"Probabilistic Machine Learning", Murphy (2012, 2022, 2023)
MIT licensed PDF drafts published by the author are at https://github.com/probml/pml-book.
As the #PML name suggests, these books present #ML from the #probabilistic perspectiveโthat is, ML presented the right way.
The 2022 and 2023 books (An Introduction and Advanced Topics) are the updated, expanded version of the original 2012 book. The new books provide a comprehensive coverage of ML as it was, circa 2021.
These books are not only comprehensive in the coverage of ML, they are also self-contained in that they provide all requisite mathematical background, without slapping the reader across the face with fine turns of phrases. They are written in an authentic, genuine, heartfelt style, a bit of a rarity amongst AI/ML publications, today. They are, in my view, the most effective self-study guides for upper-level undergraduate students, beginning graduate students, and experienced IT practitioners who aims to study the concepts in depthโthey who are dissatisfied with just making shallow API calls.
The older book uses MATLAB, and the newer ones use Python. Naturally! But using probabilistic DSLsโFigaro, Church, Anglican, WebPPL, etc.โwith these books maybe even more effective.








