It’s become an annual tradition here at the Faculty of Law for the professors to share their summer reading (watching and listening) plans. Are you wondering what we’re up to? Or looking for some ideas for your summer? Below, please find a list of some of the books, podcasts and television that professors will be enjoying over the next four months, along with a brief description (in their own words) of why each one is of interest.
Annalise Acorn [bio]
Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power
In the normal course of events, I like to have as little as possible to do with the present. So my summer reading lists are usually designed to transport me to centuries past, preferably the 19th, 16th or 4th B.C.E. But this moment of global crisis is giving me pause – making me think that I ought to pay some attention to what is going on in this crazy 21st century. This looks to me to be a book quintessentially about this moment in history. In fact, the whole of my summer reading list is focussed on the grim topic of the present.
George Monbiot, Out of the Wreckage: A New Politics for an Age of Crisis
We need to start envisioning a new a new economic order that is not based on growth because current rates of growth are going to kill us and the planet. How might a post-growth world economic order support ecological and human thriving and cure our addiction to growth? Monbiot is someone who thinks intelligently about these things.
Adam Minter, Secondhand: Travels in the New Global Garage Sale
What are the unseen consequences of our consumer culture? Where do all the mountains of stuff we think we need and want go when we no longer want it? Minter has studied this on a global scale and I think has a pretty fascinating analysis.
Barbara Billingsley [bio]
Halik Kochanski, The Eagle Unbowed: Poland and the Poles in the Second World War
While researching family history, I have read snippets of this dense book before. This summer my goal is to finally read it from cover to cover.
And, as an antidote to the weight of world war II non-fiction, I plan to read as much of the Elena Ferrante's Neopolitan Quartet, beginning with My Brilliant Friend. And, when the need for mind candy presents itself, I will read Camino Winds, the new release from John Grisham.
Tamara Buckwold [bio]
Anna Jane Samis Lund, Trustees at Work
We tend to assume that the resolution of creditor claims in commercial law depends simply on the application of legal rules. In this book Professor Lund highlights the significant impact of the human factors at play in bankruptcy. I quote the review offered by Iain Ramsay, a distinguished professor of law at the University of Kent, formerly at Osgoode Hall Law School:
An imaginative, groundbreaking study of Canadian bankruptcy law and professional decision making in action. Anna Lund harnesses a sophisticated understanding of social psychology to provide an insightful and profound analysis of the complex relationship between bankruptcy professionals and debtors.
Hilary Mantel, The Mirror & The Light
This is the third instalment of Hilary Mantel’s fictionalized story of Thomas Cromwell, confidante and advisor to Henry VIII. I greatly enjoyed the first two books, Wolf Hall (2009) and Bring Up the Bodies (2012), each of which won the Man Booker Prize. These books bring real historical events to life: to quote from a review in The Atlantic, “Mantel’s job is to make the inevitable suspenseful.” If you haven’t read them I would start with the first and put the second and third on your list for future reading.
CBC radio broadcast and podcast, Writers and Company
I’ll continue listening to my favourite program about books and their authors, Eleanor Wachtel’s “Writers and Company”. Wachtel makes me want to read every book written by the authors she so brilliantly interviews. A great diversion from the anxieties of Covid-19 and good company on a social-distancing walk.
Anna Lund [bio]
Melinda Cooper, Family Values: Between Neoliberalism and the New Social Conservatism
A theme I keep returning to in my research is how the law reflect and informs our ideas about “deservingness”. As I think through how shifting ideologies have shaped our notions of deservingness, I am looking forward to reading this book by Melinda Cooper on neoliberalism and social insurance programs.
Miriam Toews, Swing Low: A Life
Miriam Toews is one of my all time favourite authors. Swing Low is the only book of hers I haven’t read yet. It’s a memoir she wrote about her father’s life and his struggle with manic depression.
Katherena Vermette, with illustrations by Julie Flett, The Girl and the Wolf
With daycares closed, my son and I have been reading a lot of children’s books together. I love Julie Flett’s illustrations, and Katherena Vermette’s reimagining of the story of Little Red Riding is thoroughly charming.
