Docker and Ansible are two skills that show up in almost every DevOps job listing, and for good reason. Docker standardizes how you package and ship applications. Ansible automates how you configure and manage the servers they run on. Together, they cover the build and deploy sides of the infrastructure lifecycle.
This list includes the current best books for both tools, verified as in print and available. We dropped the pre-2020 titles that filled the previous version of this page because Docker and Ansible have both changed substantially since then.
Last reviewed: March 2026. All links and availability verified.
Docker Books
Docker Deep Dive (2025 Edition)
Nigel Poulton updates this book annually, and it shows. The 2025 edition covers containers, images, networking, Docker Compose, Swarm, security hardening, and two new topics: Docker Model Runner for running local LLMs and Wasm-based containers. At 4.7 stars with thousands of reviews, it is the most recommended Docker book on the market and the one every beginner should start with.
- Author: Nigel Poulton
- Published: May 2025 (updated annually)
- Best for: Beginners through intermediate
- Amazon: Buy on Amazon
Learn Docker in a Month of Lunches, 2nd Edition
Elton Stoneman’s structured approach breaks Docker into 22 bite-sized lessons. Each one is designed to be completed in a lunch break. The second edition adds multi-platform builds, cloud container services, and a Kubernetes primer. If you struggle with books that dump everything on you at once, this format works.
- Author: Elton Stoneman
- Published: 2025 (Manning, 2nd Edition)
- Best for: Self-paced learners, structured study
- Amazon: Buy on Amazon
Docker: Up & Running, 3rd Edition
The O’Reilly reference for teams shipping containers in production. Sean Kane and Karl Matthias cover BuildKit, buildx, rootless containers, and Docker Engine internals that the beginner books skip. This is the book your team lead has on their desk.
- Authors: Sean P. Kane, Karl Matthias
- Published: May 2023 (O’Reilly, 3rd Edition)
- Best for: Production Docker, intermediate to advanced
- Amazon: Buy on Amazon
Continuous Delivery with Docker and Jenkins, 3rd Edition
Rafal Leszko bridges Docker with CI/CD by building complete pipelines using Jenkins, Docker, Kubernetes, Ansible, and Terraform. If your goal is not just running containers but automating the entire delivery workflow around them, this fills that gap.
- Author: Rafal Leszko
- Published: 2022 (Packt, 3rd Edition)
- Best for: CI/CD pipeline automation with Docker
- Amazon: Buy on Amazon
Ansible Books
Ansible for DevOps
Jeff Geerling’s book is the gold standard for Ansible. It starts with installation and inventory files, works through ad-hoc commands, playbooks, and roles, then covers real-world deployments including multi-provider provisioning and Docker/Kubernetes orchestration. Geerling keeps the ebook updated quarterly, and the print edition is refreshed biannually. All example code is open source on GitHub. If you buy one Ansible book, this is it.
- Author: Jeff Geerling
- Published: Continuously updated (current version 2.2)
- Rating: 4.7 stars
- Best for: Everyone from beginners to intermediate Ansible users
- Amazon: Buy on Amazon
Ansible: Up and Running, 3rd Edition
The O’Reilly companion to Geerling’s book. Bas Meijer, Lorin Hochstein, and Rene Moser cover playbook construction, remote server management, declarative modules, and deployment automation. Where Geerling is conversational and project-driven, this book is more reference-oriented. Having both gives you two complementary perspectives.
- Authors: Bas Meijer, Lorin Hochstein, Rene Moser
- Published: July 2022 (O’Reilly, 3rd Edition)
- Best for: Reference and deeper Ansible internals
- Amazon: Buy on Amazon
Ansible DevOps Cookbook
Thorne Montgomery’s cookbook (334 pages, 2024) takes a problem/solution approach with 75+ recipes covering setup, playbooks, cloud services, CI/CD integration, and Ansible Tower management. If you already know the basics and want quick solutions to specific problems, the recipe format saves time.
- Author: Thorne Montgomery
- Published: 2024
- Pages: 334
- Best for: Quick solutions, production recipes
- Amazon: Buy on Amazon
Quick comparison
| Goal | Book |
|---|---|
| Learn Docker from scratch | Docker Deep Dive (2025) |
| Structured Docker learning | Learn Docker in a Month of Lunches, 2nd Ed |
| Production Docker | Docker: Up & Running, 3rd Ed |
| Docker + CI/CD pipelines | Continuous Delivery with Docker and Jenkins |
| Learn Ansible from scratch | Ansible for DevOps (Geerling) |
| Ansible reference | Ansible: Up and Running, 3rd Ed |
| Ansible problem-solving | Ansible DevOps Cookbook |
For hands-on tutorials, see our guides on installing Docker and Docker Compose on Ubuntu/Debian and installing and configuring Ansible on Linux.
