Rusty,
I believe the books are roughly the same, except they have different designs/plans. While you could build a kayak just from the book, it's better to buy plans from https://www.kudzucraft.com/web/shop so you have the full-size patterns. Also, when buying the plans, they come with an instruction book that contains much of what's in the books.
Regarding which boat, I'm about 40 lbs lighter than you, but my Vardo is very spacious and would likely work well.