Monthly Book Roundup (June 2014)
This month includes an excellent book about Groovy along with a decent but mildly insulting book on SASS.
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Sass and Compass for Designers
This book was a pretty nice introduction to SASS, it's just a shame that it was marred by the author's constant need to reassure the reader that they weren't a total loser whenever things got even remotely technical.
Statements such as "Now comes an @if control directive. That perhaps sounds like something a smug neck-bearded nerd might say.." get exhausting after a while.
I'm not sure who should be more offended by this book, the smug and friendless developers or the designers who the author assumes are so overwhelmed by technology that they can't look at a terminal window without having a panic attack.
If you can ignore the dismissive tone of the book the examples are actually pretty clear and it provides a nice overview of SASS.
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Making Java Groovy
I really enjoyed this book a lot. It takes a pragmatic view of Groovy and does a really excellent job of putting it all in the larger context of Java. This book covers a broad range of topics like testing, build process, database access, REST, etc. without getting too bogged down in details.
This is an extremely thoughtful book that shows how Groovy can be used to not just replace Java but also to enhance it where appropriate.
This book is well written and it really helped me understand exactly where Groovy fits.