It's quite clear from reading this book that Peter Gasston is very knowledgeable about CSS 3 and, as he points out in the preface, this book is a culmination of five years of work that he has spent writing about CSS3. There is a clear order to the chapters. The earlier chapters are well implemented and the items discussed there are used on a regular basis. The final chapters are more speculative in nature.

The author takes a very methodical approach in the book. He covers numerous topics in a clear and well-thought-out manner. He provides several examples for each topic that is covered. There are 17 chapters and an appendix. After each topic is introduced, the author informs you as to which of the major browsers implements the feature. The last chapter discusses the future of CSS3. The appendix collects all of the browser support tables that are found in each chapter.

It should be noted that for those developers who use Internet Explorer, most of the features discussed in the book were slated to be implemented in IE9 but could not be verified as the book was released before IE 9 came out.

There are a lot of neat things that you can do in CSS 3 and this book is a great introduction to these features. Also as the author points out some of these features have already been implemented. This leads to a fascinating as well as depressing discussion on the lack of standardization that abounds regarding CSS3.

The first chapter is a must read. It's a fascinating look at the history of CSS3. CSS3 is modular with each module developed independently from the other modules. Each module has a status and there is a recommendation process that is followed before a module is approved. In addition, many of the modules are implemented in an experimental fashion and are marked with browser-specific tags.

Reading this book reminds one of the fluctuating standards of Internet browsers not only between browsers but between browser versions as well. It is disappointing and frustrating that these issues still exist and make it so much harder for developers to make use of new and existing features in CSS. However, the new features are alluring and if you are a web designer you are going to want to implement them and this book will give you a good feel for what they can do.