A typically thick reference book that will be invaluable to anyone programming with the JFC classes. Manning published a guide to using Swing in 1998 called Up to Speed with Swing by Steve Gutz, which was the first useful volume on the subject and this is a worthy companion to it.

In any Java reference book the real value is in the explanatory text and examples that differentiate it from what is available in the javadoc-generated HTML. There is certainly sufficient material here to cover most common uses of Swing as well as some more advanced tasks, such as defining a look-and-feel. My only complaint is that there is no CD provided with the examples on it, though they can be obtained from Manning's Internet site. Recommended.