Rating: 

Although it has some advanced sections, I was able to put in place a lot of the examples right away.

This is probably one of the best books I have used to solve system administration issues regarding a programming language (After the Bash Cookbook).

Log files, automated configuration updates, parsing for information and even a new shell (ipython), are some of the cool stuff these guys deliver.

I have even recommended the book to non system administrators as it doesn't assume you know the language inside out.