Book Recommendations from Me (and My Colleagues)

Every holiday season, the University of Chicago Law School collects and shares book recommendations from the faculty. Here are three from me:

Klara and the Sun, by Kazuo Ishiguro: A first-person novel told from the point of view of a solar-powered Artificial Friend. It is hard to say much more about the plot without spoiling it or failing to render it as beautifully as Ishiguro does. The book begins with Klara sitting in a shop window, and the reader discovers the world through Klara's eyes, as she manages to explore, understand, and misunderstand it, and develops her own deep relationships, quests, and failures. Written in 2021, but perhaps even more timely today.

The President's Lawyer, by Lawrence Robbins: A page-turner of a novel about the intersection of criminal defense and Washington scandal. The main character is a career litigator whose childhood best friend, the former President of the United States, has been accused of murdering his mistress. Plot twists, personal entanglements, and several entertaining trial scenes ensue. The author (recently deceased) was himself an experienced DC litigator, from criminal trials to Supreme Court arguments, and co-founded his own law firm, Robbins, Russell, Englert, Orseck & Untereiner, where he was once my boss.

Law for Leviathan, by Daryl Levinson: How is constitutional law like international law? Both of them struggle with the fact that there are no international law police or constitutional law police who can directly apprehend and sanction law breakers. That is because they are law for states, and so they must figure out how to establish legal rules without simply relying on any one state to enforce them. This academic but readable book argues that this is possible, but requires a range of strategies outside of simply laying down the law and expecting it to be obeyed. One of the most refreshing books about constitutional law I have read in a while. [You can also hear a Divided Argument podcast discussion with Daryl about this book, Separation-of-Powers Police.]

Here's the whole list. I also recently read and enjoyed the Grover Cleveland biography, which is recommended by my colleague Todd Henderson.

Feel free to make your own nominations in the comments!