Top 5 Hibernate Books for Java Developers - Best, Must read

Hibernate is one of the most popular, open-source ORM (Object Relational Mapping) framework, which has now become a standard for developing persistence layer on Java enterprise application, along with JPA (Java Persistence API). I often receive requests to suggest which book is best to learn to hibernate or recommendation about some good books and training courses on Spring and Hibernate. This motivates me to write this article about some of the best books on Hibernate currently available on the market.

Earlier I have shared some of the must-read books on Spring framework for a Java developer, which is quite helpful for picking a book in Spring. Similar to the Spring framework, experience in Hibernate is the most sought after thing in Java JEE development roles.

If you look Java description for a development role, you will more often than see Spring and Hibernate than not. All this means it's a must include Hibernate knowledge and experience in your resume.

Since most recruiter uses keywords like FIX Protocol, Tibco RV, Spring, Hibernate, etc., having them in your resume will give you more visibility.  Adding the right keywords in your resume is definitely one of the top 5 resume building tips; every programmer should note.

Since most Java developers are familiar with JDBC, they often tend to use that; what they miss is key offerings from Hibernate, like Lazy loading, Caching, and managing the association between objects.
These books will help you to learn Hibernate, grow your existing knowledge in Hibernate, and know some of the best practices on hibernate and ORM space.

After reading these Hibernate books and checking out these training courses, you will also be able to answer most of the Hibernate Interview questions, asked Java developers.

6 Must Read Hibernate Books for Java Programmers

As per my experience, One book is never enough to learn new technology, but at the same time, you must have to start with one book. Once you have some knowledge of Hibernate, you can refer to more comprehensive books on Hibernate.

Because of this reason, I have sorted books on there, beginners, preference, starting from the first book, which I think is most appropriate for any Hibernate beginners or Java developer learning hibernate framework.

1. Java Persistence with Hibernate

Now, this is the must-read book for any Hibernate developer. Java Persistence with Hibernate is written by Christian Bauer, Gavin King, who is part of the Hibernate development team and involved with EJB 3.0 and JBoss. He is also co-author with Gavin King of Manning's bestselling Hibernate in Action book, which is what this book called earlier. 

So far, this is the most comprehensive book on Hibernate, it not only teaches you the basics of Object-relational mapping, basics of Hibernate Framework but also the most common design patterns, which is used along with Hibernate, such as Data Access Object (DAO)  pattern.

This book teaches a lot about fetching strategies, caching, transactions, and best practices in database design and ORM techniques.

I highly recommend this book to all Java developers using Hibernate. You should at least read it once to get a complete picture of Hibernate. This book is over 800 pages, which is not easy to read, but it definitely deserves a look for later reference. If you prefer active learning and watching then you can also combine this book with the Spring and Hibernate for Beginners course on Udemy to get the best of both worlds.

2. Hibernate Tips: More than 70 solutions to common Hibernate problems

I am glad to announce that fellow Blogger Thorben Janssen has authored this great book on Hibernate. It shows you in more than 70 recipes (more than 35 exclusively written for the book) how to efficiently implement your persistence layer with Hibernate basic and advanced features.

If you love books like Effective Java, then I am sure you will also appreciate this book because of easy to digest and helpful content.

Each Hibernate tip consists of one or more code samples and an easy-to-follow step-by-step explanation. You can also download an example project with executable test cases for each Hibernate tip.

One of the core strengths of this book is that it's simple, clear, and concise; it's not a heavyweight giant.  It's full of practical tips and advice on the problems you will encounter in your day to day coding with Hibernate, and if you need some more active guidance Introduction To Hibernate course on Pluralsight is a good companion of this book.

By the way, you would need a Pluralsight membership to join this course which costs around $29 per month or $299 per year (14% discount). I highly recommend this subscription to all programmers as it provides instant access to more than 7000+ online courses to learn any tech skill. Alternatively, you can also use their 10-day-free-pass to watch this course for FREE.

3. High-Performance Java Persistence by Vlad Mihalcea

This is another fantastic book to master Hibernate and JPA from another fellow blogger and authority in Hibernate, Vlad Mihalcea.  As the title suggests, this is an advanced level book to take your Hibernate knowledge to the next level.

While writing the Database layer, performance is critical because mistakes made here can potentially slow down your application and hamper its scalability. Still, at the same time, it's hard to find all the practical knowledge you need to create a high-performance data access layer.

