Rating: 
Summary: Our Department's Standard EJB reference. . . nuf said.
Review: My department develops and maintains the web sites for our corporation. This book is the standard EJB reference manual we issue to our developers.
Rating:
Summary: Highly Recomended
Review: This book is the only EJB book I realy like. Using plain English and a real life example that is being developed throghout the book to a complete application it gives you the hands-on demonstration of the most importent stages and concepts in developing enterprise server applications. The idea of taking a real example and fully developingit is a wellcomed blessing which is missing from many books that concentrate on sole theory, scholarly wording and examples that are too concise to be helpful in understanding the big picture. This book gives you very good foundations on EJBs, and stresses importent technology issues. The only thing that could have made it better is some covering of deployment tips for specific popular app servers such as WebLogic iplanet and IBM's Web spere - a topic which is by itself a source of headacks and sorring eyes. The documentation for these servers is usualy 1000 (or more) pages long and often lacking accuracy. Very Warm recomendation.
Rating:
Summary: Well Thought Out
Review: Earlier this year I realized that my woefully primitive knowledge of the Java architecture needed some updating. The Enterprise JavaBean (EJB) architecture was being considered for use in several systems, and I found the standard presentations were not helping me bridge the knowledge gap. In my quest for a useful resource, I came upon this excellent introduction and reference by Richard Monson-Haefel. The author is a recognized authority with considerable experience as a Java Architect, as well as founder of the Wisconsin Java User Group.The first three chapters focus on defining the problem set that EJB is intended to solve and the architecture of the solution. Chapter 1 sets the stage, covering the definition of EJB's, distributed object architectures, component models, transaction monitors, and server-side component models. In Chapter 2 we are provided an architectural overview of the nature of the enterprise bean component, the use of enterprise beans and the bean-container contract. Chapter 3 completes the 'theoretical' discussion with coverage of resource management and primary services (concurrency, transactions, persistence, distributed objects, naming, and security. Chapters 4 through 8 provide deeper coverage of the topics touched on in the first three chapters, with a rich and illuminating set of examples. I found these examples as clear as they could possibly be for one with my moderate technical skills. The author makes a continuous effort to keep from getting too far above the head of the reader. He is careful to present alternatives and explain the reasons for design decisions. Chapter 9 is an excellent, if short, dive into some interesting, and often ignored, topics (passing objects by value, improved performance with session beans, bean adapters, implementing a common interface, entity bean relationships, and object-to-relational mapping tools). Two appendixes cover the EJB API and State and Sequence diagrams for the bean types in the book. "Enterprise JavaBeans" covers a huge amount of material, and does so in a clear and organized fashion. For most people it could easily be the only reference the need. Monson-Haeful's style is a bit phlegmatic, which means that he does not grab your attention and fascinate. Instead he moves steadily down his path. Thus the reading can sometimes become tedious, especially in the theoretical sections. This, unfortunately, is the price usually paid for such deep dives into technology rich subject areas.
Rating: 
Summary: All how, no why.
Review: I found this book little better than the documentation that comes with the application servers I am working with. If you are looking for any depth or meaningful examples in terms of why you use a session bean versus an entity bean, this is not the book for you. In terms of covering the low-level mechanics of using EJBs, this book is adequate. The scenario used to demonstrate the use of EJBs is so simplistic as to be of no value whatsoever. To summarize, this book lacked any insight or depth and was little better than vendor documentation.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: This is one of the better O'Reilly books I've read. It is extremely thorough, well written, and clear. It has a distrinct habit of repeating itself. Many topics appear about three times in the book. At first, I found this bothersome. I would read something and think, "Didn't I already read that before?" However, I believe this is done because the topic is quite intense and often you need to see the major points from different perspectives and have some repetition. In the end, I think the repetition is very effective, especailly if you know ahead of time to expect it. If you are completely new to EJBs and have never done anything similar to EJBs before, you might want to pick up a lighter book first. But, for anyone who is ready to dive in, this is fantastic.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: I took this book for a long flight along with another one, and it gives a very good overview of the subject of EJB. It starts from basics so you don't need to have any specific background. I would look out for the new Ed Roman book, though, since it looks promising.
Rating: 
Summary: A great book!!
Review: The author clearly explains the concept behind the EJB components. Coming from a Microsoft DNA world, I found this book to be a great introduction to EJB. I highly recommend this book for anyone serious about learning EJB, especially for COM/DNA developers.
Rating:
Summary: REally good EJB book
Review: When you see this book you could wonder why it is not bigger because EJB is so complicated a topic. You might think it does not cover EJB in detail but that is not the case! It does a very good job of covering EJB without getting boring or leaving out information that is necessary. It too has very good code listings that show you how EJB is written using case study that is easy to understand. I recommend this book very much and am glad I bought it.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing for O'Reilly.
Review: After reading this book, I didn't have a good understanding of EJBs. The running example is just too contrived to serve as a persuasive reason to use EJBs. Every chapter I was like "Why are they incurring all this overhead with EJBs?". Only after reading another book... did I really understand EJBs. I expect more from O'Reilly, and I cannot recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Good book, but don't ignore Ed Roman's book either
Review: The fact is: You should not ignore either book. Both books have their highs and lows. As far as core concepts are concerned, Ed Roman's book is a lightyear ahead. If you are looking at a compact treatment (i.e., less than Roman's 700+ pages :-), Monson-Haefel is your man.
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