For those striving for Exchange certification, there is nothing like good written material to prepare you for the exam at hand. Of course, hands-on experience is invaluable, but it could be you don’t know where to start, and find TechNet contents great for reference but more written with the support audience in mind. In those cases, you may need more guidance through the exam subjects, as with a regular course.

In this situation, the following two recently released Microsoft Press titles may be of interest:

• Exam Ref 70-341 Core Solutions of Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 (MCSE), by fellow Exchange MVP’s Paul Robichaux and Bhargav Shukla.
• Exam Ref 70-342 Advanced Solutions of Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 (MCSE), by fellow Exchange MVP’s Steve Goodman and Brian Reid.

Both books are the official preparation material for the exams, and they written by authors with proper field experience. Also, both Bhargav and Reid teached on the Microsoft Certified Master (MCM/MCSM) program at Microsoft in Redmond. If getting certified for Exchange 2013 is on your personal roadmap, be sure to check out these titles.

On another note, fellow Exchange MVP’s Tony Redmond, Michael van Horenbeeck and Paul Cunningham, together Jeff Guillet in the role of technical editor, will self-publish an e-book-only title, called “Office 365 for Exchange Professionals”. Intention of self-publishing an e-book-only title is to be able to incorporate Office 365 service changes more often. They plan to have it ready before Microsoft Ignite in 2 weeks time.

If you are looking for titles on Exchange or Exchange-related subject such as PowerShell or Active Directory, be sure to check out my section of recommended titles here.