I have two new books that I can heartily recommend. This isn’t a review of either book since I’ve only just started reading them. However, I’ve used each to solve a couple of small problems within a day of having them on the shelf. To me, that proves their worth.

First up is Michael Coles new book “Pro SQL Server 2008 XML.” I’m still a bit jittery with XQuery… OK, I have a hard time writing XQuery and I have to look up how to do every step and I still get things wrong. Anyway… There are two entire chapters devoted to how to use XQuery and an appendix with an XQuery & XPath reference. Great stuff. Look for an extended review several weeks from now after I’ve had a chance to go through the book. Well done Michael.

Next is “Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Administration with Windows PowerShell” by Ananthakumar Muthusamy & Yan Pan. Yeah, I know, you’re either in the camp of “what the heck do you need PowerShell for” or “Oooh, there’s a book on PowerShell oriented towards SQL Server.” I’m obviously in the latter. Ever since Lori Edwards sent a tweet that she was reading the book, I was excited. I immediately jumped on Amazon & ordered the book. I’m happy with it. It’s THICK with code samples. I used it to solve a problem I was having with a little script. I’ll definately be using this book more.

Now the hard part is trying to get both books read.