Actually I'm passing fond of the good doctor, even if he is a bit publicity-crazy. He had the good sense to institute new, stricter controls about foreign expeditions digging here there and everywhere - before, there were poorly-disciplined foreign teams digging up artifacts and spiriting them out of the country.
As for books, I'm afraid my library is very out-of-date in this area. The main work I have on the predynastic period is Michael A Hoffman's "Egypt before the Pharaohs", published in 1979. In fact, I'm waiting for someone who actually knows what they're talking about to come into this thread and disprove everything I've said. :)