Some weeks ago Packt Publishing sent me a note asking me to read and review the DotNetNuke book "Building Websites with DotNetNuke 5" which can be found at http://www.packtpub.com/building-websites-with-dotnetnuke-5. This book is a very good resource for someone who wants to get into DotNetNuke or for someone who has to manage a DotNetNuke website. You will find extensive and detailed coverage of all main features and functions available to the site administrator. It can work very well as a reference guide.
The book is easy to follow and read through. So it is not a daunting boring reference guide. It is also very rich illustrated so you can see on the book, check on the site that you are working and cross-reference to make sure what you are doing is correct according to the book.
From Chapters 1 to 6 the author gives a good background about DotNetNuke and lay down the foundation for someone to install, build and administer a DotNetNuke site. I think this is the bread and butter of this book.
Chapters 7 and 8 are about DotNetNuke development. The book covers one development approach called Website Project (WSP) but doesn't even mention about the other approach called WAP (Web Application Project). It would be good if the author had at least mentioned that there is another way to create modules. So in my opinion, if you are looking for a DotNetNuke development book, then this is not the one. There are specific books on the subject of module development like "Professional DotNetNuke Module Programming" which I suggest to go after in case you are looking for DotNetNuke development.
Chapter 9 also talks about development but now it covers Web Service and Silverlight. Maybe the author brought Silverlight just so he could show an example of how to consume web services. At the end I think it is just very shallow in terms of those two subjects (web service and Silvelight) which might as well be the author's intention.
Chapter 10 comes back to DotNetNuke administration, which I think has the strongest appeal for this book. It goes to more advance administration topics like running multiple sites under the same DotNetNuke instance.
DotNetNuke is quite a broad subject so books about it should have a clear focus: Administration, Skin/Design or Development. This book covers administration very well but lacks the development aspect. I think it should focus on administration only. Then split the development in another volume talking in depth about module programming.