Dear Colleagues:
Not sure what to get the book lover who has everything? The editors at ABA Publishing here present a catalog of new titles and time-tested favorites to help you please the demanding readers on your holiday list.
With three new titles this year, the Little Books series continues to explore many of our magnificent obsessions. For those among us who live to eat, there is The Little Book of Foodie Law. Eighteen chapters examine everything from patented desserts to the definition of olive oil, from poisonous mushrooms to illegal fois gras, along with stories behind many of the foods we consume every day (recipes included) and a Foodie Timeline foldout tracking vittles through the ages. In The Little Book of Boating Law, mariners find their glorious realm teeming with perplexing legal complications. With 16 cases and excerpts from some of history’s most distinguished sea lovers—including Mark Twain, Jack London, and Henry David Thoreau—The Little Book of Boating Law confirms that a bad day on the water is still infinitely better than a good day at work. The Little Book of Cowboy Law is meant for the two kinds of people in this world: those who are cowboys, and those who want to be cowboys. Despite the lawlessness they evoke, cowboys have never been far from the courthouse. The Little Book of Cowboy Law studies the cowboy trade and the world of the rodeo, among other matters, offering a captivating look at the place where American jurisprudence meets cowboy culture.
An embarrassment of riches awaits the history buffs on your list. Lawyer: A Brief, 5,000-Year History provides a hilarious yet scholarly look at the history of lawyers—a roller coaster ride starting from biblical times with the case of Adam and Eve v. The State of Innocence through ancient Greece and Rome and medieval Europe and on through Abraham Lincoln, Clarence Darrow, and O. J. Simpson. On a more serious note, American Lawyers: Public Servants and the Development of a Nation follows the development of the United States from the Founding Fathers through the twentieth century, looking through the eyes of the lawyers who shaped the country as they were shaped by it. This book explores where our current laws come from, who played a role in creating them, and whether these laws serve our country and their purpose in the best way possible. The high drama of Civil War Lawyers takes place in the tense courtrooms of the Supreme Court during the Civil War, when individual lives hung in the balance as debates raged over great constitutional issues. Then as now, presidents struggled with the legality of their actions, including questions on habeas corpus and military commissions. One of the greatest orators of all time, as illustrated masterfully in Lincoln’s Counsel, Abraham Lincoln knew how to craft successful closing arguments. With his Gettysburg Address, perhaps the greatest closing argument in history, he also knew how to persuade a bitterly divided country to ultimately do what was right for all.
The lover of letters will be entertained and enlightened by Shakespeare for Lawyers, a trove of more than 100 funny, sharp, witty, sad, and instructional quotes pulled from Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets. The collection is assembled by a lawyer, for lawyers, complete with instructions on how the quotes might be used to good effect in courtrooms, mediations, and elsewhere. Readers will find not only the bard’s most famous sayings but also many that are lesser known yet resonate strongly through the prism of the legal profession. Garner on Language and Writing collects dozens of essays from an author renowned for his scholarship and wit. Bryan Garner’s discriminating pen astutely covers matters of style, persuasion, contractual and legislative drafting, grammar, and lexicography along with writing in law school, writing in law practice, judicial writing, and all the literature relating to these diverse subjects. Anyone with a lively interest in language, writing, and law will find this book hard to put aside.
The philosophers and the seekers in your tribe will find several books to ponder. Peering beneath the surface of routine transactions can often reveal the drama and angst of ordinary life, and as the author of The Art of Practicing Law reveals, it is in private meetings with clients and others, in behind-the-scenes events and personal reflections, that the emotional experiences of the legal profession come to the fore. The Art of Practicing Law is a treasure-house of one lawyer’s vignettes—70 brief, insightful essays about dealings with clients, interested parties, and even mere bystanders that reflect lessons of law and life. Lawyers as Peacemakers acknowledges the adversarial nature of the beast yet offers promising new ways to solve problems using a holistic, humanistic, solution-based approach that many clients want and need. Practicing Law in the Sharing Economy demonstrates that practicing transactional law can indeed help save the world. This book outlines the legal aspects of social enterprises, cooperatives, urban farms, cohousing communities, time banks, and local currencies, providing fodder for an interesting, creative, and fulfilling practice.
For readers inspired by leaders in their field, two titles come to mind. The ground-breaking book The Next IQ: The Next Level of Intelligence for 21st Century Leaders explores new ways of thinking about leadership and inclusion in the workplace. The Next IQ illustrates the transformation of leadership from being rooted in individual expertise to being formed from multiple and diverse perspectives. Learning from Law Firm Leaders distills the essential qualities of leadership culled from interviews of 31 leaders of firms of all sizes and types, all of whom discuss how they think, act, and make decisions in a competitive and difficult legal marketplace.
Recently minted lawyers wanting concrete advice about the complexities and demands of practicing law will enjoy Thrive: A New Lawyer’s Guide to Law Firm Practice. This is the right book for lawyers who want to know what their role is in a law firm from day one and who take their careers seriously, with direction and purpose. It’s also for lawyers who don’t want to be frustrated or overwhelmed by their career but rather awakened by it. And it’s for lawyers who want to become a leader in their law firm, practice area, or industry. And finally, whether novice or veteran, any fan of Mark Herrmann’s Curmudgeon’s Guide to Practicing Law will delight in his new book Inside Straight: Advice about Lawyering, In-House and Out, That Only the Internet Could Provide. A compendium of Herrmann’s twice-weekly columns in the Above the Law blog, Inside Straight combines the author’s wry insights and self-effacing humor with the vitriol of commenters and the irreverent wisdom of crowds to produce a fascinating and revealing book.
