Cecil, the problem is that change has been so fast and furious that many/most books and articles describe technologies that may no longer be concurrent. L2SQL, for example, is highly accessible but already Foxed. In your shoes I'd get hold of a VS2010 beta, get your head set on tiered development that does not revolve around SP, and start messing with POCO. with a fox background you'll find it fairly familiar, in any case you'll be as up with the play as most people out there, and not having NET legacy to worry about should make it easier to engage.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
