Concepts of Database Management is the perfect short yet complete introduction to database concepts. The two featured case problems, Premiere Products and Henry Books, bring to life real-world database issues such as database design, data integrity, concurrent updates, and data security. This edition includes expanded coverage of SQL, entity-relationship (E-R) diagrams, normalization, and database design.
I go back to this book over and over for help with mapping databases and structures. In the past I would simply sit down and build a database from scratch without mapping it first. Planning makes things a lot easier.