Author: Brad Dayley
The Python Phrasebook is a handy tool (small book) for beginners which aids in getting a quick reference or syntax needed for the Python language. The book is around 250 pages divided across ten chapters covering most of the essential commands and code snippets which can be very handy for getting most of the basic functionality expected by a novice programmer.
Author: Ken Pugh
This is a Java book, not at Python book, to the extent it actually deals with programs and language. Interface-Oriented Design is a novice cooks tour of contemporary and classical software design ideas at the level of a conference talk. It includes a genuflection to many classical and contemporary ideas of software engineering, a reading out the names, broad brush capsule explications, and simplistic examples. It lacks enough content for the reader to understand and apply the techniques in real world development, but there is enough information to sound knowledgeable, even expert, at a geek social event.
Scott Berkun worked for 10 years at Microsoft Corporation on IE, MSN, and Windows. He worked for two years in Microsoft's engineering excellence group, teaching and consulting with development teams. Now an independent consultant, he runs pmclinic, a discussion forum on project management at http://www.scottberkun.com . He has studied computer science, philosophy, and design at Carnegie-Mellon University.
Programmers learn that optimizing code for speed is slow and meticulous work but that it can pay off nicely in performance. We also learn that programs typically spend a small amount of execution time running through most of the code in a program and most of the time in a small section of code. Thus, optimizing that small section of code can give much more performance gain than tinkering with the rest.
The author Alex Martelli is Uber Technical Lead at Google, Inc. Martelli holds a laurea in Ingegneria Elettronica from Bologna University. He wrote Python in a Nutshell two editions, and also co-edited the Python Cookbook. He's a member of the Python Software Foundation, and won the 2002 Activators' Choice Award. Martelli spent 8 years with IBM Research, earning three Outstanding Technical Achievement Awards, and on.