In my search for a good guide to the new web standards of the HTML5 era, this one really stood out. Technical computing books like HTML 5 and CSS3 tend to be purely utilitarian, with little concern for the way their contents are presented. However, this book in particular is clearly written and has a nice, colorful layout. But it doesn't skimp on content- the authors pack as much into the text as you could ask for, especially for an introductory text. An essential theme of the book is the benefit of using web standards, both as a matter of theory and practice. The result of all this is a book that starts the reader with no knowledge of web design and leaves them capable of making a nice and modern site.
The book does suffer a bit from the way topics were organized. For example, I don't think the sections on formatting text and using web fonts needed to be separate. Granted, that's a minor gripe. I also would have liked to see a few more examples of fully-fledged sites, along with descriptions, although URLs to example websites were provided.
All in all, this is the book I would recommend to anyone looking to start out in web design without hesitation. It also works well as a refresher on the new stuff in HTML5 for those who already know their way around. It is by far the best book I have read on the subject.