Expert One-on-One J2EE Design and Development (Programmer to Programmer)

Hibernate in Action (In Action series)

Effective Java Programming Language Guide

Head First Design Patterns

Java

Core J2EE Patterns: Best Practices and Design Strategies, Second Edition

Format: Hardcover
Author: Deepak Alur
ReleaseDate: 10 May, 2003
Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
Rating:

Can't put it down
I simply cannot put it down, with clear explanations and with code to realize, its really good and it excites the developer's imagination. This book is a good read.

As a foundation, all developers/designers should also get "Design Patterns" - Gang of Four and understand the material.

Useful and practical techniques for designing web solution
This book would be the 'bible' of mastering such technology before ongoing development. Concepts of Presentation, Business and Integration Tiers are nowadays so popular among all technical designs in framework and web architecture levels, upon the promotion of diversity of responsibilities, low coupling and high cohesion between each layers. Nevertheless, it's useful for implementing projects using any skillsets, even not related to Java. (e. g. C++, PHP).

Great book, but a bit outdated
However, considering recent modern lightweight approaches (without EJBs) to J2EE application development, it feels a bit outdated regarding practical implementations of the patterns. No doubt it's a great book and everybody can learn a whole lot from it. You may as well check the Spring Framework for more up to date flavors.