Looking for a good book or two to dig into this summer? Now in its 12th year, the Stanford Law School faculty’s Summer Reading List offers up some of our professors’ favorite reads.
Evelyn Douek, Assistant Professor of Law, recommends Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
This year, I loved Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, a great summer read about friendship, love, life and…. game design. You definitely do not need to be a gamer to enjoy!
Richard Ford, George E. Osborne Professor of Law, recommends Sarah Bakewell’s At the Existentialist Cafe: Freedom Being and Apricot Cocktails and Humanly Possible
At the Existentialist Cafe is a lovely account of some of the most important philosophers of the 20th century: Husserl, Sartre, de Beauvoir, Camus, Merleau-Ponty, Arendt. Bakewell places some difficult texts in the context of history and of the individual lives of their authors. It makes the case both for and against the work of Heidegger, the German philosopher-turned-Nazi collaborator (despite his influence, “against” wins handily), explains the fraught relationship between Sartre and de Beauvoir and why both of them defended an increasingly vicious Soviet communism, even at the expense of their friendship with Camus and Merleau-Ponty. Plus: apricot cocktails. Mix up this one to accompany your reading: the Flor de Jerez: 1/2 oz rum, 1.5 oz Amontillado sherry, 1/4 oz apricot liqueur, 3/4 oz lemon juice, 1/2 sugar syrup, dash of Angostura bitters, shaken and served up. Close you eyes and you could be sitting at a rive gauche cafe.
After reading At the Existentialist Cafe I was excited to read Bakewell’s latest and I wasn’t disappointed. Here she explores “humanism”—a pretty broadly sketched set of ideas that begin in the Renaissance (or maybe even classical Greece) and carry on to the present day. Bakewell frames humanism as a vibrant, hopeful and, of course, humane worldview that embraces human flourishing, rationality and open-mindedness and opposes dogma, repression, and superstition. She touches on topics as diverse as Castiglione’s notion of sprezzatura, the cheerful atheism of David Hume, the searing prose and media savvy self-portraiture of Frederick Douglass and the utopian universalism of Esperanto. Bakewell makes a spirited and compelling defense of liberal humanism just in time to meet the many challenges it faces today from right-wing ethnographic-nationalism, religious zealotry, illiberal leftist dogma, and “post-humanist” defeatism. The only thing it’s missing is a cocktail. Might I suggest the highly cosmopolitan Last Word: equal parts Chartreuse (made by cloistered French monks), Maraschino (Italian), lime juice (the Americas) and London dry gin, shaken and served up.
Lawrence Friedman, Marion Rice Kirkwood Professor of Law, recommends Ed Larson’s American Inheritance: Liberty and Slavery in the Birth of a Nation, 1765-1795
For those who are historically minded, I recommend Ed Larson’s new book, American Inheritance, on the role of the slavery debate during the period of the revolution and the early Republic.
Robert Gordon, Professor of Law, Emeritus, recommends Brad Snyder’s Democratic Justice: Felix Frankfurter, the Supreme Court, and the Making of the Liberal Establishment and Michael Gruber’s Tropic of Night, Valley of Bones, and Night of the Jaguar
I can’t recommend too highly Georgetown law professor Brad Snyder’s massive (979 pp.) biography of Felix Frankfurter. In 1936 Fortune magazine called Frankfurter “the most influential single individual in the United States” because of his role as de facto personnel director for the New Deal. Snyder follows Frankfurter from his Austrian childhood through his youthful careers as a progressive pro-labor lawyer, scholar, and Roosevelt advisor to his long tenure as a Supreme Court justice. The book is written clearly and gracefully, and is generous and sympathetic to its subject, who could be very irritating at times, especially towards fellow justices. Writing Frankfurter’s life is a formidable task because he was a whirlwind of activity, churning out more letters and memos in a day than most even very busy other lawyers manage in a month. Frankfurter, who left his imprint on every facet of legal thought and legal action in the first half of the 20th century, finally has a fitting memorial.
I am not, as a rule, a fan of the supernatural, but Gruber’s trilogy of detective novels featuring Jimmy Paz, a Miami detective of Cuban extraction and son of a Santeria priestess, is fascinating and terrifying, enchantingly written, and makes magical happenings completely and chillingly plausible.
Mark Lemley, William H. Neukom Professor of Law, recommends Emily St. John Mandel’s Sea of Tranquility
Another stunner from the author of Station Eleven, this is a quick read but also a book that will stay with you. A beautiful parable about time and the interconnectedness of all things.
Lisa Larrimore Ouellette, Deane F. Johnson Professor of Law, recommends Vaishnavi Patel’s Kaikeyi, Colson Whitehead’s Harlem Shuffle, and Brad Snyder’s Democratic Justice: Felix Frankfurter, the Supreme Court, and the Making of the Liberal Establishment
I’ve read a number of feminist retellings of classic stories this year, mostly focused on Greek epics, but one of the most interesting was Vaishnavi Patel’s Kaikeyi, which reexamines the story of a wicked stepmother from the Ramayana. And it was only after I finished Kaikeyi that I realized the author is currently a law student!
I also loved Colson Whitehead’s Harlem Shuffle, a crime caper set in early 1960s Harlem, concluding with the Harlem riot of 1964. It was very different in style than either The Underground Railroad or The Nickel Boys (which were also fantastic) – more lighthearted, but still incisive.
Finally, one of my favorite nonfiction reads this year has been Brad Snyder’s Democratic Justice: Felix Frankfurter, the Supreme Court, and the Making of the Liberal Establishment. It’s both a well-researched biography of a man who was deeply involved in many notable episodes of 20th century U.S. history and an interesting argument for reappraising Frankfurter’s legacy as a Supreme Court justice, including his advocacy of judicial restraint.
A. Mitchell Polinsky, Josephine Scott Crocker Professor of Law and Economics, recommends Jonathan Franzen’s Crossroads and The Corrections
I had heard good things about Jonathan Franzen, but had not read any of his work until recently. My wife and I listened to the Audible reading of his latest book, Crossroads, and loved it. David Studdert said that The Corrections was even better, but we were skeptical that he could write something better than Crossroads. We loved The Corrections too, and would say it was a tie! Both books are about dysfunctional families and exude compassion and humor. I highly recommend them and they are great to listen to on Audible.
Robert Rabin, A. Calder Mackay Professor of Law, recommends Elena Ferrante’s The Lying Life of Adults
A complex, sharply written exploration of the world of a young adolescent enmeshed in the conflicts and pretentions of her extended family.
