I’m in the process of reading Left To Die by Lisa Jackson and that was going to be my next book up for review here, but if you hurry, you can enter for a chance to win it over at A Book Blogger’s Diary.

I’m not going to spoil the book for you, but just let you know that so far, it’s griping and terrifying all at the same time. Come back soon to read a full review, but for now go enter the contest!!! You’ve only got a few days!

And if you’re not lucky enough to win it over there, leave a comment here and I’ll enter you in a drawing to win my copy of it! Winner will be drawn on 9/15/2008.

The Art and Science of CSS is written by Cameron Adams, Jina Bolton, David Johnson, Steve Smith and Jonathan Snook. It covers the principles of creating standards compliant Web 2.0 web pages.

Standards compliant CSS code can be a daunting subject, yet with numerous screen shots, and a step-by-step guide, the reader is taken on a tour through the jungle of CSS. Your guides are experts in their field and their craftsmanship is evident on every page. Even such things as rounded corners is covered in this book. Meticulous detail is paid to writing clear clean code.

Beginning with Chapter one, we learn to use special fonts and effects to make headers that stand out and make your web page unique.

Chapter two deals with effectively using images to highlight and enhance your web page.

Backgrounds are one of the signature ways we stamp a website as our own and no book about CSS would ignore dealing with backgrounds, their unique properties and writing lightweight code are all covered in Chapter three.

Particular attention is paid to accessibility by users and site navigation techniques in Chapter four.

Forms have always been a bugaboo for me, but this book deals with them in a straightforward manner that takes away the tediousness of them in Chapter five.

One of the facts of life web developers have always dealt with are the squared look of all web pages. Chapter six of this book teaches us how to round corners to soften the look of your page.

Tables have long been used (incorrectly) as a layout element. The Art & Science of CSS’ Chapter seven takes tables out of this role and places them firmly where they belong; as presenters of data.

Using the principles in the book, I’ve been able to create a totally validated (both XHTML and CSS) website for a friend of mine. While my own sites are still being revamped to comply, using this book, I will be able to accomplish that in much less time than if I were trying to do it on my own.