When it comes about the SIMP method, the standard book is clearly
Bendsoe, M.P. and Sigmund, O.; Topology Optimization: Theory, Methods, and Applications; Springer; 2003 (scholar.google, amazon). Bendsoe and Sigmund are the godfathers of modern SIMP and their review book like work gives a lot of insight into various achievements and limits of the method. On the other side it is not that appropriate to hand to a studendt to get a glimpse about SIMP, especially on the basics and backgrounds.
Since a couple of weeks only there is another book available:
Christensen, P.W. and Klarbring, A.; An Introduction to Structural Optimization; Springer; 2008 (scholar.google, amazon). It covers truss optimization, SIMP but also the necessary basics in optimization mathematics (e.g. convexity, MMA, ...). I would say it is ideal for studens of computational engineering. For math students the proofs are missing but "normal" engineers should not fear math language, albeit the content is appropiate for them. The book has even exercies and gives a very good introduction to the subject.
Concerning the covered content: Background and exercises versus review like collection of applications, do these books complement each other almost ideally. One (engineer) should just read Christensen and Klarbring prior to Bendsoe and Sigmund (after browsing the later's applications as motivation :)).
