Books I've read in 2011

I mostly read online articles/blog posts to keep me up to date. I read books occasionally whenever I get time. Below are some of the books which I've read this year.

1. User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development - This is one of the best books around for writing good user stories. Among many things it talks about how to gather user stories, how to best write them for acceptance testing, how to prioritize user stories, how to estimate user stories, planning for iteration, planning for release, how to measure and monitor velocity etc., Even though this is mainly for product owners/business analysts, it provides good information for developers, testers, scrum masters and managers also.
2. 97 Things Evey Project Manager Should Know: Collective Wisdom from the Experts - This book is a collection of thoughts on things which every project manager should know and has many nice ideas and tips. This book would be useful not only for project managers, but also for anyone who leads/manages a team. If you are a team lead or development manager or technical manager, then this would be very useful to you. 
3. The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master - This is one of the classic books on programming.  I think the first version was published back in 1999. Even though it was published many years before, most of the topics covered in this book are still relevant. This is a must read for every programmer and would especially help new programmers.
4. Maven: The Definitive Guide - Maven's philosophy is convention over configuration. It works great for small projects, but for complex needs we need to configure it extensively. This book (also available as e-book) provides complete reference and would be very helpful for anyone trying to understand Maven intricacies and master it.
5. PMP Certification: Excel with Ease - Even though I mostly work in Agile environment and like it, I wanted to see how traditional project management works and take PMP certification. This book (based on PMBOK) explains project management concepts in a simple manner. I learned more about general project management from this book and by studying for PMP certification. This book has lot of Q&A for each chapter and valuable tips/tricks on the PMP certification exam. This book would be very useful for anyone preparing for PMP certification.

Though not related directly to these books, below are some of my earlier posts related to these book topics:

1. My favorite tips from Pragmatic Programmer (Pragmatic Programmer)
2. Success tips for Agile teams (Agile)
3. Key Points for any Project (Traditional or Agile) (Project Management, Agile)
4. Ten tips for conducting effective meetings (Project Management, Agile)
5. Effective Leadership/Communication skills needed for a Manager (Project Management)
6. Project Management Process, Process Groups and Knowledge Areas (Project Management)
7. Managing dependencies in Maven (Maven)
8. GMaven goodness (Maven)
9. Writing Maven Plugins (Maven)
10. Maven 3 Features (Maven)
11. Upgrading to Maven 3 (Maven)
12. Maven 3 Parallel Builds (Maven)
13. Books I've read in 2010 (Books)
14. Books I've read in 2009 (Books)

 Wish everyone a very Happy and Prosperous New Year 2012!