Physics of Music - never had a copy but many of my colleagues at the GM Noise & Vibration Center did. I've used it recently as a reference (local Pikes Peak Library has it) for an article I wrote for the Canadian Hearing Report on Helmholtz Resonance (should be out this month).

I'm trying to help out this person who seems to be interested to really start to dig in and understand what's going on with the whole recording, editing, mixing, mastering process.

I sent him to the venerable Studio Buddy, which I found very helpful years ago, but even in that thing, it expects the reader to understand what is going on with concepts like compression, filter slopes, etc.

The link that Tom Shannon put up several posts above - that seems like a good starting point - complete with audio examples.