Faculty Suggested Readings

Rediscovering Lone Pine by Andrew Popper

This winner of the Maryland Writers Association Prize for Mainstream Fiction is a work of legal fiction designed for use in classrooms or law-school orientation programs. It is a story about being lost and then found. Shrouded in the disappearance mystery is a compelling story about lawyering and about deep affection and lifelong commitment between friends.

Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamontt

From the bestselling author of Operating Instructions and Bird by Bird comes a chronicle of faith and spirituality that is at once tough, personal, affectionate, wise and very funny.

Thinking Like a Writer: A Lawyer's Guide to Effective Writing and Editing by Stephen V. Armstrong and Timothy P. Terrell

Thinking Like a Writer gives you the specialized knowledge and techniques to draft clear and compelling legal documents no matter how complicated the issues involved.  It includes exercises, examples, and highlighted drafting do’s and don’ts to help you to develop a writing persona that’s credible, professional, and engaging.

The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins

Katniss is a 16-year-old girl living with her mother and younger sister in the poorest district of Panem, the remains of what used be the United States. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, "The Hunger Games." The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed. When Kat's sister is chosen by lottery, Kat steps up to go in her place. 

In Reckless Hands: Skinner v. Oklahoma and the Near-Triumph ofAmerican Eugenics by Virginia Nourse

In the 1920s and 1930s, thousands of men and women were sterilized at asylums and prisons across America. Believing that criminality and mental illness were inherited, state legislatures passed laws calling for the sterilization of “habitual criminals” and the “feebleminded.” But in 1936, inmates at Oklahoma’s McAlester prison refused to cooperate; a man named Jack Skinner was the first to come to trial.

Riding Rockets: The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut by Mike Mullane

In 1978, the first group of space shuttle astronauts was introduced to the world -- twenty-nine men and six women who would carry NASA through the most tumultuous years of the space shuttle program. Among them was USAF Colonel Mike Mullane, who, in his memoir Riding Rockets, strips the heroic veneer from the astronaut corps and paints them as they are -- human.

The Lawyer's Myth by Walter Bennett

Lawyers today are in a moral crisis. The popular perception of the lawyer, both within the legal community and beyond, is no longer the Abe Lincoln of American mythology, but is often a greedy, cynical manipulator of access and power. In The Lawyer's Myth, Walter Bennett goes beyond the caricatures to explore the deeper causes of why lawyers are losing their profession and what it will take to bring it back.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Lawyer Atticus Finch defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee's classic, Puliter Prize-winning novel—a black man charged with the rape of a white woman. Through the eyes of Atticus's children, Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with rich humor and unanswering honesty the irrationality of adult attitudes toward race and class in the Deep South of the 1930's.

The Last Lawyer: The Fights to Save Death Row Inmates by John Temple 

The Last Lawyer is the true, inside story of how an idealistic legal genius and his diverse band of investigators and fellow attorneys fought to overturn a client's final sentence. The Last Lawyer chronicles Ken Rose's decade-long defense of Bo Jones, a North Carolina farmhand convicted of a 1987 murder. The Jones case bares the thorniest issues surrounding capital punishment. Inadequate legal counsel, mental retardation, mental illness, and sketchy witness testimony stymied Jones's original defense.

Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-1963 by Taylor Branch

Hailed as the most masterful story ever told of the American civil rights movement, Parting the Waters is destined to endure for generations.Taylor Branch provides an unsurpassed portrait of King's rise to greatness and illuminates the stunning courage and private conflict, the deals, maneuvers, betrayals, and rivalries that determined history behind closed doors, at boycotts and sit-ins, on bloody freedom rides, and through siege and murder.

Leading Lives that Matter by Mark Schwehn and Dorothy Bass

Leading Lives That Matter draws together a wide range of texts - including fiction, autobiography, and philosophy - offering challenge and insight to those who are thinking about what to do with their lives.

Storming the Court: How a Band of Yale Law Students Sued the President -- and Won by Brandt Goldstein

A tale more riveting than fiction, "Storming the Court" is the true story of idealistic law students who challenged the United States government in 1992 in a battle for freedom and human rights that went all the way to the Supreme Court -- and resonates today more than ever.

Getting to Maybe: How to Excel on Law School Exams by Richard Michael Fischl and Jeremy Paul

The book begins by describing the difference between educational cultures that praise students for 'right answers,' and the law school culture that rewards nuanced analysis of ambiguous situations in which more than one approach may be correct. Enormous care is devoted to explaining precisely how and why legal analysis frequently produces such perplexing situations.The book contains hints on studying and preparation that go well beyond conventional advice.

