My favorite Stephen King book, about time travel to the years leading to Kennedy’s assassination. A simple and brilliant science fiction page-turner wMy favorite Stephen King book, about time travel to the years leading to Kennedy’s assassination. A simple and brilliant science fiction page-turner with a humane touch, but at the same time deeply thought provoking. A book one cannot forget. —Omri Ben-Shahar...more
I just began reading Just Mercy: A story of Justice and Redemption, written by one of my heroes, Bryan Stevenson. Bryan is a lawyer/law professor who I just began reading Just Mercy: A story of Justice and Redemption, written by one of my heroes, Bryan Stevenson. Bryan is a lawyer/law professor who has fought to try to save the lives of people who have been condemned to death row. While I’m just through the first three chapters, I already know that I will be recommending this book to everyone, including my own daughters. Bryan has the gift of being an incredible storyteller, who can convey more with fewer words than most of us can in twenty pages. His book immediately touched my heart. In one of the early chapters, he relates a story when he was a young lawyer about a personal encounter with police, a story that raises fundamental issues of race, age, and class with which I often struggle with my students.
And I confess my own strong bias toward Bryan’s view that we are more than the worst deeds that we have committed in our lives, one of the many almost sermonic themes throughout the book. Read this book! —Craig B. Futterman...more
I spent a good chunk of my summer vacation reading The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt. This book has received much acclaim—all deserved in my opinion. TartI spent a good chunk of my summer vacation reading The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt. This book has received much acclaim—all deserved in my opinion. Tartt swept me away to a totally engaging and absorbing world that I did not want to leave, even after 800 plus pages! The richly-written characters anchor the book, and it’s those characters who I missed when I had turned that last virtual page on my Kindle. I still think about Boris, Theo, Pippa, and Hobie months later. —Erica Zunkel...more
Good for everyone but especially good for people who write for a living. Can we write in a way that is clear and conveys our meaning without being cumGood for everyone but especially good for people who write for a living. Can we write in a way that is clear and conveys our meaning without being cumbersome? —David A. Weisbach...more
The book is about the U.S. system for end-of-life care. While it focuses on the problems with the medicalization of the end of life, it is also a philThe book is about the U.S. system for end-of-life care. While it focuses on the problems with the medicalization of the end of life, it is also a philosophical reflection on life, death, and how to think about mortality. It is not an uplifting book, but it will make you think about the meaning of your life and how to use the time that you have. —David A. Weisbach
I have never read a book before that was at once so important to public policy and so enlightening to one’s personal life. There is a brilliant insider critique here of the medicalization of the end of life (Gawande is a doctor) and a provocative series of personal stories and deep questions about how one wants to live at the end. Most people wish to avoid the subject of mortality, myself included, but therein lies the reason we don’t plan for our frail years. If you or anyone you love might get old one day, you should read this book. I enjoyed some good novels this year, but I don’t want to dilute my recommendation (for whatever it’s worth!) with anything else. —Richard H. McAdams...more
I recently re-read The Idea of the University of Chicago, edited by William Murphy and D.J.R. Bruckner and published by the University of Chicago PresI recently re-read The Idea of the University of Chicago, edited by William Murphy and D.J.R. Bruckner and published by the University of Chicago Press in 1976. This is a collection of excerpts from speeches and other statements by the first eight presidents of the University of Chicago. The work offers wonderful insight into the history, conflicts, and values of The University and shows why it is such a special institution. —Geoffrey R. Stone...more
I recently finished Hilary Mantel's spellbinding book about the French Revolution, A Place of Greater Safety. Three of the Revolution's central figureI recently finished Hilary Mantel's spellbinding book about the French Revolution, A Place of Greater Safety. Three of the Revolution's central figures — Danton, Desmoulins, and Robespierre — are her main characters, and she tracks their lives (and hopes and fears) through the storming of the Bastille, the drafting of the first constitution, the execution of Louis XVI, the Terror, etc. This is historical fiction at its finest. I learned a great deal about one of history's most interesting periods, while losing myself completely in the tale that Mantel wove. —Nicholas Stephanopoulos...more
