Book Review: The Book of R by Tilman Davies

A fantastic new book just landed on my desk, “The Book of R: A First Course in Programming and Statistics” by Tilman M. Davies from No Starch Press. I’ve been looking for a book like this for some time – to use with the introductory data science and machine learning course I teach.

Book Review: Introduction to Linear Algebra by Gilbert Strang

In this book review, I take a close look at the 5th edition of “Introduction to Linear Algebra” (Wellesley-Cambridge Press) by MIT mathematics professor Gilbert Strang. This book is a must-have for any serious data scientist.

Book Excerpt – Delivering on Digital: The Innovators and Technologies That Are Transforming Government

In his new book, William D. Eggers, one of the country’s best-known authorities on government reform, explores how a new generation of digital innovators is re-imagining virtually every facet of what government does and reducing their costs with the power of digital transformation.

Book Review: Data Lake Architecture

A new book “Data Lake Architecture – Designing the Data Lake and Avoiding the Garbage Dump” by the father of the data warehouse Bill Inmon is a simple, high-level introduction to this popular data organization. Written for enterprise thought-leaders and decision makers, the book offers a one-stop resource that explains how to build a useful data lake where data scientists and data analysts can solve business challenges and identify new business opportunities. Readers will learn how to structure data lakes as well as analog, application, and text-based data ponds to provide maximum business value.

Book Review: Why – A Guide to Finding and Using Causes

A new book, “ Why: A Guide to Finding and Using Causes ,” by Stevens Institute of Technology assistant professor of computer science Samantha Kleinberg is a necessary addition to any data scientist’s bookshelf as it helps bring focus to the dreaded “correlation does not imply causation” conundrum that affects our understanding of data-centric problems.

Book Review: Data-driven Organization Design

A new book, “Data-Driven Organization: Sustaining the competitive edge through organizational analytics,” by Rupert Morrison addresses one of today’s most pervasive business challenges – how to capitalize on the wealth data organizations possess to help employees to perform.

Book Review: R for Everyone – Advanced Analytics and Graphics

I’m frequently asked about educational resources for those making their entry into the data science and machine learning professions. There are plenty of good advanced books such as theoretical masterpieces. The book “R for Everyone: Advanced Analytics and Graphics” authored by Jared P. Lander covers the intermediate ground very well.

Book Review: The Master Algorithm

I’ve been waiting for good book that introduces the concepts of data science and machine learning for a lay audience. Then I read an announcement of a new book that seemed to fill this need. The Master Algorithm: How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake Our World (Basic Books; September 22, 2015) by University of Washington professor Pedro Domingos. My hopes were high and for the most part I think this book represents a good introduction to the area.

Book Review: Storytelling with Data

A book just came across my desk, “Storytelling with Data – A Data Visualization Guide for Business Professionals,” by author Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic, that is a handy resource for data scientists of all levels of experience. It is an important job of data scientists to engage in “data storytelling” to communicate the results of their machine learning projects.

Book Review: Doing Math with Python

When one of my favorite independent tech book publishers, No Starch Press, notified me about their new title “Doing Math with Python,” I was energized to review what potentially could be a good new resource for budding data scientists.