Bryan Peterson's Understanding Exposure is a fantastic book to help photographers old and new learn to manage light.
Today's digital cameras remove the need to know much of this. But if you want to take highly stylized or technical shots, this book is a great guide.
Photography is a show in three great acts: composition, exposure and developing the print. Bryan Peterson has a wonderful method for teaching exposure, his Triangle method, which he shares in this book. Peterson clearly explains the physics of photography in terms I find easy to understand, then he walks you through using the camera to control them. ISO, shutter speed and aperture all combine to make the image you are envisioning happen inside the camera.
This updated third edition also has a great guide on HDR photography.
Understanding Exposure, 3rd Edition: How to Shoot Great Photographs with Any Camera
