Rating: 
Summary: I don't know what to say.
Review: A lot of the reviewers complain about this not beeing as devoted to JDBC as the title would suggest. I agree to that but I myself had read reviews stating this before I bought the book (Shouldn't we all?) so I was really interested in the persistece-framework bit. But even though it is fun and interesting to study his models of how to make a general persistent framework I suddenly got completly thrown off when he introduced a model of Locks and Transactions without explaining how he ended up with this model and the thinking behind it. And I REALLY wanted to understand this! Given this is a very thin book (about 170 pages without the API - documentation at the end) I believe it is almost to impossible for the author to cover even one of the topics JDBC, RMI or Transactions sufficiently. I liked the authors style of writing. A lot of his examples where very illustrative but I would like to see a book that revealed how he modelled the Transaction Locking models of his. A book on design/object modelling ? I'm hungry for more - For what it is worth ! Terje!
Rating: 
Summary: not a book about JDBC
Review: A previous reviewer pretty much summed up this book for me: "This is a great book about the design and implementation of a persistence framework in a distributed environment." This is nice and all, but the title erroneously led me to expect that it would actually have more information about JDBC than is found in the JavaDoc. This book is worthless as a JDBC reference. It is of some slight use to someone who wants to learn JDBC 1.x. But it's not worth paying for when you can download the JavaDoc for free. And if I wanted a book about database-based persistence frameworks, then I would have bought a book whose main stated goal was to address this issue and which actually covered this topic in more depth than a 200-something page book. I'm disappointed in O'Reilly for publishing this book and claiming that it is about JDBC.
Rating: 
Summary: A MUST read for intermediate/advanced JDBC applications.
Review: An excellent book for at least intermediate level Java programmers. Good mention of the importance of design patterns. Very worthwhile coverage of distributed applications with JDBC and RMI. An interesting "big picture" book to read, and includes an entire well-thought out application.
Rating: 
Summary: Mediocre
Review: As an intoduction to JDBC, this is lightweight. About 100 pages are devoted to the JDBC. There is the obligatory API reference at the end that runs to about 90 pages. In between, there are about 120 page devoted to what the author calls "applied JDBC," which is devoted largely to three-tier architecture and transaction handling. Part I covers SQL, JDBC and the JDBC optional package. There is a smattering of sample code and a moderately extended example of an SQL terminal monitor application. The code cries out for refactoring. For example, there is a sequence of roughly 20 lines of code that centers a value within a fixed length field, truncating or padding as appropriate. The same code appears for lables and column values. It should be pulled out into a separate method. Then there are silly things like using System.out and performing a flush instead of using System.err. Part II begins with a brief discussion of JNDI, RMI and EJBs. It then delves into architecture and the development of transaction framework. While what's wanted is largely handled by a J2EE application server, the author's approach is: what if that wasn't available and we had to do it ourselves? There is an extensive collection of code here which again cries out for refactoring. Part III is the JDBC API reference in standard O'Reilly form. The book is disappointing. The JDBC itself is given short shrift and the author goes off on a tangent of questionable value. If a colleague asked me to look at code similar to what's presented here, I'd mark it up with a red pencil, hand it back and tell him/her to refactor. See Martin Fowler's book "Refactoring." There are numerous bad smells here, including duplicate code, long method and large class.
Rating:
Summary: advanced, academic
Review: As Edna used to say, "too high for me!"
Rating:
Summary: Mistitled, though nonetheless excellent book.
Review: As many have noted, the title of this book is probably a misnomer. It does cover JDBC to a reasonable depth in a very well executed fashion, but it does not go in depth enough to be the standard reference on the subject. However, don't let this keep you from reading this book! It's a panacea for distributed application development, object persistence, and even a dash of design patterns. RMI and JDBC are the technologies used to illustrate the excellent thought process that went into this book, and it is much more valuable than any Teach Yourself JDBC in 21 Days sort of book will ever be. You may need a more complete reference book if you will be doing a lot of JDBC programming, but this book will teach you how JDBC is best used, which in the end is much more valuable. Once you know what you are getting into, you will find that this book meets your needs rather well.
Rating: 
Summary: Primarily a Book on Database Programming
Review: Database Programming with JDBC and Java is first and foremost a book about database programming, and not necessarily with Java. The first three chapters are devoted to the fundamentals of database design and access, including several well elucidated design patterns that are fairly easy to implement in any language, though Reese doesn't let on as such (it helps to have prior exposure to other patterns, however; see Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software, by the Gang of Four). He follows this with a chapter on JDBC (only one true chapter) and then a look into the best way to design database access programs with Java, the little JDBC you now know, and his patterns. The final chapter finishes off the case study used to carry the whole book by introducing RMI. Overall, this is not a bad book. If you want an idea of how database programming works, especially with Java, this is a good read. If you're looking for information on JDBC, RMI, or Java database connectivity in general, don't look here. This book is best read by those understanding Java threads (in a cursory depth) and the AWT. It would make a good compliment to a book on Java distributed computing or JDBC.
Rating:
Summary: Should be titled "Persistence with Java"
Review: George Reese did an excellent job in this book of providing an introduction to the technologies and concepts required for developing a Persistence Framework. In particluar, I enjoyed his discussions of EJB, I found his example and text to give a better description of the main concepts (and shortfalls) of EJB than of any other book I had read, even books on EJB. I only wish the book had a better title reflecting what was discussed in the "Applied JDBC" section. If it did I would have picked it up earlier and not had to go through some of the pain that I did previously when comparing a persistent framework I work with to EJB.
Rating:
Summary: Should be titled "Persistence with Java"
Review: George Reese did an excellent job in this book of providing an introduction to the technologies and concepts required for developing a Persistence Framework. In particluar, I enjoyed his discussions of EJB, I found his example and text to give a better description of the main concepts (and shortfalls) of EJB than of any other book I had read, even books on EJB. I only wish the book had a better title reflecting what was discussed in the "Applied JDBC" section. If it did I would have picked it up earlier and not had to go through some of the pain that I did previously when comparing a persistent framework I work with to EJB.
Rating:
Summary: Fairly basic, but a good intro
Review: Given the Oreilly reputation, I was expecting more from this book. Disappointingly, the book is more of an intro to the use of jdbc. There is some helpful information regarding persistence, but I felt the book did not get as detailed as most of their series.
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