Recommendations

Dean Lee Fisher of Cleveland-Marshall College of Law adds Michael Feuer’s books to school recommend reading list.

May 29, 2018

“I guess there are never enough books.” ―John Steinbeck

Last Monday, I asked for your recommendations for a summer reading list for our students. It has become much more than a summer reading list- it’s more like a year-long reading list!

Below are the recommendations I received last week as well as my own recommendations. I also have included books that have been recommended to me by professors, deans, judges, lawyers, and friends in recent years. I have listed them under the following categories:

  • Legal Career/ Profession
  • Legal System/ Social Change
  • Leadership/ Decision-Making
  • Great Reads

 This is a reminder to download the app Libby created by OverDrive. Libby enables you to borrow digital and audiobooks from public libraries instantly for free.

Legal Career/ Profession

  • Great on the Job –Jodi Glickman (Sarah Beznoska, Assistant Director, Career Planning)
  • Soft Skills for the Effective Lawyer – Randall Kiser (Dean Lee Fisher)
  • Letters to a Young Lawyer– Alan Dershowitz
  • 24 Hours with 24 Lawyers: Profiles of Traditional and Non-Traditional Careers – Jasper Kim
  • The Happy Lawyer: Making a Good Life in the Law –Nancy Levit and Douglas O. Linder
  • Lawyers as Counselors –David Binder, Paul Bergman and Susan Price
  • Full Disclosure: The New Lawyer’s Must-Read Career Guide – Christen Civiletto Carey
  • The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Practicing Law – Mark Herrmann
  • Swimming Lessons for Baby Sharks: The Essential Guide for Thriving as a New Lawyer – Grover E. Cleveland
  • The Official Guide to Legal Specialties – Lisa Abrams
  • What Can You Do With a Law Degree? A Lawyer’s Guide to Career Alternatives Inside, Outside, and Around the Law – Deborah Arron

Legal System/ Social Change

  • Just Mercy –Bryan Stevenson  (Professor Carolyn Broering-Jacobs; Sarah Beznoska, Assistant Director of Career Planning)
  • The New Jim Crow – Michelle Alexander (Billy Killmeyer ’20)
  • Gideon’s Trumpet –Anthony Lewis (Vince Lombardo ’81)
  • Make No Law – Anthony Lewis  (Vince Lombardo ’81)
  • Arc of Justice -Kevin Boyle  (Professor Ken Kowalski)
  • Hamilton –Ron Chernow  (Tim Collins ’85 ; Jim Pender)
  • American Revolutions – Alan Taylor  (Tim Collins ‘85)
  • Washington: A Life– Ron Chernow (Jim Pender)
  • The Addicted Lawyer: Tales of the Bar, Booze, Blow and Redemption -Brian Cuban (Professor Browne Lewis)
  • Behold the Dreamers – Imbolo Mbue (Professor Browne Lewis)
  • Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI -David Grann (Professor Emeritus Lloyd Snyder)
  • To Kill a Mockingbird– Harper Lee  (Dean Lee Fisher)
  • The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels – Jon Meacham (Dean Lee Fisher)
  • Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City – Matthew Desmond  (Dean Lee Fisher)
  • The Gentleman from Ohio – Congressman Louis Stokes (Dean Lee Fisher)
  • Answering the Call – Judge Nathaniel R. Jones (Dean Lee Fisher)
  • Ballots and Bullets: Black Power Politics and Urban Guerrilla Warfare in 1968 Cleveland – James Robenalt  (Dean Lee Fisher)
  • Tailspin– Steven Brill  (Dean Lee Fisher)
  • The Bramble Bush – Karl N. Llewellyn (Dean Lee Fisher)
  • The Final Days– Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein (Dean Lee Fisher)
  • Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? –Michael Sandel (Dean Fisher)
  • The Color of Law –Richard Rothstein  (Dean Lee Fisher)
  • A Time to Kill – John Grisham (Philip Ridolphi)
  • An Innocent Man -John Grisham
  • Law 101: Everything You Need to Know about the American Legal System – Jay M. Feinman
  • Tomorrow’s Lawyers: An Introduction to Your Future -Richard Susskind
  • Actual Innocence: When Justice Goes Wrong and How to Make it Right – Barry Scheck, Jim Dwyer, and Peter Neufeld
  • The Buffalo Creek Disaster: How the Survivors of One of the Worst Disasters in Coal- Mining History Brought Suit Against the Coal Company-and Won – Gerald Stern
  • The Courage of Their Convictions: Sixteen Americans Who Fought Their Way to the Supreme Court –Peter Irons
  • The Law and Harry Potter – Jeffrey E. Thomas and Franklin G. Snyder
  • The Nine –Jeffrey Toobin
  • A Question of Choice –Sarah Weddington
  • A People’s History of the Supreme Court –Peter Irons
  • When Law Goes Pop: The Vanishing Line Between Law and Popular Culture -Richard K. Sherwin
  • Becoming Justice Blackmun -Linda Greenhouse
  • A Civil Action -Jonathan Harr
  • Damages -Barry Werth
  • In Cold Blood – Truman Capote
  • Simple Justice – Richard Kluger

