8 JVM Books That Separate Experts from Amateurs

Drawing from over a decade of hands-on Java and Spring development, Laurentiu Spilca crafted this book to equip you with the skills to dissect and resolve complex JVM application issues. You’ll learn to interpret heap dumps for memory leaks, analyze thread dumps to diagnose deadlocks, and use profiling tools to pinpoint CPU bottlenecks. The book’s structured chapters, like "Investigating Locks in Multithreaded Architectures" and "Finding Memory-Related Issues," provide concrete methods to navigate legacy code and microservices systems. If you want a deeper understanding of JVM internals that goes beyond simple debugging, this book offers focused techniques tailored for intermediate Java developers.

When A B Vijay Kumar explores GraalVM, he taps into decades of IBM engineering expertise to reveal how you can push your JVM applications beyond conventional limits. You learn to leverage GraalVM's architecture to compile faster native images, optimize runtime performance, and build polyglot applications spanning Java, JavaScript, Python, and more. The book provides hands-on experiments with tools like the Truffle framework and practical examples of microservices using Quarkus and Micronaut, ideal if you want to enhance cloud-native or containerized apps. If you’re comfortable with JVM development and eager to improve throughput and interoperability, this book offers concrete insights without fluff, though it assumes some programming background.

This tailored book explores the intricate workings of the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) with a focus that matches your background and learning goals. It examines key JVM internals such as memory management, garbage collection, and just-in-time compilation, revealing how these components influence application performance. By weaving together expert knowledge with your specific interests, it offers a personalized pathway through complex topics like thread synchronization, class loading, and performance tuning. This approach sharpens your understanding without overwhelming you with irrelevant details, making mastering JVM internals both accessible and engaging.

Dean Wampler challenges the conventional wisdom that Scala is just another JVM language by demonstrating its unique blend of functional programming and object-oriented design. You learn to harness Scala's powerful type system, mixin composition with traits, and pattern matching to build scalable, data-centric applications. The book's clear code examples walk you through leveraging tools like Spark and Akka for distributed computing, making it especially useful if you want to deepen your understanding of scalable JVM applications. Whether you're a beginner or advanced developer, you gain practical insights into both Scala's philosophy and its evolving features, notably the updates in Scala 3.0.

Dmitry Jemerov’s long tenure at JetBrains and his role as a founding Kotlin developer lend this book an unmatched authority in navigating Kotlin’s nuances. Alongside Svetlana Isakova, he guides you through the language’s syntax, type system, and interoperability with Java, making it a sharp tool for experienced Java developers transitioning to Kotlin. The book doesn’t shy away from complex topics like building domain-specific languages or leveraging Kotlin’s functional programming features on the JVM, providing in-depth examples that clarify these advanced concepts. If you’re looking to deepen your understanding of Kotlin for JVM or Android development, this book offers a focused, technically rich path without unnecessary distractions.

When Scott Oaks, an Oracle architect deeply involved with Java performance, wrote this book, he aimed to bridge the gap between coding and JVM internals. You’ll gain nuanced insights into how Java 8 and 11 actually behave under the hood, including garbage collection mechanics and ahead-of-time compilation. Chapters detail tooling and tuning strategies that help you identify bottlenecks and improve database interaction speeds. This is a solid pick if you want to understand how JVM impacts your code’s runtime and performance beyond surface-level optimizations.

This tailored book offers a focused exploration of enhancing JVM application speed and stability through a step-by-step approach. It examines the core principles of JVM performance, such as memory management, garbage collection tuning, and concurrency optimization, all matched to your specific background and goals. By concentrating on quick, effective actions, it reveals how to improve JVM efficiency while maintaining application reliability. This personalized guide addresses your unique challenges and interests, blending deep technical insights with practical guidance that fits your experience level, ensuring a tailored learning experience that maximizes your JVM application's potential.

Venkat Subramaniam’s extensive experience as an educator and author shines through in this detailed exploration of Kotlin for JVM and Android platforms. You’ll grasp how to intermix imperative, functional, and object-oriented programming styles effectively, enhancing your ability to write concise, expressive, and efficient code. The book guides you through crafting type-safe applications, building domain-specific languages, and mastering asynchronous programming with coroutines, all supported by practical examples and exercises. If you’re looking to deepen your Kotlin skills for server-side or Android development, this book offers clear insights without unnecessary complexity, making it suitable for developers eager to write maintainable and performant applications.

What started as Ben Evans' journey through the intense performance demands of Google's IPO evolved into this book, offering you a clear-eyed view of tuning Java applications without relying on guesswork. You learn to apply a scientific, repeatable approach to JVM performance, focusing on real metrics and cloud-native environments rather than folklore. The book dives into practical issues like packaging, deployment, observability, and concurrency, giving you tools to understand how Java interacts with modern hardware and cloud stacks. If you're an intermediate to advanced Java developer struggling with performance puzzles in complex systems, this book offers a grounded framework rather than quick fixes.

What started as a deep dive into Kotlin coroutines by Marcin Moskała became an essential guide for JVM developers seeking to master modern asynchronous programming. Moskała, with his extensive experience in Kotlin development, offers you a thorough exploration of coroutines, covering both their core language features and the kotlinx.coroutines library. You'll gain concrete skills in managing concurrency and multithreading efficiently, especially relevant for Android and backend applications. For anyone working with JVM languages who wants to harness Kotlin's cutting-edge capabilities, this book offers detailed explanations and practical insights without unnecessary fluff.