The team of I Programmer book reviewers read a lot of programming titles, but as you may have noticed, some of us also write books about programming too. Here's a selection of titles on Python all from the I Programmer Library.

We don't do full reviews of our own titles on the website because it's a bit tricky. Our usual reviewer would be whichever in-house expert in the language the book is about, but for books written by i-programmer team members, this means the reviewer would be the author as well!

Our Programmer's Bookshelf section provides a guide to titles selected as being among the best on a particular language or topic, with recommendations of the books you might find helpful at different stages in your personal development. In this mini-bookshelf series, we're highlighting the titles written by the experts on the I-Programmer team. We've included comments from reviews on Amazon to give you a flavor of what readers have said about the book.

Python continues to grow in popularity and in importance, particularly in the areas of scientific applications and data mining, and the books in this selection cover different aspects of programming with Python. Specifically, most of the books in this bookshelf are part of a set of Something Completely Different books from I/O Press that look at what makes Python special and sets it apart from other programming languages.

For more details of the books, click on the book title or the book jacket thumbnail in the side panel to go to the book's details page on Amazon. If you make a purchase at Amazon via I Programmer we are credited with a few cents - so thanks to all of you who support us in this way. 

Programmer's Python: Everything is an Object, Second Edition

Author: Mike James
Publisher: I/O Press
Pages: 252
ISBN: 978-1871962741

This is the first in the Something Completely Different series of books that look at what makes Python special and sets it apart from other programming languages. Mike James explains the deeper logic in the approach that Python 3 takes to classes and objects. The subject is roughly speaking everything to do with the way Python implements objects - metaclass; class; object; attribute; and all of the other facilities such as functions, methods and the many “magic methods” that Python uses to make it all work.

Among the reviews by purchasers on Amazon, one reader succinctly said "Great read... Really enjoyed it."

A more detailed analysis described the book as well structured and with many examples, saying: "It leads you by the hand through Python with special focus on the 'magic' methods and how you can utilize them in your coding."

Programmer's Python: Everything is Data

Author: Mike James
Publisher: I/O Press
Pages: 252
ISBN: 978-11871962598

Following the same philosophy as the Objects book, this book shows how Python treats data in a distinctly Pythonic way. Python’s data objects are both very usable and very extensible. From the unlimited precision integers, referred to as bignums, through the choice of a list to play the role of the array, to the availability of the dictionary as a built-in data type, this book is what you need to help you make the most of these special features.

This book has received across the board five star ratings on Amazon from purchasers.

Programmer’s Python: Async

Author: Mike James
Publisher: I/O Press
Pages: 252
ISBN: 978-1871962765

An application that doesn’t make use of async code is wasting a huge amount of the machine’s potential. Subtitled “Threads, processes, asyncio & more, this volume is about asynchronous programming, something that is is hard to get right, but well worth the trouble and reveals how Python tackles the problems in its own unique way.

Python has modules that let you work with threads and processes in sophisticated ways. These are the foundation on which asyncio is built and Mike James covers them in depth along with futures, tasks and schedulers. The final three chapters are devoted to asyncio and making practical sense of a very complicated module. This is the book you need to understand all the options, trade-offs and gotchas.

One purchaser on Amazon said: "I have to say the content is really well written and the author definitely demonstrates his knowledge of the content! Really great written book overall."

Extending & Embedding Python Using C

Author: Mike James
Publisher: I/O Press
Pages: 252
ISBN: 978-11871962833

This book tells you everything you need to know about the C API, which is what you use to create a C extension for Python. Mike James explains how to create C extensions, and shows how to use this to make C-based applications and libraries available to Python. He also looks at how to convert Python functions to C to speed things up, and how to work with modules, objects, types and threads.

Mike shows how Python to C gives you so much more power, and is fun too. While the book provides Python developers with a deeper understanding of how Python works, C aficionados will enjoy finding out about some of the clever techniques in use in the C API.

Readers who reviewed this book on Amazon awarded it five stars.

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