Most math books suck. The one exception, and the first book that made me realize you can teach complex topics to regular folks, is Calculus Made Easy by Silvan

Most math books suck. The one exception, and the first book that made me realize you can teach complex topics to regular folks, is Calculus Made Easy by Silvanus P. Thompson and Martin Gardner. It's been around since the late 1800's and it's what I finally learned calculus from. I haven't found many other books that explain calculus as well as that one. If you get that and then a book of exercises from Schaum's outlines, you'll be able to get pretty good at it. Also, the book is a really good read for a math book.