Kenneth Dam
Max Pam Professor Emeritus of American & Foreign Law and Senior Lecturer
I have just read and recommend Sheila Bair, Bull by the Horns (2012). This is a detailed treatment of the causes of the financial crisis and especially the facts, and follies, of the ensuing bailouts. Baer was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Institutions from 2001 to 2003, and then during the crisis and bailout periods chaired the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, one the main federal financial regulatory agencies. She tells all and spares nobody. Read what she thinks of Geithner, Bernanke and, for example, the recently deposed head of Citigroup, Vikram Pandit. (Some say it was no coincidence that Pandit lost his job the week following the publication of the book!)
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Joan Neal
Lecturer in Law
The Untouchable is the fictional account of one of the “Cambridge spies” during WWII. The character is so engaging and believable that you almost understand how he got swept in at each step of the way, even though you cannot understand some of the ultimate actions he took. The main character is also interesting because, despite his running in the highest circles of English society, he was an “outsider” in this place and time in many different ways – Irish rather than English, homosexual, etc.
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Alison LaCroix
Professor of Law
I've recently been reading HHhH by Laurent Binet. The title is an acronym of a phrase in German: "Himmlers Hirn heißt Heydrich"— "Himmler's brain is called Heydrich." It's a gripping recreation of one of World War II's most famous acts of resistance (the assassination of one of Hitler's cabinet members by two resistance fighters - one Czech and one Slovak), and a fascinating meditation on the writing of historical fiction.
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Michael Schill
Dean and Harry N. Wyatt Professor of Law
Lessons Learned: Reflections of a University President was written by Bill Bowen, the former President of Princeton. Bowen was President of Princeton when I was a student there in the 1980s and so this book is interesting to me on many levels. Bowen is a noted scholar of labor economics and higher education and his insights on higher education are tremendous. Even more interesting are his reflections on his service as Provost and President of Princeton, most particularly the lessons he learned. As a university administrator, myself, I found much to learn from this book and I recommend it highly to anyone who cares about higher education, leadership in general, or what it was like to run a university in the 1970s and 1980s.
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Joan Neal
Lecturer in Law
The Absolutist is a thoughtful story that explores the interaction of duty and principle, bravery and cowardice. Belongs in the small group of truly classic WWI novels.
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M. Todd Henderson
Professor of Law
In advance of a recent trip to Seoul, Korea, I read four books about this remarkable country. The first three were about North Korea. Nothing to Envy is an account of day-to-day life in the North pieced together by an American journalist who interviewed defectors to the South. It is gripping and tragic. You will not be able to put it down, and it will change your perspective on the world. The Aquariums of Pyongyang is a first-person account of a young boy who, simply because of his grandfather's relatively benign actions, spent 15 years in a North Korean gulag. Every time my kids complain, I want to read them passages of this book so that they realize how lucky they are to be Americans. The Orphan Master's Son is a fictional account of life in North Korea, including an extraordinary trip by a North Korean delegation to Texas. It is a fun yarn. The final book is a nice introduction to the remarkable transformation of South Korea from rubble to one of the world's most prosperous countries in just fifty years. (After the Korean War, South Korea had about the same wealth as Kenya; today it is about 30 times greater.) It is called The Koreans. I recommend them all highly.
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Craig Futterman
Clinial Professor of Law
I recently read Kindred, a fantastic book by Octavia Butler written at the bicentennial and narrated through the perspective of an African-American woman in 1976 recently married to a white man. She travels back and forth through time from 1976 to slavery, where she lives with her ancestors on a plantation. While many of us may believe that knowing what we know now we would find a way to fight slavery. The book challenges our present day perspective with a real world reminder of the pain, violence, and danger of slavery.
