I had a flick through said book that someone had left lying around at my flying school.
Spotted the L = 1/2 rho + V2 + S + CL bit soon after picking it up and immediately put it down again, not before suggesting to its owner that he burn the damn thing asap.
As for lift generation, having done a degree in Aeropace Engineering, I must say that I was pleasantly surprised during my PPL to see that the Trevor Thom and AFE books are both relatively accurate (within their albeit limited scope). At least there's no 'molecules must meet their neighbours at the trailing edge' crap as found in many school texts. Anyone doing their ATPL groundschool, or genning up for a technical interview, would be well advised to have a flick through these to refresh their memory.
I'd also recommend a website I found a while back while looking for info on Zhukovski's equation (don't ask):
http://www.av8n.com
It contains the complete text of an (unpublished) book by a guy called John Denker, who seems to know what he's talking about. It would be interesting to hear if anyone else has read it.