Rating: 
Summary: Definitive Oracle work
Review: This is a huge book, and it's tough to consider it a "nutshell" (I'd hate to see the squirrel)---but it is far and away the most accurate and complete of all the Oracle mega-references out there. If you've tried to muddle through Oracle documentation, this is really a breath of fresh air.
Rating: 
Summary: GOOD PRACTICAL PRESENTATIONS
Review: This well-written multi-purpose 'Oracle' text has managed to track changes, and keep pace with all the recent developments in the software arena. Its presentation is more practical than theoretical. The book is versatile.
"Oracle in a Nutshell" includes all the 'includables'. Its layout is fine. However, if you are a beginner with only a vague knowledge of RDBMS (and stuffs like that), you are likely to be frustrated by this book's high assumptions. It does not have that type of patience (or gentility) that most "for dummies" series are famous for. The authors of this book designed it for the intermediate (and advanced) learners.
Rating: 
Summary: No Star
Review: Well , yes the so often chosen approach by technical book writers, of lets make it very large with lot's of STUFF, so it sells, which unfortunately most of the time does work. To get to the point, for a software developer, who actually has to produce a system or results outside of academia, this thing will get its best use as a fire starter if one has a fire place.
First of all, it takes far too long to find anything, and once found the description looks often like a hieroglyphic abstraction instead of a short example, (very typical for folks who write books about a subject they do not comprehend them self.) My suggestion, if you are looking for a quick straight forward, and ineligible answer try (ORACLE the Complete Reference), written by the Vice President of Oracle.
Rating:
Summary: Invaluable. But experienced DBAs only please!
Review: When I purchased Oracle in a Nutshell I thought I would need to buy another book for a quick reference to the data dictionary views but to my pleasant surprise these were included too.A great book but it's not for the weekend-warrior DBA. If you can create indexes, tables, tablespaces, users, instances and databases off the top of your head then you'll love this book. It saves having to wade through all the Oracle documentation to look for less frequently used syntax etc. Ben
Rating:
Summary: Incredible Book
Review: You might think that 900+ pages is a big nutshell, but they couldn't have done Oracle justice in fewer. This book ought to be one of the first, maybe THE first, on every DBA or developer's bookshelf. Fantastic!
| 