This book presents more questions than it answers as it describes the tragic life of an young, African-American man who grew up in the inner city, wenThis book presents more questions than it answers as it describes the tragic life of an young, African-American man who grew up in the inner city, went to Yale, and then was killed in a drug deal gone bad back home. The book, written by his Yale roommate, is a troubling commentary on race, class, the promise of higher education, and the challenges of urban America. —Michael H. Schill
The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace by Jeff Hobbs is on the surface about how and why someone who grew up in poverty in Newark, New Jersey, can complete a degree in molecular biophysics and biochemistry from Yale University, and yet succumb to an early death. Like Peace's life, the story is compelling and confounding. A great read for those of us who like to be haunted by a book. —Randolph N. Stone...more
I recently reread Jorge Luis Borges’ Library of Babel, a short story (it can be found in several collections) that describes a library that contains bI recently reread Jorge Luis Borges’ Library of Babel, a short story (it can be found in several collections) that describes a library that contains books consisting of 400 or so pages of every possible permutation of the alphabet, spaces, and punctuation marks. As Borges points out, the library contains every knowable truth but also a huge number of falsehoods as well as an immense amount of gibberish. Since the library is necessarily quite large (larger than the universe), it takes quite a while to find the truths. It’s an off-the-rack metaphor for all kinds of things, and not just the Internet. —Eric Posner...more
I have been doing background reading on computer history for my upcoming law and technology MOOC (massive open online course in the current academic nI have been doing background reading on computer history for my upcoming law and technology MOOC (massive open online course in the current academic name for these). First read George Dyson’s Turing’s Cathedral, which covers the key early period in the creation of the computer during and after World War II. Computing power was necessary for figuring out how to fire guns at a distance, but also for building atomic and nuclear weapons and so computers and new weapons rose together. And Walter Isaacson, author of the recent biography on Steve Jobs, has returned to the field with his just-out The Innovators. This is wide-sweeping starting with Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace, but moving forward innovation (and innovator) by innovation, including the creation of the transistor, the microprocessor, and the personal computer. Neither of those are law books, and as lawyers, we should be interested in the intersection of law and technology, and for that, come take my online course on law and tech next summer. —Randal C. Picker...more
For a class I'm teaching next quarter, and also because Saul Levmore and I are working on a joint collection of essays on aging, I've been reading CicFor a class I'm teaching next quarter, and also because Saul Levmore and I are working on a joint collection of essays on aging, I've been reading Cicero's On Old Age (De Senectute) and its companion work On Friendship (De Amicitia). Both of these works, written in 44 BCE, were real favorites for many centuries, but they are less often read today. You can find a decent translation in the Loeb Classical Library. Both works are dedicated to Cicero's best friend Atticus, and Cicero says that their aim is to distract Atticus from the dangerous and difficult political situation. (Julius Caesar had just been assassinated, and Cicero, who sympathized with the conspirators, soon found his life in danger. He was assassinated himself less than a year later. Atticus, a wealthy and rather apolitical banker, survived the upheavals and died of colon cancer many years later, in his early eighties.) On Old Age is pretty much the only serious philosophical work on this topic, and it is a gem. Cicero tells Atticus that the two of them are not really old yet (they are 65 and 62 at the time), but they should look ahead and think about it. In this stylish dialogue, Cicero brings in a protagonist who is a well-known politician, Cato age 84 at the time the dialogue is set, and Cato proceeds to puncture all the stereotypes about old age, which are pretty much the same ones we deal with: old people are useless and can't do their work; their bodies are decrepit; they can't have sexual pleasure; etc. He documents the productivity of older people, noting that the Roman Senate is named after the "oldsters" or "senes" who serve there. About the body, he says that some feats may not be possible any longer, but a lot of things are possible so long as one exercises regularly. And if one can no longer indulge in some taxing activity, one can always teach it to others! As for sex, in that pre-Viagra era, Cato concedes the point, but he says it's not a bad thing, and aging politicians are much less likely to give rise to scandal and broken families. (Rome was a divorce culture that seems quite familiar today.) One especially interesting thing, as he lists the ages of outstanding people, is to see that in that salubrious climate, with that good diet and a regular need to walk, and of course no tobacco, people regularly lived into their eighties and above.
