I am notoriously impatient with business books, especially those about online community, an area in which I specialize.I scan books about building online communities quickly and pull out what looks most useful, then shove them on a shelf or a give-away pile. I rarely consult them twice.It's a testimony to what Adrian has written here that I was drawn in right away by his personal and highly vulnerable stories of his early struggles with community management. Adrian took his lumps and he's sharing that hard-earned experience.The book is written in a casual, highly accessible style. Adrian takes you in as a friend and helpful mentor, explaining where he went wrong, what he got right, and how you can avoid some of the pitfalls to setting up and running a B2B online community.(I'd argue that his advice is useful well beyond B2B but I appreciated the focus of the book on a space he knows really well.)There's a logical progression to the chapters. He first of all makes a case for the business value of communities and how "real" you need to be in that public-facing role. And while he's made it clear that he intends the book to be thumbed through for the most relevant bits, you'll want to read it from end-to-end on your first outing, especially if you are still very new in the community profession.Even as an experienced community consultant, I found myself underlining, commenting, and adding sticky notes throughout the book, realizing that I'd want to come back to certain parts at various stages of my consultancy work.In particular, his many checklists are extremely valuable.You'll find the usual mnemonic acronyms here like SPAN and CARGO, both of which are drawn from Higher Logic's community playbook (where Adrian works), but they are reasonably helpful tools fit for use.SPAN, by the way, stands for the four most common kinds of B2B communities: support, product, ambassador, and networking. CARGO is a way to remember the essentials of your community plan: Concept, Acquisition, Retention, Goals, and Outcomes.One of the things that stood out for me was Adrian's maturity model on page 125. Now you'll find that there are many of these models touted by practitioners, thought leaders, and platform providers. Your mileage will vary. I'll merely say that most of them are unhelpfully complex, unrealistic, or... not really models at all.Adrian cuts against the grain here a bit by refusing to tie specific metrics to each stage in his model. At a time when quantitative measurement of community health and performance is on everyone's mind, his innovation is to suggest that there are key tasks and "graduating" tasks for the community professional to perform before you consider yourself at the next stage.I liked this, because when you're running a community, any control you think you have over community metrics and how members will react to your attempts to engage them is largely illusory. For new community managers in particular, it gives them agency (and comfort) to know that they have done all of the things that they needed to to ensure that the community can find its way to the next stage in its maturity.Adrian doesn't diminish the importance of metrics, of course. He just decouples them from the idea of a community maturity model.I hesitate to call any book comprehensive, but I cannot think of any areas about community-building that he neglects, including situations where you're coming into a role where you'll be taking over an existing community that's struggling or even (mostly) dead.It's a friendly reference book you'll want to keep you your shelf, too. I recommend it without hesitation.