This book provides all the tips to fine-tune your Java data access performance. From connection management to batch updates, fetch sizes, and concurrency control mechanisms, it unravels the inner workings of the most common Java data access frameworks.

If you like more interactive learning, Vlad has also created an online course with the same title,  High-Performance Java Persistence and Hibernate Course, which nicely complements his book. I strongly suggest you join this course if you are serious about mastering Hibernate performance.

Vlad Mihalcea is a Java Champion and one of the top Hibernate ORM project committers to understand the inner working of database and frameworks to improve the performance of the enterprise application, which means you will be learning from the right person and will not waste your time on joining any trivial or mediocre course.

He also have advanced courses like Transactions and Concurrency Control Patterns and Caching Best Practices which are designed for senior and experienced developers who wants to take their Hibernate and JPA skills to next level. If your project require heavy use of Hibernate and Database, I highly recommend you to check those courses too. 

4. Beginning Hibernate

Beginning Hibernate Second Edition By Jeff Linwood, Dave Minter is the third book for Hibernate beginners.

It's not much different than the other two, and if you have read the previous titles, then you probably don't need this. But in case you have difficulty in connecting to earlier books, later you can try this one. One of the good things about this hibernate book is that it covers Hibernate 3.5 version.

One of the positive points of this book is case studies, which explain key relationship concepts, including one-to-many and many-to-many relationships from top to bottom.

Overall, only use this book if you are not able to read the first book in this list; otherwise, you have enough at the beginner's level. And, if you need more courses, you can always check out this list of best Hibernate and JPA courses for beginners. 

5. Hibernate Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach by Gary Mak, Srinivas Guruzu

I picked this book because of its style, a problem-solution approach. It's one of those styles which promotes active learning and also acts as an excellent How-to guide.

Similar to Spring recipes: A Problem-solution approach, this book teaches you to hibernate by introducing a problem and then solving it.

This method can work for many developers, and if you have enjoyed previous books on this series, you will going to like this one as well. Every single recipe is explained well with proper code example and a decent explanation.

One advantage, which I personally feel, while reading this book is comparative learning. For example, if you are doing that in JDBC in one way, how Hibernate helps you there, what more it offers etc.

Though sometimes this kind of book is overwhelming to read and may not suite continues topic-based reading, but for a change, it does work. And, if you want to learn to Hibernate with Spring and Spring Boot then you can also check out Master Hibernate and JPA with Spring Boot in 100 Steps course by Ranga Karnam on Udemy. It's one of the most hands-on course to learn Hibernate with spring boot. 

6. Java Persistence with Spring Data and Hibernate Expanded Edition

Java Persistence with Spring Data and Hibernate Expanded Edition by Catalin Tudose provides a comprehensive guide to mastering Java persistence using industry-leading tools such as Spring Data and Hibernate. 

With a remarkable 4.9 out of 5 stars from 12 ratings, this book delves into crucial topics, including mapping persistent classes, value types, and inheritance, as well as mapping collections, entity associations, and processing transactions with Spring Data and Hibernate. Readers will gain insights into creating fetch plans, strategies, and profiles, filtering data, and building Spring Data REST projects. 

The book goes beyond relational databases, exploring Java persistence with non-relational databases and delving into querying JPA with QueryDSL. 

With forewords by Dmitry Aleksandrov and Mohamed Taman, this resourceful guide is designed for intermediate Java programmers, offering hands-on examples, practical techniques, and comparisons of major Java persistence tools to empower developers in making informed choices for their applications.

You can also combine this book with the Hibernate and Spring Data JPA: Beginner to Guru course by John Thompson on Udemy for better learning as online courses provide active learning which complements books reading. 

That's all on my list of Top 5 Hibernate Books for Java programmers. Despite all this book, I highly recommend Hibernate documentation, they are the most updated source of information, and they are quite well written as well.

Since one book is not always enough to master any new framework or technology, I mostly use 2 or 3 titles. For intermediate Java developer,  I suggest Hibernate Made Easy + Java Persistence with Hibernate as the two best books to learn most about the Hibernate framework.


Other Hibernate Articles and Interview Questions you may like

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Thanks for reading this article, if you like this article and interview question, then please share with your friends and colleagues. If you have any questions or feedback, then please drop a comment.

P. S. - If you learn more from watching lectures online than reading books then I suggest you join the Hibernate and JPA Fundamentals course on Udemy, one of the best courses to learn Hibernate and Java Persistence API online.