Murach's Beginning Java 2 JDK 5
by Doug Lowe, Joel Murach, Andrea Steelman

• Paperback: 782 pages
• Publisher: Mike Murach & Associates (January 15, 2005)
• ISBN: 1890774294
• Price: $32.67 at Amazon

I like this book because it has good, detailed explanations of each topic, and good examples to go with them. It's also a book in which you can read about topics (after the first three introductory chapters) in pretty much any order you need to--you don't have to read front to back.