I did some time ago a review on the book
Reversing: Secrets of Reverse Engineering by Eldad Eilam.
As implied by its title the book covers many topics in the field of reverse code engineering which are essential to know. The book is divided into four parts (named Reversing 101, Applied Reversing, Cracking and Beyond Disassembly) which are again divided into several subparts. Throughout the book a Windows environment is used mostly which is pursuable as most malware and copy protections are available for these platforms.
The first part focuses on the very basics and gives an introduction to reverse engineering, such as where and when it is used, legal aspects, which tools can be used and how an operating system works in some aspects. This part will answer many questions for people who are not familiar with reversing at all and should be read therefore carefully.
Full review can be read at my site
www.awesec.com.
Hope this helps somehow, comments are of course appreciated.