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The cover story of the ABA Journal for August has some good news for three Los Angeles authors. Their books were named by one of the 30 American lawyers who were asked to recommend one book that other lawyers should read. The cited authors included the likes of Clarence Darrow, Louis Nizer and Ralph Ellison. The local trio:
"And the Dead Shall Rise: The Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank" by Steve Oney:
"With astonishing historical detective work spanning decades, we learn who was in the lynch mob, how the lynching was organized and carried out, and why the cover-up was successful so long.” - David E. Kendall, lawyer for Bill Clinton, the Motion Picture Association of America and the Washington Post, and now a partner at Williams & Connolly in Washington.
"Justice for All: Earl Warren and the Nation He Made" by Jim Newton:
"It’s the best judicial biography that I have ever read.” - Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the UC Irvine School of Law.
"Colossus: Hoover Dam and the Making of the American Century" by Michael Hiltzik:
“Colossus is an incredible saga of the politics and practical obstacles encountered in one of the greatest engineering feats in our history.” - Donald B. Ayer, former deputy attorney general in the George H.W. Bush administration, now a partner at Jones Day in Washington.
Also named: "My Personal Best: Life Lessons from an All-American Journey" by the late John Wooden with Steve Jamison, recommended by Beverly Hills sole practitioner Jay Foonberg: "He [Wooden] was a great influence on me, and his advice for living as found in his ‘Pyramid of Success’ would be of great value to any person at any time.” Eugene Volokh, the UCLA constitutional law scholar and blogger at The Volokh Conspiracy, Judge Kim McLayne Wardlaw and lawyer Gloria Allred also gave book recommendations.
Media types: Dahlia Lithwick, the contributing editor at Newsweek and senior editor for Slate, went with "One L: The Turbulent True Story of a First Year at Harvard Law School" by Scott Turow. And noted: Newton and Hiltzik are both on staff at the Los Angeles Times. Oney is working on a book about NPR.