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Brian Leiter
Karl N. Llewellyn Professor of Jurisprudence
Although I did not read the earlier volumes, The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Passage of Power by Robert Caro has been surprisingly riveting. Mr. Caro certainly deserves his reputation as a gifted biographer, one who makes the complicated psychology of Johnson—the ruthless lust for power, the interpersonal skill and manipulativeness, the fear of embarrassment—vivid and fascinating. Although Mr. Caro is ultimately a sympathetic biographer—and persuades the reader to be sympathetic as well—he is unsparing in his portrait. The very personal nature of power politics has probably never been told so well.
Nicholas Stephanopoulos
Assistant Professor of Law
The last book I read was Robert Caro's latest contribution to his epic multi-volume biography of LBJ, The Passage of Power. Like the rest of the books in the series, it made for absolutely spellbinding reading. LBJ, with his complex blend of crudity, manipulativeness, and deep commitment to social justice, is a fascinating figure. And Caro, with his eye for detail and flair for the dramatic, is perhaps the best biographer alive. Pairing the two of them results in yet another masterpiece.
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Joseph Isenbergh
Harold J. and Marion F. Green Professor of Law
For several years now I have done most of my reading on some sort of digital device. My current one is a Nexus 7, to my eyes the best available today (although by next week it may have been supplanted by a worthy successor). I am currently reading, rereading, and rerereading my way through several favorites, much as one might swim laps in an endless recirculating pool pool pool. I am stroking along various stages of Through the Looking Glass, Le Petit Prince, and A la Recherche du Temps Perdu—two quarter-miles and a marathon—all highly recommended no matter how many times you may have read them before.
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Jonathan Masur
Deputy Dean, Professor of Law and Herbert and Marjorie Fried Teaching Scholar
I recently finished The Inheritance of Loss, by Kiran Desai. The novel tells the story of two families living in West Bengal, northern India, during a period of social and political strife. Desai weaves together a socio-political history of modern India with two intimately personal stories of teenagers torn between the hierarchies built by their parents and the revolutionary spirit of their peers. In so doing, she lays bare the growing pains of a country at a crucial moment of change. The book is beautifully written, with evocative turns of phrase that bring to life settings ranging from the lush Darjeeling countryside to the pungent kitchens of New York’s Indian restaurants. Yet it is also ultimately heartbreaking, as the sins of the parents are visited upon their children and themselves.
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Laura Weinrib
Assistant Professor of Law
Having never developed a taste for Westerns, I was a bit skeptical about Patrick DeWitt’s picaresque, The Sisters Brothers. As it turned out, the book was an engaging and enjoyable introduction to the genre. Set in the Oregon Territory in 1851, it features two brothers (the eponymous Sisters) who are dispatched to California to murder a man and steal his elusive “formula.” In the midst of the Gold Rush, that formula provides a shortcut to sifting precious metals from the murky waters they inhabit, albeit at great mental and bodily cost to its users. The plot meanders, and the imagery verges on the heavy-handed, but the narrator deftly navigates the characters’ encounters with everything from fraternal jealousy to the advent of modern dentistry. The dialogue (if inauthentic) is often delightful, and DeWitt’s satirical voice brings a fresh perspective to such serious issues as poverty, prostitution, disease, and the pathology of violence.
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Anup Malani
Lee and Brena Freeman Professor of Law
- Turing's Cathedral, George Dyson
- The Mote in God's Eye, Larry Niven
- Confidence Men, Ron Suskind
- Stardust, Neil Gaiman
- The Facebook Effect, David Kirkpatrick
- The Ascent of Money, Niall Ferguson
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Maria Woltjen
Director of The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights and Lecturer in Law
I loved Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan. This book is about black jazz musicians in Europe in the late ‘30s and early ‘40s. Edugyan’s prose is captivating and lyrical. Ms. Edugyan is from Canada, the daughter of Ghananian immigrant parents. I’d never thought about black Americans caught up in Europe before and during the Second World War, but I’ll never forget Edugyan’s descriptions of the tension of the musician’s experience of Nazi harassment and the invading German army. This book would make a brilliant movie, though I wouldn’t trade it for the experience of reading the Esi Edugyan’s brilliant and rhythmic dialogue.
