Tha Mastering Maya series is okay—I picked the one for Maya 5 up for $7 from a street vendor here in NYC way back when. The problem is that they try to explain a little of everything but never get into the meat and potatoes of a given thing. It's nice that they take user through an entire short via the project, though. It's a decent reference book.
The new autodesk series look like more fun to work through.
