I've had this book for a while and decided to reread it recently to refresh my recollection of the story of the "fast carrier" task forces in the Pacific in World War II. Reynolds' book is the definitive treatise on the subject, written in the 1960's when the original officers were still around to tell the story, and goes through the history of naval aviation as a movement within the Navy. The story of the carriers during the war is, curiously, not told as a series of battles, but rather as a series of assignments of captains and task force commanders and organizational politics within the Navy. Every few paragraphs the commanders are changed and rotated and the real battles are not with the Japanese but with the Navy buraucracy as bureaus are created, eliminated, and have their powers enhanced and curtailed.
In the end, it is a somewhat sad story of how the "air navy" movement came to the fore. I have to sya that it wasn't a moment too soon for the efficient fighting of the war in the Pacific, but it bears some interesting similarities to the movement to establish a strategic bomber force beginning in Europe. Both movements seem to have seen the war as a means of assembling arguments and medals for the principal fight postwar when they would be fighting for resources and primay within a combined Defense Department.
But this is a standarad treatise on the carrier war in the Pacific - even if it does seem to forget frequently who the real enemy in the war was. (And no, I don't mean the battleship admirals). If you want the story of the actual carrier battles, look for Belote's Titans of the Seas. It's by far the better story about the war you thought was going on.