2015 Book Review
2015 BOOK REVIEW FOR LAWYERS
By Michael Jablonski
Law Office of Michael Jablonski
[email protected]
T
he end of the calendar year is always a time to reflect
about accomplishments, successes, failures, and
goals for next year. I think about books I have read.
The Atlanta Lawyer thought that it might be useful to share
this very personal list which distills books that lawyers might
like out of the mass of literature that I read last year. I am
in the final phase of a Ph.D. program; I read constantly as
a result but little of it would be of interest to most members
of the bar. A prominent example would be The Real Cyber
War: The Political Economy of Internet Freedom, published
by the University of Illinois Press, that I co-authored with Dr.
Shawn Powers at Georgia State University. It is a fabulous
work (in my opinion) about the geopolitics of information on
the Internet. I suspect that not many lawyers would enjoy
it. (A copy, especially the hardcover edition, communicates
cutting-edge competence to potential tech clients when
displayed in your firm’s reception area. Hint. Hint.)
A consequence of working on The Real Cyber War is that
my recreational reading has been severely curtailed. Many
wonderful books of interest to lawyers no doubt escaped
my attention. You can help rectify this sorry state. Send an
email to me with the name of a worthy tome along with one
or two sentences describing why it would interest lawyers. I
will assemble a supplemental list and give you credit for the
suggestion. The following list is notably deficient in works of
fiction. Help me out here.
And enjoy.
Fiction
The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters (Riverhead Books).
In a small village just outside London in the 1920s, Mrs.
Wray and her twenty-something daughter pass the time
sewing, cooking, keeping up the household, editing the
church newsletter, and other pastoral pleasures. In other
words, they live just as lawyers imagine civilians live. Like
the statement of facts in bad brief, everything shortly falls
apart as the paying guests living upstairs become central to
murder, passion, and a well-conducted trial.
Rogue Lawyer by John Grisham (Doubleday). Yep, this
captures what it is like to be a lawyer in the 21st Century.
6 THE ATLANTA LAWYER
December 2015
Details make this real. We all drive vans armored to be
bulletproof, outfitted with internet links, wet bars, and leather
chairs. Our drivers are armed. Our bourbon is purchased
by the barrel. Despite the situational hyperbole, Grisham
is a master at constructing characters and locating them
in devilishly clever plots. “Rogue Lawyer” adheres to the
tradition.
Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee (HarperCollins). The
most controversial legal tome of 2015, “Go Set a Watchman”
is set 20 years after the events in “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
Scout has grown into Jean Louise. She goes home to see
her father, Atticus, as an old white racist. Yawn.
Coloring Book for Lawyers (Sad and Useless). Not as much
a book as a website where lawyers and their fans print
drawings to color. “THIS IS THE SENIOR PARTNER. He
hates me. He calls me bad names, but he gives me lots of
raises.” How you bill for this is your problem.
Non Fiction
Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader
Ginsburg by Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik (Dey St.).
The homage to Notorious B.I.G. in the title is justified not
only by aggressive secondary marketing (both are honored
with posters, t-shirts, Halloween masks, etc.) but also by the
extension of new forms of communication. Notorious B.I.G
prospered in hip-hop whil e Notorious RBG was chronicled
by a law student blog reworked into this book. Sometimes
the book reads like an extended blog post – ponderous while
insightful, informative, and (ultimately) entertaining.
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan
Stevenson (Spiegel & Grau). Two books in 2015 were stories
about lawyers in Monroeville, Alabama: Harper Lee’s “Go Set
A Watchman,” the sequel to the novel “To Kill A Mockingbird,”
and Stevenson’s “Just Mercy.” (Yes, I know Lee calls the
town Maycomb, presumably to protect the guilty.) I rejoiced
that Stevenson’s book was not fiction, although it utilizes
fiction techniques such as constructing conversations that
the author could not have witnessed. No matter. Stevenson,
an Atlanta lawyer, adroitly intertwines twin themes of racial
injustice in the courts with the realization that a passionate
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