Link to the latest edition of the “Wood Hand Book – Wood as an Engineering Material”
The US Forest Service does quite a bit of research on wood, and it’s uses. It publishes one of the most authoritative manuals on wood, that covers just about anythin you might want to know, from how to dry it, how to nail it, how to glue it, how to paint it, and how to reserve it.
The content does have quite a bit of math, but if you are reasonably bright you can read the text and tables, and get a lot of good knowledge out of the book, with out understanding all the math.
So here is a link to it: http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/products/publications/several_pubs.php?grouping_id=100&header_id=p