acknowledgments

First, I would like to thank my husband, Andrea. His patience and support have helped to bring this book to life. I am also grateful to my two children, Giulia and Antonio, for their smiles and love. A big thank you goes to my father, Angelo, for teaching me to never give up, even in the face of difficulties. I would also like to thank my sweet mother for her tenderness and encouraging cuddles. Mum, I miss you.

This book wouldn’t have seen the light of day without the incredible work of the fantastic team at Manning: Andy Waldron, acquisitions editor; Ian Hough, development editor; Ninoslav Čerkez, technical editor; and the rest of the production team, who worked diligently to get this book to press.

Also, I thank all the reviewers: Alain Couniot, Ali Shakiba, Andre Weiner, Ankit Anchlia, Bin Hu, Daniel Paes, David Cronkite, George Carter, Greg Grimes, João Marcelo Borovina Josko, Jeremy Chen, Joel Kotarski, Jose San Leandro, Karan Gupta, Kaushik Kompella, Keerthivasan Santhanakrishnan, Krishnamurthy TV, Madiha Khalid, Manos Parzakonis, Maxim Volgin, Mikael Dautrey, Monica Guimaraes, Nadir Doctor, Oliver Korten, Peter Henstock, Radhakrishna MV, Richard Vaughan, Sarang S. Brahme, Scott Chaussee, Shaurya Khurana, Shiroshica Kulatilake, Sriram Macharla, Subhasis Ghosh, Thomas Joseph Heiman, Vidhya Vinay, and Xiangbo Mao. Without their suggestions and expertise, this book would not be what it is.