Education
SLS Faculty Holiday Reading Suggestions
Looking for holiday reading suggestions? Stanford Law School faculty weigh in on their favorite books from 2012.
Havana Requiem by Paul Goldstein
"Havana Requiem: A Legal Thriller by our own Paul Goldstein. A tour de force of a crime novel. As always in his legal thrillers, Paul makes patent law interesting, suspenseful, and understandable -- even sexy. And in this novel he adds a richly-observed portrait of present-day Cuba, including the best way to peel a banana."
- Janet Cooper Alexander
Frederick I. Richman Professor of Law
Havana RequiemFueled by alcohol and legal brilliance, Michael Seeley once oversaw his law firm's most successful litigation. Until it all fell apart. R...One Summer in Arkansas by Marcia Kemp Sterling
"With even-handed empathy and great skill, Sterling shows us one culture straining under the weight of its history and another one reinventing itself at land's end in California. A fascinating read with unforgettable characters. What is not to like about a book set in Arkansas and Silicon Valley?"
- Barbara Babcock
Judge John Crown Professor of Law, Emerita
Marcia Kemp Sterling, Author of One Summer in ArkansasMarcia Kemp Sterling's debut novel, One Summer in Arkansas, is a story of love and loss, race and religion, crisis and survival, set in t...The Long Divergence: How Islamic Law Held Back the Middle East by Timur Kuran
"In The Long Divergence, Duke professor Timur Kuran weaves a truly spell-binding account of how Islamic business law, and in particular, Islamic partnership law, undermined the accumulation of wealth in the Muslim world at precisely the same time that European business law brought on the wealth that made possible the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution."The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves by Matt Ridley
"In The Rational Optimist, evolutionary biologist Matt Ridley crafts an impenetrable argument as to why environmental pessimists and alarmists are misguided and irrational, and why a prosperous and happy human future is inevitably tied to fossil fuels and the resource-conserving nature of functioning markets."The Invention of Law in the West by Aldo Schiavone
"The Invention of Law in the West could perhaps be renamed "The Gift of the Romans." In it, renowned classicist Aldo Schiavone demonstrates why what we think of as "modern law" was actually a creation of Roman political science and practical necessity, and made possible the Roman Empire and the world we have today."
- G. Marcus Cole
Wm. Benjamin Scott and Luna M. Scott Professor of Law
The Long Divergence: How Islamic Law Held Back the Middle EastPublisher Princeton University Press This is a book to be not just tasted but chewed and digested. Instead of facile claims that Islam is...
'The Rational Optimist': Review"In other classes of animals, the individual advances from infancy to age of maturity; and he attains, in the compass of a single life, t...- Wildy & Sons Ltd - The World's Legal Bookshop : The Invention of Law in the WestPublisher: Harvard University Press Country of Publication: USA Law is a specific form of social regulation that is distinct from religio...
The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 4 by Robert Caro
"In describing how LBJ seized the reins of power after JFK's assassination, Caro delivers a masterful account of the interplay of politics, principle, history, and personality shaping the legislative process."
- Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar
Stanley Morrison Professor of Law
Book review: 'The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Passage of Power' by Robert CaroThe author has written his best installment in his biographical series. He captures LBJ as a frustrated vice president and in his sudden ...How Will You Measure Your Life? by Clayton M. Christensen, James Allsworth and Karen Dillon
- Rob Daines
The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt
Pritzker Professor of Law and Business
How Will You Measure Your Life?Ch 2 What Makes us Tick Hygiene factors vs Motivation Factors Motivation Factors are challenging work, recognition, responsibility, and p...
'The Swerve - How the World Became Modern,' by Stephen GreenblattSep 27, 2011 ... Stephen Greenblatt examines the lasting influence of Lucretius' poem “On the Nature of Things” (“De Rerum Natura”).1861: The Civil War Awakening by Adam Goodheart
- Michele Dauber
Professor of Law and Bernard D. Bergreen Faculty Scholar
1861In time for the 150th anniversary of our defining national event: an original and altogether gripping account of how the Civil War began....Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver
"Barbara Kingsolver’s Flight Behavior (2012), which boldly illustrates the impact of climate change, while artfully capturing life in Appalachia."
- Nora Freeman Engstrom
Associate Professor of Law
Flight BehaviorSet in a small town in Tennessee, about a young woman who happens upon a forested valley filled with silent red fire, and whose attempt t...Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
"My favorite this year has been Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. Insights and nuggets of wisdom on every page about the way people make decisions. Extremely useful for lawyering and for life in general."
- Jeffrey L. Fisher
Professor of Law and Co-Director, Supreme Court Litigation Clinic
Thinking, Fast and Slow - By Daniel Kahneman - Book ReviewHuman irrationality is Kahneman's great theme. There are essentially three phases to his career. In the first, he and Tversky did a serie...The Map and the Territory by Michel Houellebecq
"By turns, sly, perverse, ironic, poignant, radical, reactionary, France's iconoclastic poet and novelist offers a meditation on the crass commercialization of high art, national culture and the pastoral; the sublime beauty of mass production; sex, love and heartbreak; old age and death and a mystery involving the brutal murder of a celebrated and reviled poet and novelist named Michel Houellebecq."Public Enemies by Bernard-Henri Lévy and Michel Houellebecq
"A series of correspondences between the charismatic, self promoting philosopher and champion of human rights and democracy and the reclusive, misanthropic, nihilistic poet and novelist. For insight into the state of intellectual life in a nation that actually cares about the state of its intellectual life."The Age of Doubt by Andrea Camilleri
"Neurotic gourmand and reluctant ladies man Detective Montalbano may be the most endearing fictional sleuth since Phillip Marlowe. Camilleri's Sicily is so subtly and yet vividly drawn that you'd want to book a flight and head straight to Enzo's Trattoria but for fear you'd be shot or kidnapped on the way from the airport."The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
"You might have heard there's a movie version coming out but much of charm of this book is in Tolkien's descriptions. You've read it a dozen times already? Try reading it to a child."
-Richard Thompson Ford
George E. Osborne Professor of Law
'The Map and the Territory': reviewThe Map and the TerritoryBy Michel Houellebecq; translated from the French by Gavin Bowd(Alfred A. Knopf; 269 pages; $26.95)About a quart...
