongside code, or for technical writers, developer advocates, product managers, and other technical roles that create and contribute to documentation for their products and services.”
There is more to technical writing than just writing the documentation. This book covers the entire process from beginning to end. The authors are all experienced technical writers and regular contributors to the Write the Docs community and the Write the Docs Slack.
Enterprise Content Strategy: A Project Guide
by Nichols & Rockley
“… [This book] outlines best practices for conducting and executing content strategy projects. His book is a step-by-step guide to building an enterprise content strategy for your organization. Enterprise Content Strategy draws on Kevin Nichols’ experience managing one of the largest and most successful global content strategy teams to provide an insider’s look at how to build an enterprise content strategy. Full of definitions, questions you need to ask, checklists, and guidelines, this book focuses not on the what or why, but on the how.”
This was the text book for a Masters-level class I took on content strategy. It’s a short, well organized, reference for anyone getting started with large scale content projects.
Style Guides
The Global English Style Guide
by John R. Kohl
“This detailed, example-driven guide illustrates how much you can do to make written texts more suitable for a global audience.”
This is a great resource for anyone who writes for a global audience. The rules outlined in the book are clearly defined with examples. Each rule also includes a rationale for why it’s important and strategies for avoiding common translation pitfalls. I keep my copy on my desk and refer to it often.
The Handbook of Technical Writing
by Alred, Oliu, and Brusaw
“The Handbook of Technical Writing uses smart, accessible language to spotlight and clarify technical writing today. Hundreds of topic entries, 90+ sample documents, at-a-glance checklists, and clear, explicit models, communicate the real-world practices of successful technical writers.”
This is another book that I keep on my desk. It’s a great reference for technical writers. This is a reference book I use it to look up specific topics, as opposed to a Writing Without Bullshit, which is a book that you read cover to cover.
Books on PowerShell
PowerShell 101
by Mike F. Robbins
This is an entry-level book for anyone wanting to learn PowerShell. This book focuses on PowerShell version 5.1 running on Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016 in a Microsoft Active Directory domain environment. However, the basic concepts apply to all versions of PowerShell running on any supported platform.
This book is available for free online. You can also buy it on LeanPub. If you buy it on LeanPub, the profits are donated the OnRamp scholarship program to help bootstrap others into the industry.
Learn PowerShell in a Month of Lunches
by Plunk, Petty, Leonhardt, Jones, & Hicks
“Learn PowerShell in a Month of Lunches is a task-focused guide for administering your systems using PowerShell. It covers core language features and admin tasks, with each chapter a mini-tutorial you can easily complete in under an hour. Discover how PowerShell works on different operating systems, and start automating tasks so they take just a few seconds to complete. No previous scripting experience required.”
This is the book that everyone in the PowerShell community recommends. It’s a great way to start learning PowerShell by solving real-world problems. The latest edition has been update for PowerShell 7.
Windows PowerShell in Action
by Bruce Payette & Richard Siddaway
“Written by language designer Bruce Payette and MVP Richard Siddaway, this rich book offers a crystal-clear introduction to the language along with its essential everyday use cases. Beyond the basics, you’ll find detailed examples on deep topics like performance, module architecture, and parallel execution.”
This is definitive reference on how PowerShell works, outside of the PowerShell Language Specification, which is was also written by Bruce Payette.
Books on Business
Radical Candor
by Kim Scott
“The idea is simple: You don’t have to choose between being a pushover and a jerk. Using Radical Candor—avoiding the perils of Obnoxious Aggression, Manipulative Insincerity, and Ruinous Empathy—you can be kind and clear at the same time.”
This book teaches you how to give feedback to your team in a way that is both kind and clear.
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
by Patrick Lencioni
“Equal parts leadership fable and business handbook, this definitive source on teamwork by Patrick Lencioni reveals the five behavioral tendencies that go to the heart of why even the best teams struggle. He offers a powerful model and step-by-step guide for overcoming those dysfunctions and getting every one rowing in the same direction.”
All of Lencioni’s books are written as a novel that teach the business lessons through storytelling.
The Phoenix Project
by Kim, Behr, Spafford
“In a fast-paced and entertaining style, three luminaries of the DevOps movement deliver a story that anyone who works in IT will recognize. Readers will not only learn how to improve their own IT organizations, they’ll never view IT the same way again.”
This is the book that started the DevOps movement. It’s a great story that teaches you benefits of DevOps and how to get started. Like The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, this book is written as a story. It makes reading about IT fun.