Law Faculty Members Share Summer Reading Picks

Looking for a good book to read on vacation and before classes begin?

Here are a few suggestions from faculty members and alumni at the University of Virginia School of Law.

Check it out.

Darryl K. Brown

O. M. Vicars Professor of Law, Barron F. Black Research Professor of Law, UVA Law 1990 graduate.

I recently read the Edgar Prize-winning novel “Bearskin” by Jim McLaughlin, a native of Virginia (where the novel is set) and UVA Law Class of 1990 alumnus.

I’m midway through Emily Bazelon’s excellent new book, “Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration,” an insightful investigation into the U.S. criminal justice system with a focus on reform-minded prosecutors who are trying to change law enforcement practice with more humane, less-draconian policies.

Jonathan Cannon

Blaine T. Phillips Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law; Hunton & Williams Professor of Law; Director, Environmental and Land Use Law Program

“The Overstory,” by Richard Powers. 

Deborah Hellman

David Lurton Massee Jr. Professor of Law, Roy L. and Rosamond Woodruff Morgan Professor of Law

“American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey Into the Business of Punishment,” by Shane Bauer and “Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy,” by Cathy O’Neil. 

Cale Jaffe

Assistant Professor of Law, General Faculty; Director, Environmental and Regulatory Law Clinic; UVA Law 2001 graduate

For summer reading I would highly recommend “Autumn,” by Ali Smith. It came out in 2016 and, as a work of fiction set in England, does an incredible job of capturing the challenges of the current political moment (Brexit is prominent in the background of the story). It is also beautifully told with quiet and uncommonly good characters.

Annie Kim

Assistant Dean for Public Service; Director, Mortimer Caplin Public Service Center; UVA Law 1999 graduate

The main thing I’m reading is the English translation of Miguel de Unamuno’s “The Tragic Sense of Life,” written in 1913 – a brilliant, personal, uneven, passionate, philosophical “treatise” about the difficulty of being human. The contradictions of faith, the hunger for immortality, inevitable conflicts between the heart and reason.

Douglas Laycock

Robert E. Scott Distinguished Professor of Law, Professor of Religious Studies

“How Democracies Die,” by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, and the [Robert] Mueller report.

Dayna Bowen Matthew

William L. Matheson and Robert M. Morgenthau Distinguished Professor of Law, F. Palmer Weber Research Professor of Civil Liberties and Human Rights, Professor of Public Health Sciences, UVA Law 1986 graduate

“Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America’s Heartland,” by Jonathan M. Metzl.

“Democracy in America,” by Alexis de Tocqueville.

“Remaking America: Democracy and Public Policy in an Age of Inequality,” by Joe Soss.

“Democracy Matters: Winning the Fight Against Imperialism,” by Cornel West.

“Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America,” by Ibram X. Kendi.

“Chokehold: Policing Black Men,” by Paul Butler.

“Policing the Black Man: Arrest, Prosecution, and Imprisonment,” edited by Angela Davis.

“The Nightingale,” by Kristin Hannah. 

Mildred W. Robinson

Henry L. and Grace Doherty Charitable Foundation Professor of Law

“Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom,” by David W. Blight.

Micah Schwartzman

Joseph W. Dorn Research Professor of Law;Director, Karsh Center for Law and Democracy; UVA Law 2005 graduate

“The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free Markets Since the Depression,” by Angus Burgin, and “Constantine’s Sword: The Church and the Jews, A History,” by James Carroll.

Paul B. Stephan

John C. Jeffries Jr. Distinguished Professor of Law, John V. Ray Research Professor of Law, UVA Law 1977 graduate

I am reading Roy Jenkins’ biography of Winston Churchill, called “Churchill: A Biography.” A wonderful book by a person who knew quite a bit about English politics himself. Far superior to the recently published Andrew Roberts book on the same subject, which is verbose and petty. I also enjoyed Peter Frankopan’s “The Silk Roads: A New History of the World,” not to be confused with Frankopan’s new book with a similar title.

The 2015 work provides an excellent introduction to the history of the world that concentrates on the area between Constantinople/Istanbul and Beijing, a space of great interest about which too many Americans know too little. The last chapter is disappointingly conventional, but the rest is a tour de force.

GoodReads

Find more suggestions for reading — including books by faculty and alumni — on UVA Law’s GoodReads page.