I also think The two I'm currently reading together at the moment are both really nice examples of tech books with a narrative - The Joy of Clojure and The Little Schemer.
Great examples, both. Even though Programming Pearls is a series of articles bound together, being by the same author and on a common theme makes them feel like they have a narrative running through them.
Petzold's Code is another example that I'd recommend to anyone interested in how computers work.
By the way, I find it ironic and disappointing when O'Reilly's "nutshell" books run to 700 pages.