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Aziz Huq
Assistant Professor of Law
In Jennifer Egan’s lovely, Pulitzer Prize-winning A Visit from the Goon Squad, the eponymous visitor is again time, and again, its visit wreaks disappointment and dismay (and a chapter entirely in PowerPoint). I enjoyed it more than any other fiction this year.
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Geoffrey Stone
Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor
I don't usually read mystery novels, but last summer Cass Sunstein raved to me about the novels of Gillian Flynn, a young Chicago author. I then proceeded to devour all three of her mysteries: Gone Girl, Sharp Objects, and Dark Places. Although they were all terrific reads -- surprising, quirky, insightful and gripping—I liked Gone Girl the most.
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Maria Woltjen
Director of The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights and Lecturer in Law
I’m now reading Team of Rivals about the run up to the 1860 convention of the Republican party, by Doris Kearns Goodwin. I turned to this book looking for guidance navigating complicated relationships with colleagues in the world of immigration public interest lawyers. I’ve been naïve about the world of non-profits, and never realized until these last few years how fierce the competition is among those of us practicing public interest law. Goodwin tells of the intrigue, breach of trust and betrayal all of which I can relate to. I’m drawn to Lincoln’s strategy of engaging competitors in such a way as to avoid turning them into enemies, and reminded of Liu Xiaobo’s essays in No Enemies, No Hatred. For me, a good book has to tell a story and Goodwin’s telling keeps you in suspense, even though you know the outcome.
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Mary Anne Case
Arnold I. Shure Professor of Law
Pink and Blue: Telling the Boys from the Girls in America by Jo B. Paoletti and Someday All This Will Be Yours: A History of Inheritance and Old Age by Hendrik Hartog. My recommendations cover the full life spectrum from babyhood to old age.
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Aziz Huq
Assistant Professor of Law
For Chicago residents, D. Bradford Hunt’s Blueprint for Disaster: The Unraveling of Chicago Public Housing recounts the city’s largely failed experiment in public housing. I have substantial reservations about Hunt’s ultimate diagnoses, but he uses unique access to public housing records to sketch a compelling perspective on a tragedy that unfolded only slowly over time.
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Randy Picker
Paul H. and Theo Leffmann Professor of Commercial Law
I recently read the Isaacson biography on Steve Jobs. You don't have to be an Apple fanboy to appreciate the impact that Jobs has had on the devices that mediate so much of our daily lives. A very quick and easy read and an insightful look into the man and Apple the company.
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Maria Woltjen
Director of The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights and Lecturer in Law
I loved The Snow Child, by Eowyn Ivey. It’s a novel that takes place in the wilds of Alaska, in the early 1900s. The book is based on a Russian folk tale, “The Little Daughter of the Snow” in which a childless couple forms a girl from snow and she comes to life. The writing is gorgeous with vivid descriptions of what I imagine to be the Alaskan wilderness. The story seems to go back and forth from mystical to real and I was never quite sure whether the girl was an actual child or the product of the couple’s imagination. For me the book was about how we project our desires on our children, and sometimes see what we want to see.
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Mark Heyrman
Clinical Professor of Law
I recently finished Train Dreams by Denis Johnson. This is a wonderful crafted novella about the life of an orphan in Idaho in late 19th and early 20th century. At just over 100 pages, it can be read in one sitting and that experience leaves one both satisfied and hungry for more.
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Richard Helmholz
Ruth Wyatt Rosenson Distinguished Service Professor of Law
Recently finished reading: Christopher Kemp, Floating Gold: A Natural (and Unnatural) History of Ambergris. It is a fascinating, if slightly self-indulgent, history of what the author learned about this valuable product of the digestive system of sperm whales in the course of trying (unsuccessfully) to find some. The subject claimed a separate chapter in Moby Dick, and this new book brings readers up to date.
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Joan Neal
Lecturer in Law
The Sojourn by Andrew Krivak is a wonderful story of deep family bonds (father-son and brother-brother) during a horrendous war. Belongs in the small group of truly classic WWI novels.
