I've only skimmed them, but the "Macintosh C" books don't look bad. They are available online in both Carbon and Classic versions:
http://www.mactech.com/macintosh-c/index.html
http://www.mactech.com/macintosh-c/classic.html
I've searched through the Carbon version to find answers to my Carbon API questions, mainly because the official docs are no longer indexed by search engines (thanks, Apple).
I prefer the classic APIs to the Carbon stuff. If you don't care about ever running on OS X, I would avoid Carbon. Older APIs == simpler == better.
--Leif