Publisher:	Murach Press
Author:	Anne Boehm
Paperback:	707 pages
Level:	Beginner through Advanced
Readability:	Layout:	Examples:

Murach ADO.NET 3.5 , LINQ, and the Entity Framework with VB 2008 is an excellent book for anyone developing Visual Basic database applications for .NET. The book assumes that the reader has a basic understanding of VB.NET. In keeping with the books from Murach Press, the book is very readable and loaded with good examples. Throughout the book, the author develops a Payables application.

As Microsoft adds more ways to access the database, it becomes harder to know which approach you should use. I haven’t seen any other book that covers ADO.NET 3.5, LINQ, and Entity framework as thoroughly as this book does.

While the book starts with the basics of relational databases, using SQL Server, and ADO.NET 3.5, it goes beyond the typical ADO.NET /databinding examples The initial examples show this simplistic client server approach done purely with the VS designer and the later chapters expand the concepts to show how to take advantage of the designer tools while creating a 3 tier application. Even more advanced concepts such as transactions and managing concurrency problems are covered.

The section on LINQ covers:

• Introduction to LINQ
• LINQ to Datasets
• LINQ to SQL
• LINQ to XML

The section on the Entity Framework explains how to create an Entity Data Model, how to use the Mapping Details window, and alternative approaches to working with the Entity Data Model such as LINQ to Entities and Entity SQL.

In summary, I would highly recommend this book. It is easy to read and has lots of real life practical examples with code showing how these 3 different technologies can be used in database application development.