Rating: 
Summary: Excellent for Software Engineers
Review: Excellent guide for software engineers that need to come up to speed quickly. UML is huge and many may not want to be drowning in the details. This book gives you the basics, and then some. Many areas are covered and it could almost be a concise summary to many aspects of software development in the real world. Definitely will stay on my bookshelf.
Rating: 
Summary: Good introduction to UML 2
Review: Martin Fowler does it again. This is a very good introduction to UML 2. But, I wish Fowler had included more details on Class diagrams and Sequence diagrams in particular ,with real world examples.
Still, a great introductory book.
Rating:
Summary: A readable and informative introduction to UML
Review: Readable! Excellent intro. On the inside covers, nice quick reference. As a web developer with no UML experience looking for a clearer way to pre-visualize my projects, this book got me going fast and offered perspective on best usage of the UML. The author's experience-driven opinions helped me learn faster. The book is honest about itself in that it admits it doesn't try to offer rare details of the UML that you'll rarely use. It keeps to what you'll use MOST of the time. It delivered 100% of what I was looking for. If you're already using the UML, I still think this is a great read for you.
Rating:
Summary: The figure 5.1
Review: I've read a review here, which says that "UML Distilled" 3rd edition has a lot of errors and mention missing figure 5.1 as an example. So I bought "UML Weekend Crash Course" instead, and was very disappointed with it. Then I finally bought this book, and I love it. It describes everything in a clear and simple way. And, by the way, the figure 5.1 is there on page 67, exactly where it should be.
Rating:
Summary: : Good introductory book that covers the basics well
Review: A good mixture of UML, new additions to UML and how UML integrates into software processes. The topics are at a high level and only get skin deep, so this book is good for practically anyone interested in UML: developers needing to know the new additions to UML, managers with little time that want to learn UML to be able to talk to their developers, and even marketing staff wanting to communicate the needs of their customers with the engineers and product managers. Martin Fowler has done it again with the third edition of the UML Distilled book. Informative, well organized, quick read and more importantly an easy read. He starts with a background on UML and where it came from, and where it is currently heading. He continues with the introduction with going over what a software process is and why it's needed. The importance and the benefits of how UML can assist the software process during all the phases of the process sets the stage for UML throughout the rest of the book. If you are unfamiliar with software processes such as the Rational Unified Process, Fowler's introduction goes a long way and clear things up. "... the creators of the UML see the [UML] diagrams as a secondary; the essence of the UML is the meta model. Diagrams are simply a presentation of the meta-model." Probably the best explanation of UML you can find anywhere. Folwer, from the get go tries to set the stage straight and clear up some of the misconceptions that UML. At the beginning, he focuses on the fact that UML is not the solution to everything a development team faces during a project, but rather a starting point, and "you shouldn't hesitate to use a non-UML diagram if no UML diagram suits your purpose." Starting with the basics of UML, such as class diagrams and sequence diagrams, Fowler delves into the basics of UML and mainly the critical components on UML 1.0. A very controversial topic in UML and mainly the class diagrams are the notion of Aggregation and Composition. Aggregation being the part-of relationship and composition being an object with only one owner are depicted well thru a number of examples. For simplicity, Fowler suggests the aggregation be entirely dropped from diagrams.
Associations versus class Properties are another unclear point that is covered well. If you have been working with UML for a while, you have certainly realized that anything that can be presented via Associations can also be presented via the use of Properties. This point of ambiguity could mean the difference between a clean and clear class diagram and a clotted diagram that looks like a web of coupled classes. The author clears the point between the two notions up by specifying a rule of thumb: use attributes for small things such as dates and Boolean types, and use associations between large object types with clear dependencies between the objects. This rule can certainly help when you are trying to do round-trip-engineering, and your reversed engineered class diagram is totally not what you were expecting! Has that ever happened to you?
Object Diagrams, Use Cases, State Machines and Activity diagrams mark some of the UML tools that have been around since the earlier versions of UML.
Composite Structures, Interaction Overview and Timing Diagrams are new to the UML 2.0. Composite Structures enable the internal structure of a class to be decomposed. It clearly defines and marks what the interfaces are, and what the required external interfaces are for each of the interfaces shown. Interaction Overview diagrams graft together activity diagrams and sequence diagrams. The author does however mention that he has no interest in using the Interaction Overview diagram due to the fact that they are too busy. I agree!
Overall, Martin Fowler's UML Distilled book provides a clear, concise and brief but sweet introduction to UML. Each topic is short and gets to the point. Main pitfall of UML are explained well, and the reader upon reading this book can "speak" the UML language.
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