Last time I used Django, I loved everything except class based views. I thought my view code was much clearer and easier to work with after I switched to FBV's. I see the book touches on both methods, but overall is it opinionated one way or the other?
Yes. The authors like CBV's and make a strong case for why you would want to use them.
Like you, I found CBV's to be wanting, particularly generic views, and all but gave up. A combination of updates to the official docs with 1.5 and this book made me reconsider and I'm glad I did.