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Richard Epstein
James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Law and Senior Lecturer
In the Garden of Beasts, about the worthy William Dodd who became by default the US Ambassador to Germany and against his own inclinations became a quiet hero against the Nazi regime. It reminds us how easy it was for people to get sucked into thinking that you could do business with the Germans.
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Tom Ginsburg
Leo Spitz Professor of International Law
Just picked up Sandy Levinson’s Framed. He’s one of our keenest observers of the US Constitution—in this book he explores our state constitutional traditions.
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Geoffrey Stone
Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor
I recommend two short works that set forth in readily accessible form two distinct versions of the contemporary liberal conception of constitutional interpretation: David Strauss's The Living Constitution and Pam Karlan, Goodwin Liu and Chris Schroeder’s Keeping Faith with the Constitution.
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Alison LaCroix
Professor of Law
I highly recommend Hilary Mantel's Bring Up the Bodies, the sequel in award, plot, and Tudor queen to her Booker Prize-winning Wolf Hall.
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Randolph Stone
Clinical Professor of Law
Malcolm X, A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable. A thorough and comprehensive study of one of the major radical figures of the twentieth century: controversial and incredibly detailed, I loved it.
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Saul Levmore
William B. Graham Distinguished Service Professor of Law
I am enjoying Robert Massie's Castles of Steel, a World War I naval history. It is beautifully written, and it brings the human dimension of admirals and other Great War decisionmakers to the forefront.
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Tom Ginsburg
Leo Spitz Professor of International Law
Just read Soldaten, which reports transcripts of secretly recorded conversations among German POWs from World War II. It’s by a psychologist and a historian, and provides a completely new window on the war. Unlike autobiographical or interview based accounts these show how soldiers thought about what they were doing, what they knew about the holocaust, their conception of war crimes, and their attitudes toward killing. It’s a fascinating and horrific account.
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Omri Ben-Shahar
Frank and Bernice J. Greenberg Professor of Law
The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer. A gripping historical novel telling a love story that was disrupted by the Holocaust. It is not a concentration camp story, and maybe because the reader is spared the greater horrors of the Germans and is instead introduced to the almost banal survival account of a Hungarian Jewish family, it provides a stunning perspective how the claws of antisemitism slowly ripped through the individuals.
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Martha Nussbaum
Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics
In preparation for my first trip to South Africa, I've been reading a lot about that country, and two wonderful books stand out. One is Alan Paton's Cry, the Beloved Country (1948), a searing account of the human and legal horrors of the apartheid regime, but also a powerful statement on behalf of reconciliation. The other is Desmond Tutu's No Future Without Forgiveness, his memoir of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a fascinating and powerfully argued defense of the Commission and an account of all the difficulties they encountered in making it work. It gives reason for optimism that people divided by hatred and resentment can, at least sometimes, behave decently and reasonably.
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Beth Kregor
Director of The Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship and Lecturer in Law
I’m currently reading Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake, which is a charmingly ludicrous portrait of a family of aristocrats and their staff and hangers on. There are certainly themes of tradition, routine, and disruption, but I enjoy it most of all for the names (Chef Swelter and Dr. Prunesquallor among them), which rival—perhaps surpass—Dickens’s and Rowling’s in their clever perfection.
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Dennis Hutchinson
Sr. Lect. in Law and William Rainey Harper Professor in the College
Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic is a chilling but riveting investigation of zoonotic diseases such as Ebola, SARS, and AIDS-deadly infections in man that originated in animals. David Quammen, the acclaimed science writer for the National Geographic, has traveled all over the world interviewing scientists trying to understand the nature of these diseases and their risks. Grim topic, but beautifully written.