The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander

In this incisive critique, former litigator-turned-legal-scholar Michelle Alexander provocatively argues that we have not ended racial caste in America: we have simply redesigned it. Alexander shows that, by targeting black men and decimating communities of color, the U.S. criminal justice system functions as a contemporary system of racial control, even as it formally adheres to the principle of color blindness. The New Jim Crow challenges the civil rights community - and all of us - to place mass incarceration at the forefront of a new movement for racial justice in America.

America's Constitution: A Biography by Akhil Reed Amar

In America’s Constitution, one of this era’s most accomplished constitutional law scholars, Akhil Reed Amar, gives the first comprehensive account of one of the world’s great political texts. Incisive, entertaining, and occasionally controversial, this “biography” of America’s framing document explains not only what the Constitution says but also why the Constitution says it.

Law and Judicial Duty by Philip Hamburger

Philip Hamburger's "Law and Judicial Duty" traces the early history of what is today called "judicial review." Working from previously unexplored evidence, Hamburger questions the very concept of judicial review. Although decisions holding statutes unconstitutional are these days considered instances of a distinct judicial power of review, Hamburger shows that they were once understood merely as instances of a broader judicial duty.

Woodrow Wilson and the Roots of Modern Liberalism by Ronald Pestritto

Woodrow Wilson is best known for his service as the twenty-eighth president of the United States and his influence on American foreign policy in the twentieth century and beyond. Yet Wilson is equally important for his influence on how Americans think about their Constitution and principles of government. Woodrow Wilson and the Roots of Modern Liberalism highlights Wilson's sharp departure from the traditional principles of American government, most notably the Constitution. 

John Adams by David McCullough

In this powerful, epic biography, David McCullough unfolds the adventurous life-journey of John Adams, the brilliant, fiercely independent, often irascible, always honest Yankee patriot -- "the colossus of independence," as Thomas Jefferson called him -- who spared nothing in his zeal for the American Revolution; who rose to become the second President of the United States and saved the country from blundering into an unnecessary war; and whose marriage to the wise and valiant Abigail Adams is one of the moving love stories in American history.

Truman by David McCullough

The life of Harry S. Truman is one of the greatest of American stories, filled with vivid characters -- Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin, Eleanor Roosevelt, Bess Wallace Truman, George Marshall, Joe McCarthy, and Dean Acheson -- and dramatic events. In this riveting biography, acclaimed historian David McCullough not only captures the man -- a more complex, informed, and determined man than ever before imagined -- but also the turbulent times in which he rose, boldly, to meet unprecedented challenges.

Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

In 1941 England, when all hope was threatened by the inhumanity of war, C. S. Lewis was invited to give a series of radio lectures addressing the central issues of Christianity. More than half a century later, these talks continue to retain their poignancy. This twentieth century masterpiece provides an unequaled opportunity for believers and nonbelievers alike to hear a powerful, rational case for the Christian faith.

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

In this humorous and perceptive exchange between two devils, C. S. Lewis delves into moral questions about good vs. evil, temptation, repentance, and grace. Through this wonderful tale, the reader emerges with a better understanding of what it means to live a faithful life.

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas

Falsely accused of treason, the young sailor Edmond Dantes is arrested on his wedding day and imprisoned in the island fortress of the Château d'If. Having endured years of incarceration, he stages a daring and dramatic escape and sets out to discover the fabulous treasure of Monte Cristo, and to catch up with his enemies.

Titan: The Life of John D. Rockerfeller by Ron Chernow

In this endlessly engrossing book, National Book Award-winning biographer Ron Chernow devotes his penetrating powers of scholarship and insight to the Jekyll and Hyde of American capitalism. In the course of his nearly 98 years, John D. Rockefeller, Sr., was known as both a rapacious robber baron, whose Standard Oil Company rode roughshod over an industry, and a philanthropist who donated money lavishly to universities and medical centers. He was the terror of his competitors, the bogeyman of reformers, the delight of caricaturists--and an utter enigma.

The Citadel by A.J. Cronin

The Citadel was first published in 1937, and was groundbreaking with its treatment of the contentious theme of medical ethics. It is credited with laying the foundation in Great Britain for the introduction of the NHS a decade later.