Stanford Law School’s 2025 summer faculty reading list

Ralph Richard Banks, Jackson Eli Reynolds Professor of Law, recommends The Barn by Wright Thompson

I’d recommend The Barn, by Wright Thompson, a deeply reported history of the roots and ramifications across decades of the murder of Emmet Till. Written by a child of the South, who confronts how the murder of Till implicates him and his people.

Richard Thompson Ford, George E. Osborne Professor of Law, recommends The Proof of My Innocence by Jonathan Coe

One my favorites so far this year is The Proof of My Innocence by Jonathan Coe, a clever mash-up of cozy crime fiction (think Agatha Christie ), “dark academia” (think Donna Tartt ), and autofiction. It combines a good whodunnit, complete with jaded, quirky professional detective and eager talented amateurs, with a scathing take down of far right politics, and an intriguing meditation on the importance of literature in a disorienting, social media-saturated, “post truth” world.

Robert W. Gordon, Professor Emeritus of Law, recommends Going Around: Selected Journalism by Murray Kempton

Among other projects I’ve thought of pursuing in retirement is a compilation of the (literally) thousands of columns that Murray Kempton (1917-1997) wrote for the (old liberal) New York Post, and later for Newsday, The New Republic, and The New York Review of Books. Kempton – as I’m not alone in thinking – was the greatest journalist of the 20th century. He’s often compared to his fellow Baltimorean H.L. Mencken, but unlike Mencken, who was a cynic through and through, Kempton had a soft spot for underdogs who kept their dignity – disgraced machine politicians, civil rights marchers, widows of veterans denied benefits because their husbands had been Communists. Most of his reporting was done in New York City, stories he covered going around on a bicycle, dressed in a suit. But he also covered the civil rights movement in the South and got himself arrested by Mayor Daley’s police at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968. His style is unique to him: stately, elaborate, ornate, full of the knowledge of good and evil. There are two collections already, America Comes of Middle Age (1963) and Rebellions, Perversities and Main Events (1994), as well as a book about the trial of the Black Panther 21, The Briar Patch (1973).

But now Andrew Holter, a writer living in Chicago, has beaten me to the punch. He has collected 400 pages of Kempton’s columns in Going Around, and it is a very good collection indeed, quite representative of the columnist’s enormous output. If you don’t know Murray Kempton’s work, and even if you do, this is a fine sampler. But it makes one want more.

Hank Greely, Deane F. and Kate Edelman Johnson Professor of Law, recommends Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell, The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, and Goodbye Eastern Europe: An Intimate Portrait of a Divided Land by Jacob Mikanowski

I spent winter quarter in Spain, teaching at the Stanford undergrad Bing Overseas Studies Program in Madrid. It was wonderful (though cold) and I read, and learned, a lot about Spain and its history. But the best thing I read I had read four or five times before over the last 50 years: George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia. It’s not perfect and he was not perfect (he hated the Sagrada Familia), but, to me, it is the best non-fiction written in the last hundred years – or maybe ever. Part memoir of his time in a revolutionary militia during the Civil War, part political reflection, it is always honest and insightful. And timely.

I love science fiction and fantasy but I’m not keen on dystopias (unless they are being overthrown). Something about the cold, wet winter of 2025 in Madrid, though, made these two very different dystopias, both by female authors, grab and hold me: Octavia Butler’s The Parable of the Sower and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. Butler’s dystopia seemed almost eerily timely, in part because when she wrote it in 1993, she set it in the early 2020s. Taking place in California, things have fallen apart, through economic and cultural collapse – and fire. The Handmaid’s Tale is a different dystopia, one that particularly oppresses women. This felt to me especially timely in light of the growing hysteria about declining birth rates. I don’t take either book as prophecy, but elements of each feel relevant to today’s America.

My last suggestion is less timely and (somewhat) less depressing, a mix of history, more cultural than political, and family memoir: Jacob Mikanowski’s Goodbye Eastern Europe: An Intimate Portrait of a Divided Land. The author recreates the world of Eastern Europe from the 18th century until its disappearance as a result of World War II. It was a strange world of distinctive and separate but inseparable cultures, living cheek by jowl in a patchwork that was both fixed and fluid. I learned a lot from it.

I am, and think I remain, basically an optimistic person, but I have to admit my choices from my last six months of reading do make me wonder about that.

Mark A. Lemley, William H. Neukom Professor of Law, recommends Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

The premise is ridiculous (a major character is a talking cat named Princess Donut), but this series is entertaining even for people who don’t do fantasy or swords and sorcery. It will draw you in and you will be left wanting more.

Grande Lum, Senior Lecturer in Law and Director, Gould Negotiation and Mediation Program, recommends Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, Thirteen Days in September by Lawrence Wright, and No Death, No Fear by Thich Nhat Hanh

Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson gave me some hope and optimism about what we can do in America on seemingly intractable issues like housing and transportation. The book makes a cogent argument for challenging our current regulatory schemes, investing in innovation, and collaborative problem-solving.

Thirteen Days in September, by Lawrence Wright, captures the drive, sacrifices, and fortuity required to carve out resolution in seemingly forever conflicts. I enjoyed how Wright captures the nitty-gritty details on what it takes to make progress and peace happen.

I find myself continually drawn to the writings of Thich Nhat Hanh. Hanh brings a no-nonsense simplicity to the basics of what matters in life. Recently, I have been re-listening to No Death, No Fear. I found it really challenging to read the first time, and struck by how differently I respond to it each time I come back to this particular book.

