Category Archives: Book Review

[One Month Free]Kick Off the New Year With a Free Month of Data Science in Action

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A new year always brings that familiar mix of ambition and overwhelm. We set goals, sketch plans, and commit to finally learn the things we’ve been putting off. If leveling up your data science skills is on your list for 2026, I’ve got something special to help you start strong.

Today, I’m opening up a one‑month free trial to my Substack publication:

👉 https://datascienceinaction.substack.com/newyearoffer

It’s the perfect moment to jump in.

I have been teaching and using my writing to teach people my whole life. I teach technically and academically. My goal is to simplify complex concepts by translating them into real-world applications through step-by-step tutorials.

What is Data Science In Action?

Data Science in Action is a hands-on newsletter that helps you master analytics, coding, and the modern data stack.

Through practical tutorials and articles in SAS, Python, Docker, Kubernetes, data visualization, and data storytelling, you’ll learn by building — not just reading. You might also find me writing political and financial data stories.

Whether you’re sharpening your skills or scaling up to production-ready workflows, this space is designed to turn complex concepts into actionable steps you can apply right away.

Who is this for?

It is for beginners and intermediate data scientists, data analysts, and DevOps professionals. All tutorials, regardless of their level, will cover the concepts with step-by-step instructions, screenshots, and explanations. They will also be easy to follow, self-contained, and compact.

What can subscribers expect?

  • Free posts: approachable tutorials, storytelling techniques, and examples you can run instantly.
  • Paid posts: deep dives into Docker, Kubernetes, Python, reproducible analytics, and enterprise-grade SAS workflows.
  • Occasional excerpts from my books, plus behind-the-scenes insights into how I teach and build real-world solutions.
  • Community input: I’ll regularly ask for your challenges and questions — and turn them into future posts. Feel free to share your challenges, and I’ll do my best to help you resolve them.

Subscribe to get full access to the newsletter and publication archives.

More about me

I am an Adjunct Lecturer and an author for Apress and Packt Publishing, having published nine books and currently writing my 10th. All of them are best sellers on Amazon.

Currently, I teach SAS Fundamentals, SAS Programming Intermediate (Test-Prep for the SAS Associate and SAS Specialist Certificates), SAS SQL, SAS Macros, SAS Advanced Programming, Docker Fundamentals, Docker for Enterprise Developers, Kubernetes Introduction, Kubernetes Intermediate, Docker Certified Associate (DCA) Test Prep, Introduction to Python, Python for Data Science, Technical Writing at ONLC (Microsoft Partner), Plurasight Inc., and other venues as a freelance instructor.

I hold two master’s degrees: one in journalism from Harvard University’s Extension School (Data Science Graduate Professional Certificate) and another in computer engineering from Cairo University.

I am the author and co-author of the following books:

  1. Learn Data Science Using SAS Studio (2nd Edition), From Clicks To Code, Apress Springer Nature
  2. Learn Data Science Using Python, Apress Springer Nature
  3. A Complete Guide to Docker for Operations and Development, Test-Prep for the Docker Certified Associate (DCA) Exam, Apress Springer Nature
  4. Learn Data Science Using SAS Studio: A Quick-Start Guide, First Edition, Apress Springer Nature
  5. The Docker Workshop, Packt Publishing
  6. Tales about Love and Travel, Arabic Edition, Dar Laila
  7. Mn Europa El Balad, Arabic Edition, Dar Laila
  8. Tales from Dreams, Arabic Edition, Dar Dawen
  9. The Girl and the Butterfly, English Edition, Self-Published
  10. The Girl and the Butterfly, Arabic Edition, Self-Published

I am proud to have written the first eight books before AI became so creative! 😉

My Data Science Book with Apress Springer Nature is finally available

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Thanks to Allah!
Learn Data Science Using SAS Studio: A Quick-Start Guide
(Published By Apress Springer Nature)
You can buy it at:
Paper copy at Amazon.com
https://amzn.to/3lh00JU
Digital copy at Kindle Store:
https://amzn.to/3d44DEf

Do you want to create data analysis reports without writing a line of code? This book introduces SAS Studio, a free data science web browser-based product for educational and non-commercial purposes. The power of SAS Studio comes from its visual point-and-click user interface that generates SAS code. It is easier to learn SAS Studio than to learn R and Python to accomplish data cleaning, statistics, and visualization tasks.

The book includes a case study about analyzing the data required for predicting the results of presidential elections in the state of Maine for 2016 and 2020. In addition to the presidential elections, the book provides real-life examples, including analyzing stocks, oil and gold prices, crime, marketing, and healthcare. You will see data science in action and how easy it is to perform complicated tasks and visualizations in SAS Studio.

You will learn, step-by-step, how to do visualizations, including maps. In most cases, you will not need a line of code as you work with the SAS Studio graphical user interface. The book includes explanations of the code that SAS Studio generates automatically. You will learn how to edit this code to perform more complicated advanced tasks. The book introduces you to multiple SAS products such as SAS Viya, SAS Analytics, and SAS Visual Statistics.

