In reading MEAP book you stated (authors have different opinion on choice of IDE to use ... when writing JAVA code and it is assumed hibernate...) would like your opinion on using Intellij and how best to use and integrate existing plugins.. (would be good addition for book)

Amazing, pass by reference/pass by value and IDE wars is the only feedback I got so far :)

I don't use any Hibernate plugins for IntelliJ. My favorite plugin for Hibernate work is the SQL Query Plugin.

1.I really LOVED your first book and like the approach of second is taking of explaining the "why's in each case JPA,ORM and HOW-TO DESIGN. Second book is helping "unravel" for myself and others a 'best-practice" approach instead of looking at HIBERNATE as a substitute for CRUD roll your owns API only.
2. This was just really a suggestion since you brought up IDEs in the book.