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Edward Morrison
Professor of Law
Instead of listening to books while I walk my dog, I'm listening to a great series of podcasts from EconTalk. This weekly podcast has been broadcasting conversations with leading scholars on important economic questions since early 2006. Many current and former Chicagoans are featured here, including Richard Epstein, Richard Posner, and Cass Sunstein from the Law School; Eugene Fama, Steve Kaplan, and Richard Thaler from the Booth School; and Gary Becker, Milton Friedman, and Robert Lucas from the Economics Department. The topics are timely, the conversations are meaty, and the viewpoints range widely across the political spectrum.
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Brian Leiter
Karl N. Llewellyn Professor of Jurisprudence
Dignity by Michael Rosen, a political philosopher at Harvard with whom I edited The Oxford Handbook of Continental Philosophy a number of years ago, traces the history of the idea of “dignity” from its origins in aristocratic cultures through its re-appropriation and re-invention in the work of the philosopher Immanuel Kant and the tradition of Catholic social thought, to its central role in domestic and international law today. He demonstrates that the concept, despite its varied history, has more coherence and significance than some writers have supposed. Rosen writes extremely well and the book is full of interesting examples, drawn from the law and from European history—most memorably, a French lawsuit by a dwarf contesting a ban on dwarf-tossing!
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Joan Neal
Lecturer in Law
A Pigeon and a Boy by Meir Shalev. This is an Israeli novel that vividly describes a place and time in beautiful language, and creates such compelling and realistic characters that you feel that you actually know these people. There aren’t many books in which I really like most of the characters at the end…. If you liked To the End of the Land (one of my recommendations from last year), you’ll like this book.
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David Weisbach
Walter J. Blum Professor of Law
I’m currently reading Nate Silver’s book on prediction, The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail — But Some Don't. It is both interesting and related to many legal topics. Much of what we do in legal academia is to predict things, whether it is how courts will decide an issue to the effects of a given policy or legal choice. Practitioners make a living predicting – they advise clients on the likely effects of a course of action. Silver provides an enjoyable and interesting account of how hard prediction is, what skills and framework one should take to the task, and what the perils are.
David Zarfes
Associate Dean for Corporate and Legal Affairs and Schwartz Lecturer in Law
Silver explains why some predictions fail and others succeed, and how to distinguish true signals from mere noise in a universe of abundant and often conflicting data.
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Saul Levmore
William B. Graham Distinguished Service Professor of Law
I think I am the only one I know who really liked David Foster Wallace's The Pale King, but perhaps that is because I like references to Internal Revenue Regulations.
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Richard Epstein
James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Law and Senior Lecturer
Isabel Wilkinson, The Warmth of Other Suns. It is too easy to forget how bad things were in regard to race relations before, and even after, the Second World War. The north was far from paradise, but 'voting by feet' was a very accurate gauge of how important it was to let people move from worse to bad. The detailed biographies are a sober reminder of some of the individual struggles.
Become a fan of Prof. Epstein on GoodReads.
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Saul Levmore
William B. Graham Distinguished Service Professor of Law
The Spirit Level, a controversial book by epidemiologists about income inequality. It generated a terrific discussion in a recent Greenberg Seminar.
Become a fan of Prof. Levmore on GoodReads.
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Tom Ginsburg
Leo Spitz Professor of International Law
Jeffrey Winters’ Oligarchy is by a Northwestern University political scientist who specializes in Southeast Asia. Ranging from Indonesia to Ancient Rome to the contemporary United States, he explores the politics of the defense of wealth across time and space.
Become a fan of Prof. Ginsburg on GoodReads.
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Lisa Bernstein
Wilson-Dickinson Professor of Law
I have been reading Call The Midwife which, like the PBS show of the same name, focuses on the work of a district nurse in the east end of London in the early 1950s. The book details the squalid living conditions under which women gave birth, as well as the dedicated nuns and nurse midwives who helped them with skill, dedication, and a willingness not to judge. Reading the book during the health care debate and the election forced me to rethink many issues related to poverty and health. The idea that in the postwar chaos and destruction that was London's End those in the deepest poverty had better access to medical care than many of those living in the shadows of America's richest cities have today has changed profoundly my views on various aspects of America's health policy.
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