You will:

Become familiar with SAS Studio IDE
Understand essential visualizations
Know the fundamental statistical analysis required in most data science and analytics reports
Clean the most common data set problems
Use linear progression for data prediction
Write programs in SAS
Get introduced to SAS-Viya, which is more potent than SAS Studio

#ad #paidlink

The art and craft of feature writing

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Blundell’s guide for feature writing is divided according to the writing process. He started by finding an idea, sources, followed by shaping the idea, then discussing the story dimensions, then planning and execution, and organizing the piece. He dedicated a special chapter for handling the key story elements; like the lead and the ending.

It is hard to jump through the chapters of the book or to skip chapters. It is built piece onto the other.

I was shocked by his list of what readers like and do not like…. Dogs to be onto the top of the list! People who are actors are much more preferred by the readers than the observers. Nevertheless, at some cases, the observers make a well formed analysis and explanation, thus the reader can understand, link unrelated events and show a zoom-out picture to the reader.

He emphasized on keeping the range of the story “narrow” to be sharp. He summarized the forethought to the reporter as follows: range of the story, central message/theme, the approach and the tone as a storyteller.

The range is the cause and effect map, where the reporter must consider: time, distance, and constituencies.

The theme is the message, it must concentrate on the action. It embeds the lead within it.

The approach can be a general profile approach, microcosm approach or round-up approach. The general profile focuses on the differences, while the microcosm profile focuses on the similarities. The round-up approach is safer by providing many voices.

The tone is the voice. Blundell summarized it in an easy method. He said: “Always consider your own feelings about the story idea before you start reporting and throughout…. If you are amused, skeptical, outraged…Hang on to your emotions… Your reporting and writing will be guided toward values they may not have included before.”

My writing hurdles

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Reading Don Fry’s book “Writing your Way”, while writing the last feature piece was really useful to put all theories in practice in real time. Now, to digest more, I asked myself about my strong areas and weak areas.

Always the first chapters in any writing book are about the ideas, then the interviews. These are in my strong realm, I never run out of ideas nor people.

My real problems start when I start transcribing the interviews and writing the first draft. In Don Fry, he simplified the process to write in blocks, and to add the golden coins. The golden coins can be illustrated as pictures or strong quotes to keep the reader hooked and to push the story forward.

Moreover, I face the problem of how to end the story so the reader can remember it. Fry said that the ending is like a nice frame, that if cut, the story can still stand by itself.

Blundell’s book “The art and craft of feature writing”, answered these two weak points in six part step-by-step guide over two stages. The six parts are: History, scope, reasons, impacts, countermoves, and futures. The two stages are: planning and execution, and organization.

In the planning and execution stage, the step-by-step guide for the six blocks are listed in the book as specific questions for each part. As a summary, it is as follows:

  1. History: has the main theme roots in the past?
  2. Scope: any statistics, and numbers.
  3. Reasons: is there money or personal motives behind the events?
  4. Impacts: who is hurt? And how hard is his hurt? (It reminds me of the quote: what bleeds leads)
  5. Countermoves: who is defending? Who is winning in the story contrary forces?
  6. Futures: opinions of the observers.

In the organization stage, Blundell said that the only way is to index the facts and the interviews according to the 6-blocks mentioned above. He decomposed any feature story to the following stages:
One: Tease me, you devil.
Two: Tell me what you’re up to.
Three: Oh yeah?
Four: I’ll buy it. Help me remember it.

Hmm…this quote is quite true: “Writing is easy. You just open a vein and bleed.”

Fighting oneself

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Fighting my internal critic and my mind over the gig selection

Fighting my internal critic and my mind over the gig selection

Finally, I have finished reading Don Fry’s book “Writing Your Way.” I like most the last chapter, where he collected all the book’s techniques. I feel that I want to re-read it again and want to re-write all my stories again, upon what I learned from the book. My internal critic is so loud right now yelling at me, “Do not pitch, you are not ready yet. Work on knowing yourself. You need more time to investigate your strengths and weaknesses.” But I can never know without trying.

Other than fighting with my internal critic, I am fighting my mind on the gig selection. It is like questioning myself: “Which cage do I like most, in order to lock my mind in it?” I get bored fast, nevertheless, I know that hopping around will not help me earn any money.

I know that there are shortage in journalists; who write about Muslims in America. According to my blogs’ analytics, the readers like most what I write about politics, travel, parenting and book reviews respectively.

I think I should start collecting newspapers’ writing guidelines and ask my social media about which of my writings they like most. May be talking with people, helps me decide.

Image source: https://s3.amazonaws.com/lowres.cartoonstock.com/sport-lamp-shadow-pugilist-fight-fighting-mfln5046_low.jpg

Writing Your Way – Don Fry

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Are you a Planner or Plunger?

“One of the horrors of the writer’s life is sitting at your keyboard not knowing what to say,” this sentence hooked me, this is exactly how I feel every time I have to write!
Don Fry in “Writing Your Way,” analyzes the writers, classifies them and guides each type. Fry is a writing coach, a writing teacher and a freelancer writer. He aimed the book at nonfiction writers who are not journalists.

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