Dr.Bob's Oracle Answers is a special part of my website devoted to Oracle, maintained by "security officer" Arjan Jansen. Apart from book reviews and technical articles & tips, we of course present the latest Oracle news and a list of suggested reading for Oracle DBAs and Developers.

2002 December - OCP: Oracle9i Certification Kit
Oracle is the leading database on the market, putting Oracle database administrators in high demand. The Oracle9i Certification Kit includes Study Guides for each of the four exams required for OCP certification-- Introduction to Oracle9i SQL (1Z1-007), Oracle9i DBA Fundamentals I (1Z1-031), Oracle9i DBA Fundamentals II (1Z1-032), and Database Performance Tuning (1Z1-033). Organized for optimal learning and retention, each Study Guide provides in-depth coverage of all exam objectives, hundreds of challenging review questions, and a searchable electronic version of the entire book.
The Training kit includes four training manuals and four CD-ROMs, and is available with a considerable discount from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk

Oracle books reviewed on my website:
Oracle PL/SQL bookshelf - published by O'Reilly
Oracle Essentials - Oracle 8 & Oracle 8i - Rick Greenwald, Robert Stackowiak & Jonathan Stern
Oracle 8 & Windows NT Black Book - Mike Curtis, Jacqueline King
Delphi 3 Client/Server Developer's Guide by Ken Henderson

2001/07/01 - Oracle Essentials Oracle9i, Oracle8i & Oracle8 (2nd)
Arjan Jansen has written a detailed book review of Oracle Essentials Oracle 8 & Oracle 8i. The book gives a concise description of the Oracle database architecture, and the features which are present in Oracle 8 and Oracle 8i.
Now, the second edition is out: Oracle Essentials: Oracle9i, Oracle8i and Oracle8, and again Arjan Jansen has taken this book to read and he will post a detailed review on this website in the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned...

2001: Oracle SQL High-Performance Tuning
This book is essential for any Oracle developer who cares about high performance (don't we all?). The author is an Oracle developer and consultant himself, and covers SQL processing and introduces guidelines to improve applications, including execution plans, work with joins, nulls and ranges search, index building, hierarchical queries, table scans, GROUP BY, updates, and distributed SQL.
The 500-page book contains practical Oracle database and SQL statement performance tuning techniques, strategies and tips, and is now available from Amazon.com and soon also from Amazon.co.uk.

2000 December - Oracle 8i Backup & Recovery
The Oracle book of the month December is an Oracle authorized guide (available from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk) which explains in detail how to implement the new features of Oracle8i to maintain 24x7 database uptime - and protect data. Inside, you'll find complete details on Oracle8i architecture, physical and logical backup techniques, recovery and replication methods, and diagnostic practices. You'll also learn from real-world case studies. Planning and testing backup procedures for your Oracle database is the only insurance you have to protect your data in the event of system failure - this book shows you how to implement a solid backup and recovery plan.

2000 November - Building Oracle XML Applications
The Oracle book of the month November is a new book from O'Reilly about Building Oracle XML Applications - now available at Amazon.com. A sample chapter (about transforming XML with XSLT) can be read at the O'Reilly website.

2000 October - Oracle8i Java Component Programming with EJB, CORBA and JSP
The Oracle book of the month October is Oracle8i Java Component Programming with EJB, CORBA and JSP. This book covers two of the most popular server-side component models: Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) and the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) with topics that include lots of details on generating Java Server Pages (JSP) with Java Servlets. Recommended for any Java developer using Oracle8i.

2000 September - Oracle Applications Performance Tuning Handbook
The Oracle book of the month September is Oracle Applications Performance Tuning Handbook This Oracle-authorized handbook explains how to tune Oracle applications systems for maximum efficiency. Written by a Senior Principal of the Oracle Applications Performance Group, the book offers the latest expert techniques and covers Oracle Applications Smart Client through Release 11i.

2000 August - Oracle 8i for Linux Starter Kit
The Oracle book of the month August is Oracle 8i for Linux Starter Kit. This book/CDROM package contains everything you need to get up and running with Oracle8i on Linux. You'll get step-by-step details on installation, customization, administration, and troubleshooting. The CD-ROM contains the official version of Oracle8i for Linux and Enterprise Manager.

2000: O'Reilly Oracle Books
O'Reilly has published some very good Oracle books (you can read a sample chapter of Building Oracle XML Applications):

November 1999 (see review)

October 2000

October 2000

2000: Oracle 8i Books
Three more great Oracle8i books (books of the month in August, September and October):

August 2000

September 2000

October 2000

2000: Oracle 8i Books
Learn Oracle 8i is written by José Ramalho, an international consultant and journalist who is also a best-selling computer book author in Brazil. This book makes programming Oracle 8i easy, contains full source code, etc.
Apart from this book, the Oracle8i Complete Reference, published by Oracle Press is now available from Amazon.com and already becoming a bestseller. In fact, the following Oracle 8i books can be recommended (and ordered from Amazon.com):

June 2000

May 2000

Oct 1999

1999: Oracle 8i Web Development
An Amazon.com bestseller, the book Oracle 8i Web Development is a collection of diverse overviews, specific techniques, and recommendations for the wide range of interrelated Oracle tools for creating professional Web applications. In fact, the following Oracle books can be recommended (and ordered from Amazon.com):

December 1999

November 1999

October 1999

October 1999

1998: Oracle & JDeveloper
The following Oracle 8 and JDeveloper books can be recommended:

December 1998

July 1998

September 1997

Getting Started with Oracle
The following Oracle books can be recommended for people who want to get started with Oracle 8i:

November 1999

July 1999

June 1999