Rating: 
Summary: Common sense
Review: This book is really divided into two virtual sections: one outlining the principles to reach code nirvana, and the second section deals with technology choices that align with those principles. The first half explains the common wisdom of the day, which is to stay focused on the problem, keep the components decoupled and transparent, and to use unit tests and refactoring to keep the code slim (to "Sharpen the Saw" to borrow a term from Covey). There are other points that he makes but I found it to be mostly common sense if you've spent anytime developing Java in recent times.
The second half of the book provides a survey of technologies that help you apply these principles: such as Hibernate and Spring. However, it is a survey, and to use any of these technologies you have to get a more in-depth book.
I did find the section on the class loader to be good. I saw Justin Gehtland at the "No Fluff Just Stuff" Java conference and he gave a really in-depth presentation on this topic.
One more thing, the book is written by Bruce Tate and Justin Gehtland, however, almost the entire book is written in the first-person singular. Weird.
Rating: 
Summary: Not even spell checked
Review: This book with its talk of the business "sponser" was not even spell checked. The code will not compile because in Java declarations are case sensitive. Whole paragraphs are repeated. The content is vague and seems to be more of a rant than an attempt to teach.
Horrible. One star is generous.
Rating: 
Summary: Great book for technical architects and lead developers
Review: This is a refreshing piece of work for the J2EE world that is rife with over-engineered non-performant complex applications. Many Java books try to teach you the details of the J2EE specs, but provide you very little PRACTICAL guidance on how to use the technologies to write flexible, well-organized, and performant systems. As an indepenent consultant/technical architect I have seen many different ways that clients have used the available J2EE specs to architect a Java application and so many times they get themselves into problems because they misused the technologies. This book really caught my attention when I first picked it up because it cuts through a lot of the hype and provides a good framework on how to look at designing a good, practical application with Java. Don't buy this book if you want to learn the details on how to use Spring or Hibernate, that's not what its for. It provides strong guidance on how to use Java and then illustrates those ideas by providing an overview of Spring and Hibernate while applying these principles. I think this is even more valuable because you walk away with the understanding of the principles and their application, which positions you to write your own framework that apply the philosophies or use these existing frameworks that follow this philosophy. I also think that the book is very well written, well organized and, therefore, easy to follow.
Rating:
Summary: A blow against the priesthood
Review: When the bottom line is getting things done, Java developers are suckers for complexity. At least, that has been the history of the past few years. Those of us who have actually walked through this wall of fire become the new priests ( until the next complex API is released, anyway ). This book presents an alternative.Bruce and Justin are creating a big problem for the priesthood, and this is long overdue. The book is straightforward and direct, and if you haven't used IOC or AOP yet, might be a refreshing eye opener. If you are looking for some kind of wacko Wrox-like book with millions of lines of quickly outdated sample code, this isn't what you are looking for. But that kind of stuff is best maintained online anyway, and kudos to the authors for not trashing up the book by including it here. My only real complaint is personal, it presents Spring as the only IOC containter to consider. Perhaps it is because my favorite alternative - Keel - as of July '04 comes with it's own wall of fire. So maybe this oversight is justified. :)
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