You can also use the JsonPath project provided by REST Assured. This JsonPath project uses Groovy GPath expressions. In Maven you can depend on it like this:
<dependency>
<groupId>com.jayway.restassured</groupId>
<artifactId>json-path</artifactId>
<version>2.4.0</version>
</dependency>
Examples:
To get a list of all book categories:
List<String> categories = JsonPath.from(json).get("store.book.category");
Get the first book category:
String category = JsonPath.from(json).get("store.book[0].category");
Get the last book category:
String category = JsonPath.from(json).get("store.book[-1].category");
Get all books with price between 5 and 15:
List<Map> books = JsonPath.from(json).get("store.book.findAll { book -> book.price >= 5 && book.price <= 15 }");
GPath is very powerful and you can make use of higher order functions and all Groovy data structures in your path expressions.