Implementation patterns / Kent Beck, Addison-Wesley, 2008
This book is about design patterns, and the examples are in Java but the concepts apply to many languages. The book is based on the premise that good code matters. In 150 pages, it packs in topics that are vital to a programmer.
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Effective Java / Joshua Bloch, Addison-Wesley, 2008
“I sure wish I had this book ten years ago. Some might think that I don’t need any Java books, but I need this one.” — James Gosling, inventor of Java.
“This is a truly excellent book done by the guy who designed several of the better recent Java platform API’s (including the Collections API).” — James Clark, of XML fame.
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Holub on patterns : learning design patterns by looking at code / Allen Holub. Apress, 2004
An opinionated look at design patterns. If you are using a language not known for rapid development then you want to choose the right patterns in advance so you won’t be refactoring too much. This book discusses which patterns are most useful, with examples in Java. Not recently written, but worth reading.
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