Java Persistence with Hibernate

This book is very thick and packed with a lot of information. It can be considered a reference book for Hibernate, but there's a somewhat wordiness feel to it rather than being a straight-to-the-point sort of reference. You tend to have to read through explanations and discussions to get to the snippet you're looking for. It's not a very strong candidate for a good reference book, and it's also a poor candidate for a learning book; there's no complete example or walkthrough of a proper application, just snippets here and there, with assumptions that you know the rest. Online resources are much better if one is looking to learn Hibernate.