yeah it's not a cover-it-all solution. Mike's books are looking at a handful of commonly used tools. If you want to go indepth into these particular tools they're good tutorials and project leads. But there are sooooooo many things to do in Carrara, you'll always find something that will have to be covered elsewhere. I recommend the Lynda.com tutorials as a companion, from Jack Whitney, who incidentally wrote some chanpters (several) for the CS3 handbook and I guess for the C5 handbook too? just a guess, I haven't seen the C5 handbook yet). Doug Sahlin is another resource, he did the VTC tutorials for earlier versions, not sure if he's doing one for C5 but it's worth checking on VTC's list of Carrara material. I have links to those at thebest3d.com too. There is a surprisingly large and growing list of new tutorials in the eovia3d.net and eovia.com tutorials areas. I think it's gaining momentum, which is very encouraging sings of professionals coming on to Carrara. What's not to like? Check www.icebergthemovie.com - click 'Enter' and see a Carrara render of a boat on a desert.