I am now going through Attacking Chess by Josh Waitzkin for the second time. It was an unexpected surprise, finding a great paperback book for about 13 bucks. It not only goes through all the tactical motifs, going through Waitzkin's own games move-by-move, with big diagrams, so that you don't even need a set to read it, it also gives Watzkin's philosophy of playing the game. He has a chapter on "courage", "don't settle for less," etc. The book is aimed at, I would say, from beginner to about 1600 uscf, but i'm 1800 and still get a lot out of it. Don't get me wrong, it isn't encyclopedic in it's tactics, it focuses on understanding of motifs. It is eminently readable, unlike many chess books. You can read it on a car trip or in the dentist's office, anywhere. I have lots of chess books, most of which i haven't finished. This one i've almost finished twice so it was a good investiment of 13 dollars.
He does the tutorials for Chessmaster for the xbox. I don't know if he does the tuts for the PC versions though. I found his method of teaching quite refreshing. He seems to know that he's talking to people who haven't studied chess that deeply. He has a way of engaging you into wanting to study further.