Rating: 

Overall Java 5.0 Tiger A Developer's Notebook was a quick informative read. The subject was audience appropriate and, as promised, did not waste time rehashing a basic Java tutorial.

The examples were easy to follow and thorough though sometimes trivial. In particular the explanation of using parameterized Maps seemed too long considering the simple nature of the topic. One example on Enums on page 40 was fairly confusing due to an unintentional typo while, amusingly enough, describing the dangers of typos.

I found the explanation of Generics useful especially the section dealing with type wildcards. The Enum section was particularly useful to me as I am have been converting work code over to use Enums. Also, while I have worked with Enums before I have not added methods to them, nor did I realized this functionality existed before reading the book. The section on Auto Boxing was interesting though could have been shorter in length as not much has changed from a user's standpoint. Before reading the book, I did not know about the new variable length argument list feature. I found this section particularly helpful. I found that the book seemed too dwell for too long on annotations which did not hold much interest for me. The section on formatting was informative and the jab at C fans was amusing.

This book was very helpful in highlighting the new features of Java 5.0.