Throughout the book are case studies on different companies, including the author’s own company,  I found those to be quick and helpful bits, often more than the chapter they are included with.  She makes some basic points clear, but it seemed to stop there, at the basic.

I often grade a book on how many pages i bookmark, this one only has three pages marked.  The title section of the book hits on page 115, breaking down what the author considers the social media business equation and how to calculate your efforts.  it is helpful, I had only wised the 100+ pages before it had the same effect.
Disclosure: The above links are Amazon affiliate links.

Reflections on Management, is an excellent read for anytime managing time. The book is only around 200 pages filled with insight, stories and techniques from the years of  being a manager and executive at IBM.

Many of the stories that Watts Humphrey tells are situations we have all been in regarding time management on projects. As the manager with unreal expectations, to the developer being told how long they will take to write code.  No matter how big the project. I was able to laugh a few times and see myself sitting in those meetings as I was told how long migrations, upgrades and more would take by someone that had just made up a timeline hours before.

Reflections on Management covers eight chapters broken into four distinct sections.  Managing your project, managing your team, managing your boss and managing yourself.  If you are a boss, you learn how to better handle projects and your teams.  As in individual it is all of value.

I read this book slowly over the last month taking a few notes as I went along.  The end result was a better timeline of how to plan and manage.  Better timekeeping and also a stronger layout and timeline for the amount content I produce across my blogs and podcasts/webcasts.  Some things will and are being cut.  Others are moving into new directions that allows me to streamline process and have a structure of when things are published.

To all of my ISV friends, get a copy.  Project managers should have read this already in preparing for their job.  Administrators can relate some story to every scenario he presents.  You will gain back more time after reading the book in better planning.

The book itself is broken into sections, with colored page edges for quick sorting of each main category:

• At Work
• At Leisure
• Creative Corner
• At Play
• At Home
• Out and About
• For Your Health

Each main section then had subsections with the best of application for each category well defined.  The logo, description, reasoning, costs and image were included.  Some of subsections even had honorable mentions when the competition was close.

By just over 50 pages in I had numerous apps downloading already from the iTunes store.  It became clear that with the sheer number of applications in the store, you cannot find them all.  Reviews are always all over the place, with a few complaints able to simply change your mind.

So why would you choose this book over the numerous web articles always showing the Top 10 iPad Apps?  I wondered that as well.  Now I get it.  The book goes category by category.  Web listings seem to have the same ones over and over.  You never get a good feel for what is out there and how deep the catalog is in capabilities.

Much like we do with all of the social media screencasts here and Twitter application reviews on EverythingTwitter, the author of the book claims to have personally tested thousands of applications to make this catalog.

The book was done in extremely high quality coloring and screenshots.  The layout is landscape mode, making it easy to hold pages open as you read and search on your iPad.

A couple notes I wanted to make.  Sure, there is so many games for the ipad.  But there is also great busienss value and I was shocked to see the awesome amount of content in health and wellness I would have never even thought about.  Some of the HD content is amazing to have right in your hand.  Also, the index in the back matches the table of contents, so nothing was gained there.

Overall, an excellent book for those looking to find applications already tested and ready to go.  The price at the time of writing is shown, but check for yourself before saying it it too much as I found a few on sale or discounted now.

I recommend Best iPad Apps: The Guide for Discriminating Downloaders by Peter Meyers.

(Yes, the above links are affiliate links on Amazon as usual)

Head First WordPress starts the reader with a basic understanding of the platform, quick install, dashboard and a quick walk through making your first posting.  While I run many blogs (including this one) on WordPress, I appreciated the way anyone could have read this first chapter and felt comfortable in posting via WordPress.

Chapter 2 moves into simple and advanced design changes with a ground floor introduction to the anatomy of WordPress, PHP usage, templates, themes, stylesheets, widgets and more.  With these 40 pages you should be able to make simple changes, add widgets, change a few PHP files and create a custom homepage.

Chapters 3 and 4 work together in organization and showing how WordPress can be a content management system using categories and the strength of using tags in conjunction.  Simplifying navigation and changing colors is a focus in the CSS section.  Roles of users and commenting ability rounds out the 70+ pages in these two chapters.

Podcasting and video embedding are a major focus in social media right now and Chapter 5 covers all aspects.  Even a sample breakdown of xml usage and possible plug-ins are listed so anyone could begin sharing media quickly.  I appreciated how they showed numerous examples of hosting your own, embedding and pulling content from remote sites in Chapter 5.  They carried this into Chapter 6 with the explanation of RSS and how this shares your content further than anyone just reading your blog on the web.

Now even I learned some tricks in Chapter 7 for locking down your WordPress servers.  From security in accounts, directory  security, backups and the power of plug-ins was covered in a middle level with plenty of diagrams, pictures and step-by-step tutorials.

Chapter 8 dove into external versus self hosting, WordPress speed improvements, tracking (such as Google Analytics) and caching of your files.  I knew of some of the plug-ins they explained and suggested, but the breakdown of how they functioned was incredibly helpful.

Just when you felt they were done they toss another 10 pages of 10 tips that didn’t quite fit anywhere else in the book.  The book is based on recent WordPress versions as they used the beta of 3.0 for examples and screenshots making it a must have for anyone upgrading and new to WordPress.

This will make it into TheSocialNetworker book selections in the Amazon Store you can find linked above or right here.  I place the top technical books I have reviewed in the store for you to easily find and purchase. (yes they are referral links to Amazon).