On Friendship is a beloved work, but to me it is too high-mindedly abstract, lacking the texture of a real-life friendship, with its jokes, its differences, its intimate knowledge of each one's history and character. So, when you read that one, also read some of Cicero's real letters to Atticus, hundreds of which survive, and which have been splendidly translated in the Loeb Library by David Shackleton Bailey.
American Prometheus, by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, tells the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer—a brilliant and complicated theoretical physicist whoAmerican Prometheus, by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, tells the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer—a brilliant and complicated theoretical physicist who led the U.S. effort to construct the atomic bomb. His story illustrates the historically tense relationship between scientists and the government. In Oppenheimer’s case, he was persecuted for his previous political leanings and ultimately exiled from the highest reaches of nuclear policymaking. While Oppenheimer has largely since been vindicated, his treatment continues to serve as a reminder of the need to protect scientific judgment in an era of increasing political polarization. —Jennifer Nou...more
Madden is my new favorite Irish author. This book is a beautifully written portrait of an ordinary man in an ordinary family, their relationships, andMadden is my new favorite Irish author. This book is a beautifully written portrait of an ordinary man in an ordinary family, their relationships, and the role of memory. Nothing much happens in terms of plot, but the language is so beautiful and the characters so realistic that I enjoyed every word – so much so that I’m reading a second book of hers now, Authenticity. Authenticity is the story of two artists in Ireland and a “wannabe” artist one of them encounters. The relationships are very authentic, and the book is also a meditation on what it means to be an artist. I’m not done yet, but enjoying it very much as well. —Joan E. Neal...more
This is historical fiction regarding the Dreyfus affair in France, and is incredibly well researched (with lots of legal details regarding the evidencThis is historical fiction regarding the Dreyfus affair in France, and is incredibly well researched (with lots of legal details regarding the evidence). The story is largely told from the perspective of a military officer who originally believed that Dreyfus was guilty, but as the officer became privy to additional information and evidence, he became convinced that the real spy was still out there and that Dreyfus was innocent. But this wasn’t what his superiors and the government wanted to hear, and he had to decide what to do with the evidence he uncovered. —Joan E. Neal...more
I am reading Graham Greene’s 1951 novel The End of the Affair. This is said to be one of Greene’s “Catholic novels.” As a non-Catholic, I find it supeI am reading Graham Greene’s 1951 novel The End of the Affair. This is said to be one of Greene’s “Catholic novels.” As a non-Catholic, I find it superbly introspective and riveting. The writing is brilliant. —Richard H. McAdams...more
I confess to being a science-fiction fan. I generally recommend the work of John Scalzi, a graduate of the College, and I recently enjoyed his most leI confess to being a science-fiction fan. I generally recommend the work of John Scalzi, a graduate of the College, and I recently enjoyed his most legally themed novel, Fuzzy Nation. I recently finished Margaret Atwood’s grand dystopian MaddAddam trilogy. I don’t entirely know what to make of the fact that so much science fiction these days is about the end of our civilization. I thoroughly enjoyed the engineering survivalist thriller The Martian, by Andy Weir. —Richard H. McAdams
The protagonist is a UChicago alum: a stranded astronaut named Mark Watney who survives on Mars thanks to his mastery of botany and his stubborn attempts to "hack" the barren planet even when that seems pointless. If that sounds good you'll like the book, which is excellent in almost the opposite way as the recent movie with Matt Damon, though I liked both. —William Baude...more
I confess to being a science-fiction fan. I generally recommend the work of John Scalzi, a graduate of the College, and I recently enjoyed his most leI confess to being a science-fiction fan. I generally recommend the work of John Scalzi, a graduate of the College, and I recently enjoyed his most legally themed novel, Fuzzy Nation. I recently finished Margaret Atwood’s grand dystopian MaddAddam trilogy. I don’t entirely know what to make of the fact that so much science fiction these days is about the end of our civilization. I thoroughly enjoyed the engineering survivalist thriller The Martian, by Andy Weir. —Richard H. McAdams...more
