The latest .NET book from the Murach publishing house is "Murach's Visual Basic 2008". This book is essentially an update of their earlier book for VB 2005 which now includes additional coverage of new features such as Anonymous Types, Object Initializers and LINQ.
I've just been re-reading my original review of the 2005 book and much of what I said then applies equally to this latest version. Here's what I said then:
We all find that some particular authoring styles work better than others for us individually. Some of us like a mass of detail and repetition; some like a few terse lines of explanation. Some of us like to be jollied along with the occasional funny; some like to stay serious. Some like the pages to be jam-packed with screenshots and diagrams; others think this is a waste of teaching space.
It's an individual thing.
Murach have developed their own particular individual style. They use a "facing page" technique. Open the book up at any section and on the left hand page you will find a discussion or explanation of a topic. On the facing page you will see more specific information about this topic, possibly with a diagram or screenshots, or very often demonstration code samples.
The benefit of this approach is that the author has two bites of the teaching cherry. She (in this case, author Anne Boehm) can introduce a topic on the left hand page, cover the essentials and be ready to move on. The value of the right hand facing page though is that it can be used to show additional detail, display sample code and example results and also (this I think being very important) can summarise the key points covered on the first page. The reinforcement of learning points in this way can be a very valuable tool.
Essentially, the reader can decide if he or she has understood enough from the left side page to be ready to move on, or if not then they can opt to read the right hand page for more info, samples or reinforcement and confirmation of their understanding.
Personally I quite like the approach. I tend to dive into books almost at random sometimes, but often just needing to refresh my memory on a particular point. If I'm using a Murach book and need further detail, I can dig into the additional facing page info as much as needed for any one topic, or even specific part of a topic.
If there is a down side to the Murach approach it's probably that because of the facing pages approach they have to limit the number of VB.NET topics they can actually cover in the 800+ pages limit . That said, what they do cover is fairly comprehensive and contains plenty of material to keep a VB.NET beginner engrossed for many a long night. And, most importantly, those topics are covered thoroughly and clearly in plain English.
A full list of the book Contents can be seen here and as you will see, you can drill further into each chapter to exactly what is covered.
If you want to know if the Murach style will suit you, then you can take a look at two Sample Chapters here.
In summary, this is another clearly written, well laid out offering from the Murach stable. This book is particularly suitable for newcomers to VB.NET, whether total developer beginners or those moving to .NET from VB Classic.