I've been reading Jeff Friesen's Beginning Java SE 6 Platform, From Novice to Professional for a couple of weeks now. I thought that David Flanagan's "JavaNut" series form O'Reilly were the best sources to learn Java and get up to speed with changes from each Java release, boy was I for a surprise with Jeff's book.

Even though the title mentions Beginning and Novice you will not find an introduction to Java on it, as a matter of fact not even a Java5 introduction. Jeff assumes you have good knowledge of Java5 and jumps right into Java6, which IMO makes it a "deal breaker", you will be able to review and learn Java6 only features. Every feature comes with a little bit of history of why it was added to Java6, almost every one comes with a code sample, allowing you to test it right away (I was sure to fire up a copy of good 'ol Groovy console as I read the book Groovy's console is great for quick prototyping of Java code). But what really makes this book shine is that Jeff has included notes on every single JSR involved, every single bug filed and resolved for Java6, he also includes links to articles, papers, blog posts and online discussions on why those features were needed, or how to make the most of them.

The book organizes Java6's features in logical sets of behavior, sorted alphabetically

• Core Libraries
• GUI Toolkits: AWT
• GUI Toolkits: Swing
• Internationalization
• Java Database Connectivity
• Monitoring and Management
• Networking
• Scripting
• Security and Web Services

You can bet I played with all the features explained in the GUI Toolkit chapters (adding TrayIcon/SystemTray support to Swing applications is dead easy now). Though I'm not into JMX nor Web Services (yuck ) those chapters made me consider giving those technologies another look. I'm very happy with this book, I know where I will be looking when stuck with a Java6 feature.