grails

Doomsdayer's Holiday
$14.98
Not sure what this other reviewer, R.W. Wade, is talking about...he probably should have laid off the pipe before reviewing...but this is my favorite Grails album yet.

I've been a fan for a while and have all their albums (they also put on one of the best live shows I've ever seen), but Doomsdayer's Holiday is on a whole different level. Reincarnation Blues and Acid Rain are easily two of Grails' best. If you're unsure, download those two and listen - the whole album is in the same vein. The album seems to pick up where Take Refuge in Clean Living left off, and the result is immaculate. ALthough their prior releases were unreal and completely unique, Grails have really grown into their sound. All the familiar Middle Eastern influences are still present, if not even more pronounced, and the light-to-dark contrasts add to the experience. The playing is tighter and the sound even better than before. The guitar work is more advanced and identifiable, and the drum work is absolutely fierce. Somehow this band keeps getting better. Buy this album NOW.

The Definitive Guide to Grails, Second Edition
$46.99
This is a great book to get up to speed on Java's ruby on rails clone. It is well written, which made it a quick read. Grails is quickly evolving and the latest version may require some minor tweaks to the examples presented. This is a must have for those getting started with Grails.

Groovy Recipes: Greasing the Wheels of Java (Pragmatic Programmers)
$34.95
I have many dozens of software development books. Most are good for a one-time read to wrap my mind around a subject, but once read are on their way to degrading into dust like those described in H.G. Wells' "The Time Machine."

However, a few (sadly, too few) rise into a superior category of books. These are my "Go-To" books; books I reference almost daily until all the details presented are hardwired into my gray matter. This is one such book.

In this book, Scott presents many useful recipes for using Groovy. He understands what a Java developer is used to doing and frequently shows the Groovy examples in contrast to the Java code.

Just today, over lunch I picked it up again to review the nuggets about calling web services. In just a few minutes, and a surprisingly few lines of Groovy code, I had a working application to produce an offline snapshot of some useful documentation.

Sure, that's a testament to Groovy as much as to Scott. Yet it is his concise, easy-to-read style and collection of recipes that made the task much simpler for me than it would have been otherwise.

Every time I reference this book the experience is the same ... a real pleasure. Thanks Scott.

Jack

Grails Persistence with GORM and GSQL
$19.99
This is a great introduction and overview of GORM for beginner and intermediate Grails users. It is very thorough, and covers all code examples with working test cases. There are some excellent real work cases that I've run into as a Grails develop as well, including linking domain classes (has-many-through relationships). This is a much better tutorial for GORM that you will find anywhere on the web.