We here at the Reporter will be taking a few weeks off with the coming holidays, so this will be the last post here until January. We have exciting things happening in the new year that we’re looking forward to sharing when they’re ready to go. However, we won’t be sitting idle until then. As Librarians, we will all be reading over the break. I’ve gathered a few recommendations from the TTU Law Librarians as to what we’ll be reading.
Jamie Baker, Faculty Services & Scholarly Communications Librarian
Divergent Paths by Richard Posner
Because a law librarian’s work is never done. I chose to review this book for the Law Library Journal (forthcoming 2016) because Posner is an intriguing judge and prolific legal writer. Here he discusses the present dichotomy between judges and legal scholars.
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
This book was recently listed as one of The New York Times 10 Best Books of 2015. From the review: Structured as a letter to his teenage son, this slender, urgent volume — a searching exploration of what it is to grow up black in a country built on slave labor and “the destruction of black bodies” — rejects fanciful abstractions in favor of the irreducible and particular. Coates writes to his son with a cleareyed realism about the beautiful and terrible struggle that inheres in flesh and bone. It also comes highly recommended from various TTU faculty.
Marin Dell, Head of Electronic and Digital Services
I am reading the latest in the alphabetically titled Kinsey Millhone P.I. series, X, by Sue Grafton. This fun, fast read is the 24th book about Kinsey, set in the mythical beach community of Santa Teresa, CA. This isn’t a series to pick up in the middle, so start at A is for Alibi and work your way through the alphabet. Old friends, lovers, and enemies pop up all through the series and reading them in a row is a lot of fun. All the books happen over a few years in the 80’s, so play a little Go-Go’s for mood music and get your maximum girl power on! You won’t regret it.
Barbara Painter-Moreno, Unit Associate Director User Experience and Outreach Librarian
During the winter break I am looking forward to reading the newest John Grisham novel, Rogue Lawyer. John Grisham is a wonderful writer! I have enjoyed reading many of his older novels and this title sounds intriguing.
Sebastian Rudd is a street lawyer. He defends people that other lawyers don’t go near; child molesters, members of a satanic cult, and a vicious crime lord to name a few. So why does Sebastian represent these types of individuals? Because everyone is entitled to a fair trial.
Sebastian is a law firm of one, he works out of a customized bullet-proof van with a heavily armed driver who also is his law clerk, body guard, confidant, and golf caddie. Sebastian lives in a penthouse apartment whose primary piece of furniture is a vintage pool table!
This sounds like an exciting, nail biting novel that I can’t wait to read. Better yet, it’s only a mere 344 pages! Short by Grisham standards, which makes it a perfect read during the interim break.
Joshua Pluta, Head of Reference and Educational Services Librarian
I won’t be reading anything that’s “new” this holiday break, but I will be reading several books of note that I’d like to share. First, I’m going to finish the biography Lafayette by Harlow Giles Unger. This is, of course, a life story about Gilbert du Motier, the Marquis de Lafayette, who fought in both the American and French Revolutions, and was an active member of the post-Restoration French government.
My other reading project is to complete the “Sprawl Trilogy” by William Gibson. I read Neuromancer, the seminal first book in the trilogy a couple years ago, and I plan to read the follow-ups, Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive, over the break. I highly recommend Neuromancer to even the most casual sci-fi readers or non-sci-fi readers. It invented most of what is considered the “cyberpunk” genre, and coined much of the language we use to describe the modern internet (“cyberspace”, for example).
Thank you all for reading, and we’ll see you in January.
Happy Holidays!
The Reporter 