By Judith Bishop
314 Pages
http://www.amazon.com/3-0-Design-Patterns-Judith-Bishop/dp/059652773X

This book is a collection of 23 common software design patterns with examples in C#.  However, even though the cover says C# 3.0, the author blurs the lines a little and refers to some functionailty that wasn't available in the .NET Framework until v3.5 ... which is OK, because the main point of the book is to convey the different design patterns and when you might think about using each, but it was a little confusing.

The author groups patterns with similar uses and then steps through each one, including:

• Brief description of the pattern's role
• UML diagram of how the different parts involved in the pattern fit together
• Simple code example (focused on fundamental design and implementation)
• More complex "real-world" example of how it might be used
• Discussion of when it might be used or alternative patterns to consider
• Additional excersises to help you better understand the pattern

Overall, the book seemed pretty useful.  Some of the patterns covered in the book are probably rarely used in the real world, but others are design patterns that we use as software developers pretty constantly without realizing it.  Getting a formal definition of what those are, and all the different parts involved ... as well as when it is a good idea to use it or what other pattern might be a better fit really offers some value.  It was a pretty short book, so I thought it was worth the investment of time to read it.