XAML in a Nutshell, by Lori A. MacVittie, is a “Desktop Quick Reference” for XAML, the XML language used by Windows Presentation Foundation. As such, it has minimal explanatory content, consisting primarily of short paragraphs documenting each of the elements and attributes supported by XAML.

The biggest problem with this book is that it is too early for a XAML reference book. The API has changed significantly since the book was written, though it was only released last month. Worse yet, I could find no significant errata or book updates on the Web, leaving me to regularly question the accuracy of the book as I read.

Neither was I impressed by the organization of the book, nor the formatting of the reference items, nor the infrequent and/or unnecessary and/or poorly documented screenshots, nor the lack of online sample code, nor the errors in the text, nor the missing topics (like namespace mapping), nor the lack of information about WPF, the core technology behind XAML.

In short, I cannot recommend this book. You’ll do much better with a copy of Programming Windows Presentation Foundation, the sample code and change notes on that book’s Web site, and the documentation that ships with the WPF beta.