my opinion (yes my OPINION not stating as fact)
Minmitar = missles and turrets. Fast, great pvp boats armor tank if I remember right
Caldari = mostly missles with some turret boats mixed in. Slow, shield tank
amarr = first character, I hate this race but its personal preference. armor tanks, my issue was they are laser based and lasers use cap which can turn into a nightmare to manage.
Gallente = mostly drone based, good both in pve and pvp.
My favorite so far is my Caldari, The only race I have not played minmitar, but my good eve buddy plays all minmitar ships and he loves it so I might try one of those next
as for ships:
Frigs, Interceptors and AF's are a great start.
Move up to cruisers and get all support skills to get good in one.
Then to battlecruiser
then move up to HAC (if you do not have 150m+ to spend on a ship that you will end up losing, bypass HAC)
Then to Battleships.
thats what I am doing on my caldari and I have a lot more success, with my Amarr I trained strait to Battleship and had no good support skills and it sucked the whole time I played I hated it because I had an awsome ship I couldnt do shit with. A lot of people make this mistake they train for the new bad ass ship, and do not have the skills or money to fly it then die get pissed and quit. Save yourself the trouble =)