Suggest books for beginner, and good as a reference for later use

This is my first Database course, and we are going to have two projects in oracle (which I know nothing about).

The professor suggested

(1) Oracle 9i Programming: A Primer (Paperback)
by Rajshekhar Sunderraman
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0321194985/qid=1137458079/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-8270393-5917651?n=507846&s=books&v=glance

I did a search on amazon, and found those two books with good reviews:

(2) Oracle9i: The Complete Reference (Paperback)
by Kevin Loney, George Koch

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0072225211/ref=ord_cart_shr/002-8270393-5917651?%5Fencoding=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&v=glance&n=283155

(3) Expert Oracle9i Database Administration (Paperback)
by Sam R. Alapati

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1590590228/qid=1137458854/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-8270393-5917651?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

which book do you suggest for beginners, but also can remain as good reference for later use!
any book, not just those 3 ^^
(from previous experince, the books suggested in our university to learn and
reference are not always the best).

thx in advance!!

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