[tomku]

My mini-review, from about halfway through WWTCPS:

Just as in "Working with Unix Processes", Jesse really knows how to explain things clearly and concisely, which is a rare gift among tech authors. The frequent code examples reinforce without excessive repetition, and he smartly limits the topic to just the socket API rather than trying to teach all of Ruby, HTTP, low-level TCP and so on. The result is not just an effective learning tool, but an enjoyable read as well.

I'd also like to note that rather uncommonly among programming books, both WWUP and WWTCPS come with a version of the book in plain text format. The plain text versions are suitable for viewing with 'less' in a terminal or (after stripping the color codes in WWUP's case) in your favorite text editor. It's a nice touch, the plain text book feels right at home in a tmux pane alongside a shell or two to run the examples.