Professional Java JDK 5 edition by Richardson, W. Clay, Avondolio, Donald, Vitale, Joe, Schrage by Schrage Richardson, W. Clay, Avondolio, Donald, Vitale, Joe

We all have heard the saying that nothing is perfect. Well, it certainly is the case with this book. This book will not make you an expert in every single J2EE technology. Will give you a good introduction though! I thought the first couple of chapters on the new additions to Java Tiger were pretty solid. However, the chapters on Networking and Security were too shallow. No big deal though. Just buy Java Network Programming from Oreilly. Murach's Just Java 6th edition is a nice book to have in addition to this book. It touches the stuff that this one doesn't, and it misses the stuff that this book presents solidly. So, there you have it. Buy both, and you will get the best of both worlds. But whatever you do, do not even consider Herbert Schildt's 1.5 if you are a beginner.