Here is my review for UML Distilled (3rd Edition): A Brief Guide to the Standard Object Modeling Language by Martin Fowler.
My Maximal Brevity Review: Good - but something missing. Need more then read on.
Yes it is a good book, and it's concise, clear and to the point. However I didn't get as much enjoyment from this book as Refactoring - another Martin Fowler book I reviewed earlier. I did enjoy reading this book, it's just that something was missing. However I don't think that it's anything wrong with the book, I think it's that I didn't gain as much immediate benefit from the book as I did when I read Refactoring.
My Previous two reviews, Refactoring and Head First Design Patterns both use UML as a learning aid and you can't go far without needing to know atleast some UML. If you are doing object orientated programming then you'd better learn UML, if you want to get into using ECO then knowledge of UML is a must (you'd better add OCL to the mix as well)
In UML there is actually a number of different diagram types, probably the most common and easily understood are Class Diagrams which give you a way of describing classes and their relationships. There are others (Sequence, State and Activity Diagrams for instance), but Class Diagrams are probably the most common and useful.
What does this book promise? "This book describes all the major UML diagram types, what they're used for, and the basic notation involved in creating and deciphering them" to quote the back of the book. I think that it is more than fair to say that this promise is delivered upon. This book is not a complete reference to UML but rather the essentials that will get you by 99% of the time.
Do you need this book? I think that if you don't already have a good understanding of UML, then this is a good place to start. Should you want to buy this book now Here it is on Amazon.com