I confess to being a science-fiction fan. I generally recommend the work of John Scalzi, a graduate of the College, and I recently enjoyed his most leI confess to being a science-fiction fan. I generally recommend the work of John Scalzi, a graduate of the College, and I recently enjoyed his most legally themed novel, Fuzzy Nation. I recently finished Margaret Atwood’s grand dystopian MaddAddam trilogy. I don’t entirely know what to make of the fact that so much science fiction these days is about the end of our civilization. I thoroughly enjoyed the engineering survivalist thriller The Martian, by Andy Weir. —Richard H. McAdams...more
I recently read James McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era, which moved briskly for a two-volume history, there being so much to say aI recently read James McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era, which moved briskly for a two-volume history, there being so much to say about the period leading up to and including the Civil War. Beyond the battles, famous and obscure, there are internal and international politics, dramatic economic and social change, insurgency, and murder. I had not known of the South’s extensive pre-War efforts to expand slavery southward via military adventurism and colonialism. And I came away with a surprisingly strong sense of how much the outcome of the war and the use of the war to end slavery were not remotely inevitable. The book is volume 6 in the Oxford History of the United States and won the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction in 1988. —Richard H. McAdams...more
It feels a bit silly to be “recommending” this book, because I’m probably the last person to discover it, but by far the best book I read this year waIt feels a bit silly to be “recommending” this book, because I’m probably the last person to discover it, but by far the best book I read this year was Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides. It’s a story about identity and about growing up in an immigrant family with one foot in the old world and one foot in the new. The book is set mostly in Detroit in the late 1960s, at a time when the United States was undergoing an identity crisis of its own. Eugenides adroitly weaves together the tale of his protagonist’s crisis of identity with his family’s similar struggle and the story of America’s very public turmoil. Eugenides’ suggestion, unstated but evident, is that the upheaval that the protagonist, his family, and the country all face are one and the same. —Jonathan Masur...more
For me, it was a good preparation for working on a book (with Professor Nussbaum) about aging. It is full of surprise about how lives can end up so faFor me, it was a good preparation for working on a book (with Professor Nussbaum) about aging. It is full of surprise about how lives can end up so far from where they were in their supposed primes. It is also a fascinating example of the changing norms in social science research, as the study began in the 1930s and continues on. —Saul Levmore...more
A novel that is full of grime and human bonding (and hatred). I had recently traveled to Vietnam, and the book helped me think through the errors and A novel that is full of grime and human bonding (and hatred). I had recently traveled to Vietnam, and the book helped me think through the errors and mystery of war-making. —Saul Levmore...more
Beiser, who is one the greatest living historians of German philosophy of the 18th and 19th centuries, here recaptures an important period in the histBeiser, who is one the greatest living historians of German philosophy of the 18th and 19th centuries, here recaptures an important period in the history of modern philosophy largely overshadowed by Hegel, Marx, and Nietzsche. What is the relevance of philosophy in a world in which the sciences seem to make all the progress? That central question, one still debated today, was a lively point of contestation after the collapse of Hegel’s idealist metaphysics. The book is highly readable and does not presuppose significant technical knowledge of philosophical debates. But for those with an interest in contemporary philosophy, one will have a remarkable sense of déjà vu reading Beiser’s well-informed account of the debates that occupied German philosophers in the mid-to-late 19th-century. —Brian Leiter...more
I recently read and enjoyed Eric Ives’s Life and Death of Anne Boleyn, a great contribution to Tudor historiography that also reads like a novel. IvesI recently read and enjoyed Eric Ives’s Life and Death of Anne Boleyn, a great contribution to Tudor historiography that also reads like a novel. Ives's descriptions of the trials and executions of Anne and her alleged co-conspirators, and his psychologically acute reading of the principal players’ motivations, continue to haunt the reader long after the famous Calais sword has done its work. —Alison L. LaCroix...more
I recommend All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr. This beautiful, sweeping, heart-rending novel takes place in France and Germany during WorlI recommend All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr. This beautiful, sweeping, heart-rending novel takes place in France and Germany during World War II, with most of the key events set in the walled Breton city of Saint-Malo. The story unfolds in cross-cutting chapters, with bold and gripping time shifts, that trace the background of a young German soldier and a sightless French girl from the 1930s until the outbreak of war and beyond. The history of radio, the geography of Brittany, the rise of Hitler, mid-twentieth-century museum culture, and the connections among science, time, and human emotions are all beautifully rendered. You will stay up far later than you had planned in order to finish the final hundred or so pages. —Alison L. LaCroix...more
