Read anything good recently? The BBA hopes you’ll pick up Boston and the Civil War: Hub of the Second Revolution and come to our talk by author Barbara Berenson on April 9 for an inside look at her writing process and Boston’s role in the Civil War.
With this in mind, BBA Week reached out and asked:
“What book is at the top of your reading list to pick up next?”
Chinh H. Pham – Greenberg Traurig LLP
“I am looking forward to reading 26.2 Miles to Boston: A Journey Into the Heart of the Boston Marathon, by Michael Connelly. A teammate on the Museum of Science Marathon team suggested this book before our 21 mile run this past Saturday. With the Boston Marathon coming up in a few weeks, I am hoping that the book can provide additional inspiration as I make my way from Hopkinton to Boylston Street on April 20th.”
Mark D. Smith – Laredo & Smith
“I just picked up Boys in the Boat by Daniel Brown and hope to complete it over the next few weeks.”
Judith R. Sizer – Rose, Chinitz & Rose
“I’ve already ordered the new book by Mary Norris, a long-time copy editor for The New Yorker (Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen). Every practicing lawyer should be obsessed with commas, particularly one who tries to complement her legal prose with occasional op-eds and sermons. And in honor of the recent ceremonial reburial of Richard III, Josephine Tey’s The Daughter of Time is back on my nightstand. It’s a brilliant British mystery novel revealing that Richard wasn’t so dastardly after all.”
Phelps T. Turner – Sugarman, Rogers, Barshak & Cohen P.C.
“Next on my list is The Perfect Mile by Neal Bascomb, about the race to be the first person to run a mile in less than four minutes. I know how the story ends, but I look forward to reading about Roger Bannister’s journey to breaking the barrier first, and about the British runner’s battle with two runners in the United States and Australia for the record.”
Robert K. Crabtree – Kotin, Crabtree & Strong, LLP
“Andrew Solomon’s Far From the Tree is a must read for those involved in disability law or related fields. Eloquent, thoroughly researched, and deeply compassionate, this work explores how traits that separate people from their families and/or their communities can drive behavior, define needs, and provoke legal and educational responses. The book is lengthy, but it need not be read all at once. With topics as wide-ranging as children with Deafness, Down Syndrome or Autism, children of rape, and children who commit crimes, chapters can be read as and when the spirit or needs dictate. Ultimately one learns about a wide range of “different” identities in the world, the advocacy communities, legal systems and support systems that form around those identities, the wider communities’ impact on them and vice versa. Above all, one learns about the very notion of “identity” and will find one’s moorings nicely loosened a bit in the project. Readers sometimes grow as persons with certain books; this is one of those.”
Catherine Martin – New England Law Boston
“I am looking forward to reading Boston and the Civil War: Hub of the Second Revolution, in part to prepare for the BBA event with the author next Thursday night discussing the legal community’s relationship with the growing abolitionist movement. The book covers a group of Boston abolitionists who participated in the campaign against slavery. While I, and probably most Boston residents, know a good deal about the area’s importance during the Revolutionary War, I was not aware how much activity there was leading up to and during the Civil War. Looking forward to an interesting read and a great event!”
If you would like to respond to a future Voices of the Bar, make sure you send a headshot, and contact Gabrielle Guarracino at gguarracino@bostonbar.org.