BW26: halfway there!

Can you believe we are halfway through the year already?  Amazing.  I am going to round out our Judicious June celebration with some legal non fiction. Once upon a time, I wanted to be a paralegal which lead to some interesting reading on ethics and law.  Heady stuff, always interesting to read, although a bit scary at times.  My studies lead me away from the legal field, however it taught to me always dig deeper and never forget to read the fine print.   Followed a few rabbit trails this week and discovered a few interesting non fiction books read by our chief justices and highlighted on the SCOTUS Blog book review.


Check out Ronald Collins book column on new and forthcoming books which is chock full of current and historical novels.

Nixon's Court

I've stumbled across quite a few fiction authors who were lawyers once upon a time and wrote about their experiences including Scott Turow on his first year in law school.

Then we have suggested reading lists for prospective and current law students which include the ever popular To Kill a Mockingbird along with Scott Turow's One L mentioned above as well as legal writing books, jurisprudence, historical and biographical.  Yes, your wishlists are going to just get bigger as you peruse these selections.  Have fun following a few rabbit trails.

***********************************************************

History of the Medieval World

 Chapter 30 The Heavenly Sovereign pp 215 - 222 

***********************************************************

Link to your most current read. Please link to your specific book review post and not your general blog link. In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field leave a link to your specific post. If you have multiple reviews, then type in (multi) after your name and link to your general blog url. 

BW25: Summer is here!

Happy Summer!

Welcome to Summer and happy Father's day to all our dads.  I love Ella Fitzgerald and just had to share her rendition of Summertime.  Enjoy! 

Summer is a time to be lazy, rest and relax. Enjoy the beach, take a hike along the water or along a forest trail.  Maybe hit the road and explore or perhaps fly somewhere special with your special someones.  Or, we can just stay home and curl up with a good book or two or three.   I've had a couple weeks of my kid's summer lazies and already working up some summer lessons to keep us all from going crazy.  

So my task for you this week is to pick out one word that represents summer, get out your rusty, trusty thesaurus for a synonym and see if you can find a book in your stacks to match.  Have fun! 

*******************************************************************

History of the Medieval World - Chapter 29 Pestilence pp 203 - 214

********************************************************************

Link to your most current read. Please link to your specific book review post and not your general blog link. In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field leave a link to your specific post. If you have multiple reviews, then type in (multi) after your name and link to your general blog url.

BW24: Bookish Birthdays and what not!

It's been a while for bookish birthdays and book news, so here we go:

June 13:  William Butler Yeats - Irish poet and Dorothy L. Sayers - mystery novelist

June 14:  Harriet Beecher Stowe - best known for Uncle Tom's Cabin and John Bartlett - Editor and best known for his Bartlett Quotations

June 15:  Brian Jacques - Redwall series

June 16: John Howard Griffin - author of Black like me and Joyce Carol Oates - American Author

June 17:  Everhardus Johannes Potgieter - Dutch Poet and Henry Lawson - Australian Poet

June 18:  Chris Van Allsburg - children story writer and Phillip Barry -  best known for Philadelphia Story.

June 19:  Blaise Pascal - French philosopher and Thomas Buchan - Scottish Poet

June 20:  Vikram Seth - Indian novelist and  William Chestnut - African American Folklore



Flavorwire - 50 Essential Mystery Novels that Everyone Should Read

Addictive Books - Top 100 Thrillers of All Time

Worlds Best Detective and Murder Mystery Books

Mystery Novels from Around the World

Have fun following rabbit trails and adding to your wishlists! 

*******************************************************************

History of the Medieval World 

Chapter 28 Great and Holy Majesty pp 193 - 202 

********************************************************************

Link to your most current read. Please link to your specific book review post and not your general blog link. In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field leave a link to your specific post. If you have multiple reviews, then type in (multi) after your name and link to your general blog url.

