I'm looking for a good book in commutative algebra, so I ask here for some advice. My ideal book should be:


-More comprehensive than Atiyah-MacDonald


-More readable than Matsumura (maybe better organized?)


-Less thick than Eisenbud, and more to the point


To put this in context, I'm an algebraic geometer, so I know enough commutative algebra, but I didn't study it systematically (apart from a first course on A-M which I followed as an undergraduate); rather I learned the things I needed from time to time. So I would like to give me an occasion to get a better grasp on the subject.


EDIT: I will be more specific about the level. As I said I already had a course on Atiyah-MacDonald, and I know that material well, so I'm not interested in books of a comparable level. But I'm not completely familiar with Cohen-Macaulay rings and the relationship between regular sequences and the Koszul complex for example. And I know very little of Gorenstein rings and duality. So I'm looking for something a little bit more sophisticated than what has been already proposed. Yes, I know Eisenbud does these things but it's easy to get lost in that book. Something more to the point would be nice.



Reference book for commutative algebra
For a reference on Cohen-Macaulay and Gorenstein rings, you can try "Cohen-Macaulay rings" by Bruns-Herzog. 


Also, Huneke's [lecture note](http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.53.7033) "Hyman Bass and Ubiquity: Gorenstein Rings" is a great introduction to Gorenstein rings, very easy to read and to the point, I highly recommend it. 


EDIT: Since this question is already bumped up, I will take this opportunity to make a longer list. 


There are of course some classic references which are still very useful (I find myself having to look in them quite often despite the new sources available): Bourbaki, EGA IV, Serre's "Local Algebras" (very nice read and culminated in the beautiful [Serre intersection formula](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersection_theory_%28mathematics%29)). 


There has been some work done in commutative algebra since the 60s, so here is a more up-to-date list of reference for some currently active topics (Disclaimer: I am not an expert in any of these, the list was formed by randomly looking at my bookself, and put in alphabetical order (-:). This is community-wiki, so feel free to add or edit or suggest things you found missing. 



- Cohen-Macaulay modules, from a representation theory perspective: [Yoshino](http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/0521356946) is excellent. Another one is [being written](http://www.leuschke.org/Research/MCMBook).

- Combinatorial commutative algebra: [Miller-Sturmfels](http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/0387237070).

- Free resolutions (over non-regular rings): Avramov [lecture note](http://www.math.unl.edu/~lavramov2/papers/resolution.pdf)

- Geometry of syzygies: [Eisenbud](http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/0387222324), shorter but free version [here](http://www.msri.org/people/staff/de/ready.pdf).

- Homological conjectures: [Hochster](http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/0821816748), [Roberts](http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/0521473160) (more connections to intersection theory), Hochster [notes](http://www.math.utah.edu/vigre/minicourses/algebra/hochster.pdf).

- Integral closures: [Huneke-Swanson](http://people.reed.edu/~iswanson/book/index.html), which is available free at the link.

- Intersection theory done in a purely algebraic way: [Flenner-O'Carrol-Vogel](http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/3540663193) (for a very interesting story about this, see Eisenbud [beautiful reminiscences](http://www.msri.org/~de/papers/pdfs/1999-002.pdf), especially page 4)

- Local Cohomology: [Brodmann-Sharp](http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/0521372860), Huneke's [lecture note](http://www.math.uic.edu/~bshiple/huneke.pdf) (very easy to read), [24 hours of local cohomology](http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/0821841262) (I have been told that this one was a pain to write, which is probably a good sign).

- Tight closure and characteristic $p$ method: [Huneke](http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/082180412X), Karen Smith's lecture note (more geometric, number 24 [here](http://www.math.lsa.umich.edu/~kesmith/paperlist.html)), and of course many well-written introductions available on Hochster [website](http://www.math.lsa.umich.edu/~hochster/mse.html).


