Data Mining and Machine Learning Essentials

Good in places. I would borrow it before buying if you can.

I had been on the fence about this one for a while, and I should have bought it sooner. A couple of chapters felt like they could have been merged, but that is a minor complaint. A couple of chapters felt like they could have been merged, but that is a minor complaint. There is a section near the end that ties several earlier ideas together in a way I had not seen before. Three stars feels about right. It will stay on my shelf, but it will not be the first one I reach for.

Mixed feelings. The good parts are genuinely good; the rest is forgettable.

A colleague recommended this and I can see why. It does something that few technical books manage: it respects the reader's time. The author is unusually honest about where the simplifications break down, which I appreciated. The writing is direct and does not waste space on filler, which I value in a technical book. The author clearly knows the subject deeply and has thought hard about how to teach it. Fine, but there are stronger books on the same subject if you look around.