I've got about seven or eight rose books and this one is, hands down, the one with the best and most helpful content, notwithstanding that it is one of the thinnest. Ortho's All About Roses (OAAR) has more pages on how to select a rose, how to plant a rose, how to prune a rose, how to identify rose problems like insects and fungus, and how to winterize a rose than probably any other book on the market. And, it is beautifully illustrated, with very clear photos and illustrations that show exactly where to snip while pruning and what a particular bug or plant ailment looks like. Additionally, it has probably the best section on how to place roses based on the type of garden and how to landscape with roses of any book I've seen, other than maybe Right Rose, Right Place by Peter Schneider, which I found to be an overall less impressive book than this one. There are many, many beautiful pictures of roses situated in gardens, which helps when planning one's plantings. Finally, as a 2007 printing, OAAR is one of the newest rose books on the market and has a lot of entries on the latest varieties that you typically will see in your local garden center or at an online nursery like Edmund's Roses - there are listings, each with a good, clear, representative photo, for newer roses like the Rainbow Knockout, Burgundy Iceberg, Night Owl, etc...
I can think of only a few cons: as a thinner book, they had to cut corners somewhere and that somewhere is with both the number of rose varities they feature in the rose encyclopedia at the back of the book, and with content on each one - rarely do they give full grown plant dimensions except with climbers and a few shrub roses, and sometimes they omit commentary on scent, as well. There are very thorough sections on miniatures and on old garden roses, of which I've only seen a few varieties here and there locally and online, whereas the section on the much more common and popular floribundas was nowhere near as inclusive as it should have been - it needs at least 50% more roses in that section.
If you're thinking about planting a rose or two, this should be the very first book you buy. And if you're already busy with dozens of roses in your garden, I still recommend this book, as I bet there's a thing or two (or four) about roses all but the most devoted rose experts could learn from this excellent book.