There are really only two books that I would recommend if you are looking to learn about the technical aspects of investment banking (e.g. valuation).  Both of these are very good introductions to the way things are actually done banking (as opposed to books written by business school professors) and serve as excellent primers. While I think either of these books are great for preparing for interviews, I don’t think either of these are going to be all that helpful once your in banking since they are both pretty basic.  It is also worth mentioning that I don’t think that either of these books will help you learn financial modeling.

Investment Banking Valuation, Leveraged Buyouts, and Mergers & Acquisitions by Joshua Rosenbaum and Joshua Pearl (published in 2009) is probably the book that every banker wished was written when they were recruiting.  The bulk of the covers valuation and there’s an excellent introduction to leveraged buyouts.  There is a short section on M&A covering only the sell side process with an extremely brief overview of accretion/dilution analysis.  There is virtually no discussion of the other aspects of M&A or of other types of investment banking transactions.  The book is available through Amazon and most book stores.

The Practitioner’s Guide to Investment Banking Mergers & Acquisitions Corporate Finance by Jerilyn Castillo and Peter McAniff (published in 2007) is available only through the publisher’s website at www.scoopbooks.com.  It is about twice as long and covers more topics than the Rosenbaum/Pearl book but is slightly weaker in its sections on valuation and LBO.