This book definitely took my thoughts on WordPress theme design to new levels while simplifying the entire process.  The book is made to teach you how to design, build and sell your own themes.  But, it is just as informative for someone wanting to extend themes into your own creations for your WordPress blog.

A brief few pages are placed at the beginning to introduce WordPress and what a theme means inside the system.  Chapter 2 starts the process of planning your theme and stresses the importance research of existing themes before building your site.  Wireframe design is explained for the entire site and page layouts.

Theme design in Chapter 3 gives great example screenshots and explanations of color selection.  The remainder of the chapter is a core port of the book breaking down each individual component of a WordPress theme.  I learned incredible amounts in these 30 pages of content.

Theme frameworks are an excellent starting point where you use existing themes and build child themes that refer to them.  Chapter 4 gives examples to investigate and start the child theme build.  Once we entered Chapter 5 for advanced theme construction I took away a lot of tips as someone that runs multiple WordPress sites, but is not a developer.  The simple way they show code usage, inserts and placement made it easy to understand.  The authors then start bringing your child theme and customizations together.

Later chapters get into WordPress widget placement, design and even building your own.  They close the building process in Chapter 7 with theme options.  This runs through creating extra options and controls panels, variants in color and more for someone interested in selling their new creation.  it streamlines how a buyer would use and implement your new theme.

The last portion in Chapter 8 surprised me it was in the book as I would not have thought of including it, but it was definitely needed.  Chapter 8 covers the licensing, GPL, around your theme and what it means.  The authors make you think about support, proper documentation and even tutorials.  Some tips at the end help you sell the theme by including options and where to best list it to be sold.

Overall, I am very impressed.  Look for a bunch of changes coming to my WordPress based sites very soon.  With this book and some basic WordPress knowledge, you can easily create or customize any WordPress theme you can get your hands on.

Disclosure: The above is an affiliate link, feel free to use it

The first thing I realized is that every mail client renders so many parts of HTML email differently.  The book is only ~139 pages, but it hits home fast with tons of free sample code to download.  The author of the book is with a large email distribution platform, so the knowledge was definitely there. The chapters broke down as follows:

1. Why Email?
2. Planning an Email Campaign
3. Design for the Inbox
4. Coding Your Emails
5. Understanding Permission
6. Selling Email To Your Clients

Chapter 6 was for those that provide solutions to businesses and customers.  He did a good job summarizing, but I will skip that part of the review since I read the other chapters twice.

He does an excellent job covering the business case and some basic statistics.  But, more importantly, how people interact via email compared to other mediums.  From the opening chapter he delves into formatting, structure and client support.  I think it was one of the most important areas for anyone to be aware of.  With the listing of numerous tables, it showed how every email client provider lacks support for so many areas of tags, formats and just plain simple HTML.

He gives great visual examples from numerous newsletters, makes block representation of successful examples and then gives away about 30 free templates to start using immediately that will work with any client type (outside of text clients of course).

The chapter on permission and some legal requirements was well needed for anyone getting into HTML mail.  Some would think that HTML email is past it’s time. Web 2.0 is the total future and stop wasting time on just email.  After seeing the power of what it can do on my own the past few months, I am sold.

His entry chapter What is Twitter (and What It Is Not) lays the groundwork for the reasons most people don’t understand the whats and whys of Twitter and explains them in humor and direct example.  For those that still don’t get it, or those using it and don’t get it, this is for you.

After a couple chapters on establishing an account, setting up your profile and the please do’s and please do not’s, he talks of working beyond the website.  He does have chapters on outside tools, and I shook my head in amazement he left out EverythingTwitter as a great source to find whatever you need.  Yes, I mentioned this to him jokingly in email and he took it in great fun as he must have heard from many people.

Pay special attention to the chapter on The Trouble with Twitter as it does an excellent job of covering the fail whale, issues with some very personal information sharing, signal to noise ratios and dealing with the explosive growth of Twitter and how it affects the technical performance side.

Chapters 10 and 11 cover how to use Twitter for personal and business use respectively and make the most benefit of it no matter how you wish to use it. From communicating with friends and family to promoting products/services, events, conferences, podcasts and more.  In all he covers how Twitter is a tool to be used in so many ways and gives concrete examples of each.

Chapter 12 is an eye opener for most that only hear hype around using Twitter.  Tee talks about the darker side of what goes on and the dymanics of how we are all interconnected.  Who do you follow?  Who do you ignore?  Should you block?  What about spammers? Bots? Incomplete profiles and more.  It is succinct and honest about some of the behind the scenes issues that power users see daily.

Mr Morris leaves with why he is on Twitter and how he uses it in daily work and promotion before an appendix of some terms and more tools.

At ~260 pages, this is a must have for those entering social media with Twitter and makes for a clear and concise read with just enough technical information for any level of user.  Amazon has it for only $14.99 right now and I think that is quite the bargain.  Published by Que.

Disclaimers: This book was sent to read free of charge through some promo people and I was not obligated to say anything good or bad about it.  I actually read the darn thing and enjoyed it, even with how I use Twitter on a daily basis.  After meeting Tee Morris I saw some of the drive and determination he had and it made the remainder of the read even more enjoyable as you can place the author with the book.

I also run EverythingTwitter.com and shook him fiercely at BlogWorld when he failed to mention us, the largest review catalog of Twitter tools and add-ons.  Kidding, I never shook him.  He might have tripped, but I am unaware of who did it.