It is the best-selling introduction to the language and it is easy to see why: the first part runs from variables to classes, files, exceptions and tests without skipping anything; the second makes you finish three complete projects, a game, a set of charts built from data pulled off the internet, and a web application with user accounts.
What I took from it
Putting tests in chapter eleven of a beginner's book, rather than in an advanced volume, is a decision with judgement behind it. Testing is not a discipline reserved for large teams: it is what separates a script you believe works from one that shows it works. Since then, any script of mine that touches a company's data carries the case that proves what I claim, even if the script runs once.
The second part teaches something that is not technical: finishing. The three projects go all the way, including publishing them, and that is where the problems a short tutorial never shows up appear. It is the same reason I would rather deliver something small that works end to end than a large demonstration missing its last mile.
And I use it as a reference for sequence when someone from the accounting side asks where to start: this book has already solved the order in which things are taught.
What I left out
Most of the first block, which is revision for anyone who already programs. And one part aged badly: the web project in this edition deploys to a service that later withdrew its free tier, so that final stretch has to be solved outside the book. That is the risk of any manual that leans on one specific provider.