This book is written for those who are new at making websites, and includes chapters on related topics such as preparation of web graphics along with basic discussions and exercises on html and css. The topic of css itself is so vast that the authors can only present an introduction. Chapters on positioning in css are excellent and very important, while the absence of discussion about font units is puzzling. To be specific, the exercises use points to specify fonts and don't discuss px or em or % which are far more commonly used on the web. I also would have liked a discussion of best practices in css; that would really help with writing and understanding stylesheets. Certain chapters seem to be leftover from previous editions - such as framesets, that now have only specialized uses.
The title has to be taken with a large dose of irony, as does the "html5 coverage" on the cover (html5 is discussed on one page). html5 features are just now being introduced in web browsers so the use of xhtml is justified, but that cover made me expect more. "Introduction to Making Websites"is a more boring but more accurate title.
A book like this could be even more useful if it had a dedicated website with more discussion and examples tied to the published version.