Rating: 
Summary: This book is less Java than the title suggests.
Review: The first 150 pages (one third) of this book have little to do with Java. Rather, it is a port of the authors' previous book on POSIX. It talks about three main platforms (Solaris, Digital, and Wintel) and goes into great detail as to how a Java VM uses each OS's primitives to offer Java synchronization. Why?The authors show bias towards Solaris, and they spend a great amount of time focusing on how you can get the right number of LWPs on Solaris. If I'm buying a Java book, I'm programming to the Java VM and could care less if Digital Unix gives you one light-weight process per CPU plus one for each outstanding system call. I also don't care about making native calls to the OS under Solaris. The introduction suggests that multitheading offers increased speed by running on Parellel hardware. I think what people are really looking for is increased responsiveness. Most computers are single-CPU. The authors are experts in their areas, and they do cover eventually cover multithreading in a no-nonsense manner, with the target audience being the advanced programmer. Don't be annoyed by thier constantly saying, "no, you don't want to do that. Don't do that", and then telling you why in a few more chapters.
Rating: 
Summary: A must read for any serious programmer
Review: This book is a must for any serious programmer who works with threads. The authors do a great job of explaining not only the basics, but also the most advanced topics in multithreaded programming. This includes advanced means of synchronization, differences between platforms, and an excellent discussion of performance issues. True, the book is not 100% about Java, but I certainly consider this a strength, not a weakness. This book is for those who want to understand what they are doing, and not just blindly follow some code examples. Great book, great achievement.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Source to know java from OS perspective
Review: This book is a one of such books which you can keep as reference. This may not be a begineers book. This book gives clear picture of mapping of POSIX threads an Java API usage. This book intial chapters covers background regarding the threads, and takes examples of varios flavours of unix. If any one read the book of "Thread Primer" from the same author they can skip intial chapters and can focus with respect to java. From application programmers view this may be of too detail but ofcourse this will help them to understand the concept behind Java threads. I gave 5 star because this is the only book gives the insight picture of Java threads and how it exploits the underlying OS.
Rating: 
Summary: What do I do?
Review: This is a good book, with plenty of information to become a true master of Java threads. You can also become a real wizkid of what not to do when programming threads. For the first 160 pages, there are few Java programs, and the ones that are there, mostly demonstrate wrong ways of doing things. This goes well in hand with the text, which contains plenty of don'ts. The first part also contains a really good introduction to concepts and lays a good foundation for doing and understanding the programs in the latter 2 thirds of the book, however the rest of the book is well enough written, that it's possible to pick up pretty much anywhere. Suggestion to future readers: Put every chapter into a thread, and schedule the thread to run, which you find most interesting to the task at hand.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating, flawed but essential
Review: This is the only book I have seen that thoroughly covers how threads are implemented in a modern OS and how this affects how code runs. It's certainly the most useful book on threading I have. It's a good book to buy after you've written some concurrent code and have some problems.
It's not a Java book - it's a platform focused
multithreading book. It could do with some restructuring to make it more accessible.
Rating:
Summary: Great under-the-hood book for experienced developers
Review: This was the first threading book I read--which turned out to be a huge mistake. The material is very dense and only a small part of it is Java. Most of the book deals with operating system threading concepts. There is a lot of space dedicated to contrasting MS vs. Unix threading models. Also, comparisons between Java and c threading. If you are looking for a solid beginner book on Java threading (or threading in general), I highly recommend Concurrency: State Models & Java Programs. This is the second threading book I read and I highly recommend it if your goal is to _understand_ thread theory and problems. It approaches the subject in a very rigorous manner and models all concepts using finite state machines and then showing the Java source code. If you are already comfortable with basic threading concepts and some systems programming then I would recommend the Multithreaded Programming with Java Technology. I deducted a star because of a few annoying typos and for a few convoluted sections.
Rating:
Summary: Great under-the-hood book for experienced developers
Review: This was the first threading book I read--which turned out to be a huge mistake. The material is very dense and only a small part of it is Java. Most of the book deals with operating system threading concepts. There is a lot of space dedicated to contrasting MS vs. Unix threading models. Also, comparisons between Java and c threading. If you are looking for a solid beginner book on Java threading (or threading in general), I highly recommend Concurrency: State Models & Java Programs. This is the second threading book I read and I highly recommend it if your goal is to _understand_ thread theory and problems. It approaches the subject in a very rigorous manner and models all concepts using finite state machines and then showing the Java source code. If you are already comfortable with basic threading concepts and some systems programming then I would recommend the Multithreaded Programming with Java Technology. I deducted a star because of a few annoying typos and for a few convoluted sections.
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