While slightly off topic, albertcardona may have a point here. This deserves some clarification. It may be that they specifically need Java if they're going to

While slightly off topic, albertcardona may have a point here. This deserves some clarification. It may be that they specifically need Java if they're going to have some in house programmers maintain the application later, but if all they're really interested in is the JVM then you've got some options you may want to consider. I don't want to stray too far here, but one thing I've noticed about many Java people is that they have very narrow views of what's good. (Don't flame me. I'm a Java developer myself.) Maybe they're just playing it safe. It seems to be a common theme with Java. Basically, for several years now the prevailing attitude has been that Struts is the only game in town, but there is a world of other good options for the JVM. Anyway, back on topic... If you must go the Struts route do yourself a favor and use Struts 2. It's been a little while since I've been in the Java web development world, but when I was keeping up with it a lot of developers still hadn't moved on yet. It's light years ahead of Struts 1 and really not so bad to work with as far as Java web development is concerned. Some others have mentioned 'Thinking in Java'. It's a great book for those new to Java and especially object oriented programming. A seasoned programmer may find it a little verbose. Either way it's free to read online so it's probably worth checking out. If you're looking for something a little smaller to digest you might want to check out Sun's tutorials, and the Java API docs are invaluable. The language itself is simple; it's knowledge of the standard libraries that separates a good Java developer from a mediocre one. 'Effective Java' and 'Hardcore Java' (specifically the chapter on the Collections API) should be mandatory reading for Java developers as well so you may want to check those out once you get up to speed with the language. For learning Struts, I'd check out the online docs first. Last time I checked they were pretty good. If you still want a book, I've found the 'In Action' series from Manning Press to be good.