BW23: Legal Thrillers by Brad Meltzer

The Tenth Justice

You know how they say a writer's first novel isn't always the best.  Whoever they are, aren't always right. I'm a huge fan of thrillers ones that get your heart pounding, fingernail nibbling, break out in cold sweats action type of stories.  From John Grishman to Lisa Scottoline to Jeffrey Deaver to Dan Brown (hush now) to Dean Koontz and all those in between.   A few years back I picked up Brad Meltzer's first novel The Tenth Justice and it totally blew me away.  I couldn't put it down. 

Synopsis:  Twenty-six-year-old Columbia Law grad Brad Meltzer makes a firecracker debut with a novel that will challenge your expectations of the legal thriller. With dialogue as true as it is sharp-witted, characters as likable as they are familiar, and a plot so addictive it will keep you reading into the night, The Tenth Justice is the one thriller you and your friends won’t be able to stop talking about this year—from an undeniably original writer you’ll be following for years to come.

Fresh from Yale Law, Ben Addison is a new clerk for one of the Supreme Court’s most respected justices. Along with his co-clerk, Lisa, Ben represents the best of the fledging legal community: sharp, perfectionistic, and painstakingly conscientious—but just as green. So when he inadvertently reveals the confidential outcome of an upcoming Court decision, and one of the parties to the case makes millions, Ben starts to sweat. Big time.

Ben confides in Lisa and turns to his D.C. housemates for help. They offer up their coveted insiders’ access—Nathan works at the State Department, Eric reports for a Washington daily, and Ober is an assistant to a leading senator—to help outsnake the blackmailer who holds Ben’s once-golden future hostage. But it’s not long before these inseparable pals discover how dangerous their misuse of power can be, even when accompanied by the very best of intentions. And when a suspicious leak develops from within their own circle, Ben and his friends find themselves pitted against each other in a battle of shifting alliances and fierce deceptions that strikes to the weaknesses in their friendships, threatens to ruin their careers—and ultimately may cost them their lives.

Which then lead me to The Millionaires

The Millionaires

It started as the perfect crime. Then it took a turn for the worse.

Charlie and Oliver Caruso are brothers who work at Greene & Greene, a private bank so exclusive you need two million dollars just to be a client. But when the door of success slams in their faces, they’re faced with an offer they can’t refuse: three million dollars in an abandoned account. No one knows it exists, and even better, it doesn’t belong to anyone.

It’s a foolproof crime. More importantly, for Charlie and Oliver, it’s a way out of debt and the key to a new life. All they have to do is take the money.

But when they do, they discover they’ve got a lot more on their hands than the prize. Before they can blink, a friend is dead—and the bank, the Secret Service, and a female private investigator are suddenly closing in. What invisible strings were attached to that account? How are they going to prove they’re innocent? And why is the Secret Service trying to kill them? Trapped in a breakneck race to stay alive, Charlie and Oliver are about to discover a secret that will test their trust and forever change their lives.

Which of course then lead to The Zero Game:

Zero Game

Matthew Mercer and Harris Sandler are playing a mysterious game. It’s a game almost no one knows about—not their friends, not their co-workers, and certainly not their bosses, who are some of the most powerful Senators and Congressmen on Capitol Hill.

It’s a game that has everything: risk, reward, mystery, and the thrill of knowing that—just by being invited to play—you’ve confirmed your status as a true power broker in Washington.

But as Matthew and Harris quickly discover, the Zero Game is hiding a secret so explosive, it will shake Washington to its core. And when one player turns up dead, a dedicated young staffer will find himself relying on a tough, idealistic seventeen-year-old Senate page to help keep him alive…as he plays the Zero Game to its heart-pounding end.

  So, if you love thrillers and books about law and lawyers and judges, be sure to check out Brad Meltzer. In addition to writing books (including nonfiction, children and comic books), he also hosts Lost History on H2 and Decoded on the History channel.

*************************************************************

History of the Medieval World

Chapter 26 - Invasion and Eruption pp 180 - 185 

Chapter 27 - The Americas pp 186 - 192 

*************************************************************

Link to your most current read. Please link to your specific book review post and not your general blog link. In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field leave a link to your specific post. If you have multiple reviews, then type in (multi) after your name and link to your general blog url.