Michael W. McConnell, Richard & Frances Mallery Professor, recommends The Demon of Unrest, by Erik Larsen

Larsen’s great talent is narrative history: nonfiction that is so lively, so dramatically written, that it is like reading a novel. In my opinion, this 2024 book about the run-up to the Civil War is his best since The Devil in the White City. The book covers the brief period between the election of Abraham Lincoln in November 1860 and the Confederate assault on Fort Sumter in April 1860, the beginning of the war. Using diaries, letters, and other original sources, Larsen tells the story through the eyes of a half-dozen leading players, from both sides, with particular focus on Fort Sumter itself. It provides rare insight into the attitudes and misplaced optimism of the supporters of Southern secession, and the complicated ways in which both sides tried to avoid appearing to start the inevitable war.

Lisa Larrimore Ouellette, Deane F. Johnson Professor of Law, recommends Third Millennium Thinking by Saul Perlmutter, John Campbell, and Robert MacCoun; and The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt

I finally read my colleague Robert MacCoun’s delightful Third Millennium Thinking (co-authored with Nobel Prize-winning physicist Saul Perlmutter and philosopher John Campbell). At a time of sustained federal attacks on science – including the denigration of scientific expertise itself – this book seems more important than ever. I think even readers who are already familiar with scientific and probabilistic reasoning will find plenty to enjoy.

I also think parents navigating the challenges of ubiquitous smartphones – or those working for Silicon Valley companies that promote these technologies for children and teenagers – will find a lot of food for thought in Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. I just wish it had been written back when my daughter was in middle school.

A. Mitchell Polinsky, Josephine Scott Crocker Professor of Law and Economics, recommends King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa, by Adam Hochschild

A truly disturbing account of how King Leopold II of Belgium made the Congo a private colony in the late 19th century for his own benefit and, in the process, brutalized its inhabitants and raped the country of its resources. Hochschild is a superb writer and a prodigious researcher.

Robert L. Rabin, A. Calder Mackay Professor of Law, recommends Hitler’s People: The Faces of the Third Reich by Richard J. Evans

Published last year, this volume on the Nazi years offers a distinct slant on the Hitler regime: Focusing on biographical essays on the key figures from the perspective of how their personal characteristics and ambitions contributed to this tragic era in human history.

Shirin Sinnar, William W. and Gertrude H. Saunders Professor of Law, recommends Representations of the Intellectual by Edward Said, Born a Crime by Trevor Noah, and Yours, Eventually by Nura Maznavi

I find myself rereading Edward Said’s Representations of the Intellectual, a collection of lectures Said delivered on the importance of speaking truth to power. His call for intellectuals to remain independent from governments and corporations, and “to represent all those people and issues that are routinely forgotten or swept under the rug” resonates all the more now. I’m also engrossed in Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime, an autobiography of Noah’s childhood as the son of a black mother and white father in apartheid South Africa. And on a lighter note, I really enjoyed Nura Maznavi’s Yours, Eventually, the author’s debut novel and an adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion set in a Pakistani American community in the Bay Area.

Deborah A. Sivas, Luke W. Cole Professor of Environmental Law, recommends Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson

I just finished Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson. It is a New York Times non-fiction bestseller and a quick, easy read that is making the rounds in all the cool-kid circles. Reason enough to put it on a summer beach reading list, I suppose. But more seriously, the authors raise an important question worthy of more rigorous thought and attention: How do we build forward better?

Their basic thesis is that we don’t build real things that we want/need in the U.S. anymore. They offer such examples as the stalled and way over-budget California High Speed Rail, the incredibly slow FERC processes for connecting renewable energy projects to the electricity grid, the deepening affordable housing crisis in urban areas, etc. These examples ring true – and are quite frustrating for anyone who wants to see such worthwhile efforts advance.

I’m less convinced that Klein and Thompson offer constructive prescriptions to address the illness they diagnose. Less red tape, less paperwork, less bureaucratic redundancy? Sure, but how? By “streamlining” hard-won consumer, financial, worker, safety, and environmental requirements? Maybe, but what does that mean? Less public process and democracy? Hmm . . . Abundance doesn’t really try to tackle the thorniest issues, but it does provide some food – maybe the appetizer – for thought.

Mila Sohoni, Professor of Law, recommends All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren

My recommendation is Robert Penn Warren’s novel All the King’s Men, a story of populism and politics, loyalty and courage, set in the Deep South of the past – with unnerving resonances for today. Warren’s prose is like poetry (but not the annoying kind).

Adam Sterling, Associate Dean, Executive Education, recommends Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

I generally dislike re-reading books – either the content doesn’t hold up, or I end up wondering why I liked it in the first place. I also tend to be skeptical of prequels and sequels for the same reason. Lonesome Dove is the rare exception. I’ve connected with it in my twenties, thirties, and forties, and it still resonates. Even the other books in the series – two prequels and a sequel – are excellent.

Other Recommendations:

Daniel Ho, William Benjamin Scott and Luna M. Scott Professor of Law, recommends Who Is Government?: The Untold Story of Public Service by Michael Lewis

David Mills, Professor of the Practice of Law, recommends End Times by Peter Turchin, Outraged by Kurt Gray, James by Percival Everett, and Ghosts of Iron Mountain by Phil Tinline

Diego A. Zambrano, Professor of Law, Associate Dean for Global Programs, recommends The McCartney Legacy by Allan Kozinn and Adrian Sinclair