>Just picked up the grandiosley titled "Building Enterprise Applications with Windows Presentation Foundation and the MVVM (Model View ViewModel Pattern)" from Microsoft Press.
>
>A comparatively slim volume of about 180 pages and seven chapters. Chapter 6 (at page 150) is titled "Introduction to the MVVM pattern" which about sums up the problem - the bulk of the book waffles on about 'Design Patterns', 'Seperation of Concerns' and similar generalities. And chapter seven is really just an appendix listing MVVM frameworks and tools.
>
>So : One chapter worth reading. NOT.
>If you understand the MVVM idea then you learn nothing.
>And if you don't then I've a horrible feeling that it would be incomprehensible.....
>
>Which leads me to a generalization of most Microsoft Press books I've read:
>If you are already familiar with the subject matter than all you get is a turgid rehash.
>And if you are not then it is too densely written to be absorbed......
>
>Anyone care to recommend a book from the MS stable that *is* worth reading.......

Overall I definitely agree with you. One good one I can think of is Jeffrey Richter's book (updated several times) on low level .NET stuff. I know it's good because a lot of it is beyond my expertise ;-) That's actually true but the version I have still strikes me as thorough and well organized. It's like looking at a good painting. You somehow sense it's good without necessarily understanding its "meaning."

I trust Apress and O'Reilly pretty well, and some SAMS. Increasingly I am finding value in online courseware. For a while now I have been quite interested in ASP.NET MVC and have benefited from online tutorials from PluralSight and TekPub. (They have tutorials on a wide range of topics). Thanks once again to Charles Hankey and Craig Berntson for turning me onto PluralSight.