Finding good books about C++ is hard; they often belong to one of four categories:

1. Learn to program – too basic for people actually making money on this trade. However strange this might sound, there is a quite subtle difference between the DIY hobby programmer and the professional one. Ok, I know that most in the former category actually make an extremely good living “programming.”
2. Reference manuals – cool thing to have if you do not want to turn on the computer all the time, or impress the chicks with your understanding of the exact invocation sequence of copy constructors when dealing with temporary objects, but barely useful as a learning aid.
3. Tips and quiz – Q&A kind of books, introducing the ignorant to the quite complex semantics of the more subtle constructs in this beautiful language. Good for exercising the brain, but not for learning stuff.
4. Modern C++ – books about meta programming and cool esoteric stuff. Even though I must admit to love these books, they are simply not that useful for 99.2% of projects out there. NOTE: most people knowing me probably shake their heads in disbelief of this pragmatic view. Fear not, I am still the abstract old Dave.

I just happened to run into a book that does not fall into one of these four categories, and that should be quite useful for the intermediate C++ developer: C++ Standard Library Practical Tips, by Greg Reese.