Welcome to the Ranch!
Have you tried the 'Head First' series of books? I've found they tend to be very readable and not too math heavy. However like you said math in computing is fairly inescapable, so refreshing yourself to some maths may be necessary at some point. The sort of examples you mentioned are used as they are usually fairly short and compact, and will provide you with something tangible much sooner than a more real life type sample project will.
S