I know that the general 'good books' question has been answered a million times but I've not seen it answered in quite the way I want when searching.

The last thing I need is yet another book teaching general programming to collect dust on my shelf, but I find myself surprised a lot by what it's actually doing at times. If there's a good reference someone can point out that goes into all the nitty gritty details without spending days on end hunting through msdn every time something doesn't work as I expect it to that would be most helpful.