Jeff, I'm into the "....Advanced" book now. I'm just kind of pushing through to get a better understanding/feel and working a few of the examples (using Netbeans). I think the books are great. They certainly don't get down to the level of the Dalvik machine but that's not the intent either. They do give a great feel for the OS overall and discuss it's features and idiosyncrasies. I bought the subscription directly from Mark on his website $40 for a year for all his books -- which is cheaper than one of the books in paper.
http://commonsware.com/
Instant gratification too.
