Back in the day Maya 4 Fundamentals was my favorite. If I were buying today, I would pick up Laearning Autodesk Maya 2008 series...the foundation and Modeling/animation one.

https://www.amazon.com/Learning-Autod...5329744&sr=1-1

I've flipped through them at B&N and they're really good and the lessons seem fun (the foundation book revolves around creating characters, sets, effects, from "Surf's Up". The other one...well I dig it because I like exaggerated cartoony characters).

If game characters are your bag, then you can't beat Mike's two books.