Murach’s Android programming aims to give a structured learning path to the developer new to Android, guiding him from installing Android Studio to finishing his first app and uploading it to the Play Store.

The book is divided into five sections. The first one covers the basics of Android programming and develops a first version of a tip calculator app. The next section builds on the first one and dives into layouts and widgets, events, themes and styles, menu and preferences, and eventually fragments. By the end of the section, the tip calculator app is optimized for small and large screens, with different layouts and user preferences. The third section uses a news reader app to introduce more advanced topics such as threads, files, intents, services, and notifications. The next section develops a task list tabbed app that uses a SQLite database to store its data. The last section introduces more advanced topics such as working with location services and maps to build a run tracker app.

The book has a unique recto-verso layout, with topics explained on the left page and a step-by-step “how to” on the right page with code and screenshots. It is well suited for an introduction on Android because it chooses to focus on the basic concepts of the platform. Given the tenor the book, I would have appreciated seeing a better introduction to Gradle, the build system, and to third-party library dependency management.

Murach keeps the focus on the very basics without giving into the temptation to touch each and every topic the more advanced reader would expect (such as multimedia, graphics, camera, sensors, and so on). Overall, I’d recommend the book to anyone beginning to learn Android. The source code for the applications, exercises, and solutions is available for download from Murach’s website.

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