This book is a good quick start, and it closes some gaps in the tutorial which comes with Shade documentation. As I can see, the tutorial has changed in v9, but I can't tell is it better or not, because it is in Japanese.
By the way, Shade 8.x is both 32- and 64-bit (I'm not sure Carrara is 64-bit). Magical Sketch in Shade is a funny toy, but I don't find it to be useful - meshes are triangulated, too complex and badly shaped. And like with Carrara, you can use any modeling tool in conjunction with Shade, including Hexagon if you like to. Shade 9 introduces Hair Saloon and Particle Physics features.
You may find a lot of good (and bad also) images and discussions here:
http://66.249.93.104/translate_c?hl=...modules/newbb/