What is a good book for a Java Enterprise Developer?

Question

I'm going to buy a few books for my company. Can you recommend some good books dealing with newest trends on market - especially those with JEE?

EDIT: I have some experience with pure Java desktop programming. But I need books that will give good overview about Java's EE technologies, also about using tools such as Eclipse, debugging, applying best-practices and design patterns.

There are a lot of books on the market, please help me choose the best of them. Which books are really worth buying?

Answer 1

Well, I'm sure you're going to get the obligatory "Nobody uses computer books anymore, they only read 3 paragraph blog posts" nonsense. Nevertheless, I think one of the best books than any Java developer could read is Thinking In Java by Bruce Eckel:

http://www.mindview.net/Books/TIJ/

Answer 2

I definitely recommend the Head First series. Java, EJB, Servlets.....

Answer 3

Have a look at the answers here.

Answer 4

Despite the question is too wide open. I would like to steer you to my wish lists, given below.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/3BQA3Z16BNTCK
I call it Java List

http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/3BPDWC4QU7F2O
I call it SCEA List (of course its for me, others might like to add or subtract a few)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/1OI81S4FIO7ZU
This is the list for general computer related books, not particularly Java.

Answer 5

This book "J2EE: The Big Picture" really helped me when I was making the transition from client-side development. Sure, it has "J2EE 1.4" in the title, but since it's a very broad, high-level overview, it has less to do with specific implementation and more to do with describing what problems you'd solve use EJB, servlets, JMS, etc.