Leadership/ Decision-Making

  • Thinking Fast and Slow– Daniel Kahneman (Judge James S. Gwin)
  • The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups – Daniel Coyle  (Jason Bristol ’00)
  • Getting to Yes -Roger Fisher and William Ury (Alan Jay Rom ‘72)
  • Getting Together: Building a Relationship that Gets to Yes -Roger Fisher and Scott Brown  (Alan Jay Rom ‘72)
  • Designing Your Life –Bill Burnett and Dave Evans (Sarah Beznoska, Assistant Director, Career Planning)
  • Grit -Angela Duckworth  (Sarah Beznoska, Assistant Director, Career Planning)
  • David and Goliath – Malcom Gladwell  (Daniel R. Mordarski ‘94)
  • When Breath Becomes Air –Paul Kalanithi and Abraham Verghe (Sarah Beznoska, Assistant Director, Career Planning)
  • Defending Jacob -William Landay (Leigh Prugh)
  • Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs –John Doerr (Dean Lee Fisher)
  • The Bureaucratic Entrepreneur – Richard Haass (Dean Lee Fisher)
  • Nudge– Richard Thaler and Cass Sundheim (Dean Lee Fisher)
  • The Best and Brightest – David Halberstam (Dean Lee Fisher)
  • Lead Yourself First – Judge Raymond Kethledge and Michael Erwin  (Dean Lee Fisher)
  • Lawyers as Leaders – Deborah Rhode  (Dean Lee Fisher)
  • I Thought It Was Just Me (But It Isn’t): Making the Journey from “What Will People Think” to “I Am Enough.” – Brené Brown (Dean Lee Fisher)
  • Start With Why; How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action – Simon Sinek (Dean Lee Fisher)
  • The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – Stephen Covey (Dean Fisher)
  • When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing– Daniel Pink (Dean Fisher)
  • Who Moved My Cheese? -Dr. Spencer Johnson (Dean Fisher)
  • Good to Great– Jim Collins – (Dean Fisher)
  • The Benevolent Dictator- Michael Feuer (Dean Lee Fisher)
  • Tips from the Top – Michael Feuer (Dean Lee Fisher)
  • Can I Have 5 minutes of Your Time? – Hal Becker (Dean Lee Fisher)
  • The Leader’s Guide to 21st Century Education – Ken Kay and Valerie Greenhill (Dean Lee Fisher)
  • Unleash the Power of Storytelling – Rob Biesenbach (Dean Lee Fisher)

Great Reads

  • The Immortal Life -Henrietta Lacks (Professor Pamela Daiker-Middaugh)
  • In the Time of the Butterflies – Julia Álvarez (Vanessa Gomez, incoming 1L)
  • The Quotable Mark Twain -R. Kent Rasmussen (Alan Jay Rom ’72)
  • The Essential Groucho -Stefan Kanfer  (Alana Jay Rom ‘72)
  • The Sellout -Paul Beatty  (Alan Jay Rom ‘72)
  • A Man Called Ove – Fredrick Backman  (Professor Carolyn Broering- Jacobs)
  • Britt-Marie Was Here – Fredrick Backman (Professor Carolyn Broering-Jacobs)
  • Fahrenheit 451– Ray Bradbury  (Jim McSherry ’86; Colette M Emerson, Secretary)
  • What Made Maddy Run -Kate Fagan  (Daniel R. Mordarski ‘94)
  • You Are Not So Smart -David McRaney  (Daniel R. Mordarski ‘94)
  • Freakonomics -Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner  (Daniel R. Mordarski ‘94)
  • Predictably Irrational – Dan Ariely  (Daniel R. Mordarski ‘94)
  • Wench – Dolen Perkins-Valdez  (Amy Burchfield, Head of Library Research & Instructional Services)
  • Little Fires Everywhere – Celeste Ng (Sarah Beznoska, Assistant Director, Career Planning)
  • Things Fall Apart – Chinua Achebe (Maria Levanoff ‘19)
  • The Kitchen God’s Wife – Amy Tan (Maria Levanoff ‘19)
  • The Lioness Quartet – Tamora Pierce (Maria Levanoff ‘19)
  • The Old Kingdom Trilogy – Garth Nix  (Maria Levanoff ‘19)
  • The Dragonlance Chronicles – Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman (Maria Levanoff ‘19)
  • Unbelievable: My Front-Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in American History – Katy Tur (Matt Wagner ’20)
  • War on Peace: The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence -Ronan Farrow (Matt Wagner ’20)
  • Cry, the Beloved Country– Alan Paton (Adjunct Professor David Weiner)
  • Too Late the Phalarope– Alan Paton  (Adjunct Professor David Weiner)
  • Lawrence in Arabia – Scott Anderson  (Adjunct Professor David Weiner)
  • Beloved -Toni Morrison (Louise Mooney, Ret. Communications Manager)
  • Underground Railroad -Colson Whitehead  (Louise Mooney, Ret. Communications Manager)
  • Light in August – William Faulkner (Louise Mooney, Ret. Communications Manager)
  • The Hobbit -J.R.R. Tolkien  (Joseph Pritchard)
  • The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian -Sherman Alexie (Damion Burgin)
  • The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald (Philip Ridolphi)
  • A Beast No More: Emerging from the Middle State – Phyllis Magold (Dean Lee Fisher)
  • A World in Disarray – Richard Haass – (Dean Lee Fisher)
  • Hillbilly Elegy – J.D. Vance  (Dean Lee Fisher)

 Thanks.

Have a great week.

For copies of past messages, please go to this link: Monday Morning Messages.  Note: When a Monday falls on a holiday, I send the Message on Tuesday Morning.

My views in all my Monday Morning Messages are my personal views alone and do not reflect the views of our law school or our university.

My best,

Lee

Lee Fisher

Dean and Joseph C. Hostetler-BakerHostetler Chair in Law

Cleveland-Marshall College of Law

Cleveland State University

 

2121 Euclid Avenue, LB 138
Cleveland, Ohio 44115 -2214
216-687-2300

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