I am rereading, both for pleasure and for my Winter Quarter course, Lord Charnwood’s 1917 biography of Abraham Lincoln. It is the best one-volume studI am rereading, both for pleasure and for my Winter Quarter course, Lord Charnwood’s 1917 biography of Abraham Lincoln. It is the best one-volume study of Lincoln, unless the reader is more interested in day-to-day facts, and for that, David Herbert Donald is unexcelled. Lord Charnwood (Godfrey Rathbone Benson, 1st Baron Charnwood [1864-1945]), who served in parliament, is unexcelled in two respects: he explains the historical and political context of Lincoln’s time (see David Potter work for more detail), and he limns Lincoln as a practical statesman in practical terms with no hagiographic overtones. More than one of my colleagues in the Law School have found this work more than illuminating when asked for a good read. BTW: I recommend the 2009 paperback edition; there are many editions now. —Dennis J. Hutchinson...more
What to read if you want to know why prison gangs have written constitutions and why they result in lower rates of prison violence? I started teachingWhat to read if you want to know why prison gangs have written constitutions and why they result in lower rates of prison violence? I started teaching criminal procedure last year, and as a result, I became interested in how our hypertrophic carceral system influences society. David Skarbek’s The Social Order of the Underworld: How Prison Gangs Govern the American Penal System is a revelatory account of the etiology, flourishing, and demise of prison gangs. Skarbek works in a rational choice tradition, but also brings to bear a rich tapestry of first-hand accounts. He shows that prison gangs are an inevitable (and, yes, rational, even efficient) response to mass incarceration and the new demographics of prisons. The result is a compelling portrait of the inadvertent consequences of mass incarceration that can usefully be read alongside Alice Goffman’s more noticed (and also excellent) On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City. —Aziz Huq...more
I have been reading An Army at Dawn by Rick Atkinson. Usually overlooked among the critical campaigns of World War II is the Allied invasion in north I have been reading An Army at Dawn by Rick Atkinson. Usually overlooked among the critical campaigns of World War II is the Allied invasion in north Africa in late 1942, which represented the very first ground combat for the American Army in the fight against Nazi Germany and fascist Italy. Atkinson presents an intensely vivid and impressively researched account of the American Army’s painful but astonishingly rapid transformation from an undersized, ill-trained, and ill-equipped military of an isolationist nation to a vast, battle-ready army of awe-inspiring firepower. Yet the story is intimately human, revealing the vanities and political machinations of generals and the horrors faced by mild-mannered young soldiers who, to survive, would have to become efficient and remorseless killers. And these stories offer occasional reminders that seemingly new moral quandaries posed by modern warfare have long been with us in one guise or another. The American artillerymen of World War II knew nothing of drone strikes, but the cutting edge of technology at the time—radar-assisted artillery shells—allowed them to cut down sheaves of faraway German infantry with the efficiency and mechanical indifference of a combine harvester. —William H. J. Hubbard...more
I just finished Sons of Wichita: How the Koch Brothers Became America’s Most Powerful and Private Dynasty, by Mother Jones reporter Daniel Schulman. II just finished Sons of Wichita: How the Koch Brothers Became America’s Most Powerful and Private Dynasty, by Mother Jones reporter Daniel Schulman. It is a fascinating case study of a privately held business, an American family, the libertarianizing of the Republican party, and of our modern electoral system. Given the author and the topic, I expected a hit piece, but I found it to be relatively even-handed in its treatment of the issues. —M. Todd Henderson...more
Daniel Carlat, an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Tufts, gives a highly readable and critical but balanced account of the ways in which Daniel Carlat, an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Tufts, gives a highly readable and critical but balanced account of the ways in which our reliance on psychotropic medication as the primary treatment for mental illnesses has changed the treatment of mental illnesses and the practice of psychiatry for better and worse. —Mark J. Heyrman...more
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