James Muir [bio]
This is a summer of big books it seems!
Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo
I’m starting the summer with the Count of Monte Cristo. A friend was reading it over the winter and raved about it. I'm more than halfway through, and it makes for great COVID escapism. It's a story of revenge by swash-buckling caper. Awesome stuff.
Eric Reiter, Wounded Feelings: Litigating Emotions in Quebec, 1870-1950
This book, which came out last year, has been short-listed for the best book in Canadian history, 2020, by the Canadian Historical Association. A historical study of emotional suffering as an injury in torts (and sometimes contract) litigation, it looks like a really interesting book, and addresses a topic researched by our colleague Shannon O'Byrne.
Janet L Nelson, King and Emperor
I read a glowing review of this biography of Charlemagne by my favourite medieval historian Chris Wickham. When I was in grade seven I did a school assignment on Charlemagne, and I thought this was an excellent chance to renew my interest.
And when I need something shorter, Kelly Thompson, the wonderful writer of the Kate Bishop Hawkeye and West Coast Avengers series has turned her hand to Jessica Jones and, once comics get printed and distributed again, to a new Black Widow series. So I will be (re)reading those.
Erin Nelson [bio]
Richard Wagamese, Medicine Walk
I have heard and read great things about this book. It is a story about a 16-year-old who, although he does not know his father well, agrees to help his dying father by taking him to the mountains to bury him as an Ojibway warrior.
Margaret Atwood, The Testaments
This book interests me both personally and professionally. I am involved in a project focusing on women's experiences of surrogacy, and I am really curious about how the novel treats this issue at this point in history.
Saleema Nawaz, Songs for the End of the World
I am working up the courage to read this book. It is a story about a 2020 pandemic, caused by a novel coronavirus that began in China. I understand that although it is a bit close to home at the moment, it is a story about hope, connection and community.
Hillary Nye [bio]
Deirdre Mask, The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power
I love non-fiction that makes you think about something in a completely new way. We take street names for granted, but this book challenges that and makes you think about how our practices and systems of street naming are driven by much deeper forces than we realise, and have all kinds of unexpected implications.
Cheryl Misak, Frank Ramsey: A Sheer Excess of Powers
Cheryl Misak is an expert on pragmatism. I’ve loved her previous books, and this one focuses on Frank Ramsey, a philosopher and mathematician who made a remarkable impact on his fields before dying at the tragically young age of 26.
Ariel Levy, The Rules Do Not Apply
I’m halfway through this already and can’t put it down. It’s a memoir about loss, family, the choices we make and how those shape our lives.
Joshua Nichols [bio]
Stanley Fish, Doing What Comes Naturally
I recently started reading Fish's essays and have found his notion of interpretive communities interesting so I am looking forward to reading more.
Harold Berman, Law and Revolution Vol. 1 and 2
These volumes cover the development of law within the West from the 9th century forward. I've been meaning to read them for some time now, but committing to two volumes of this length is a bit daunting.
Frank Kermode, The Sense of an Ending
This book stems from Kermode's Mary Flexner Lectures in 1965 which were entitled 'The Long Perspectives'. In it he explores how we use literature to reflect on the various ways we attempt to make sense of our lives.
Shannon O’Byrne [bio]
For those looking for content under the category of crime and punishment:
The HBO/Crave docuseries called McMillion$, of which Mark Wahlberg was the executive producer.
Over the course of six episodes, this docuseries explores McDonald’s Monopoly game promotion from the 90’s. Outsiders rigged the game, defrauding McDonald’s of $24 million. Some of the participants in the fraud took the view that the fraud was victimless since they never usurped the position of an actual winner.
The CBC/Crave docuseries called The Oland Murder
This docuseries concerns the murder of Richard Oland -- a wealthy, Canadian business man from Saint John NB. The focus is on the legal defense of Dennis Oland, Richard's son, whose conviction for second degree murder was quashed by the SCC and a new trial ordered.
Ubaka Ogbogu [bio]
I am reading Educated by Tara Westover presently and will probably stay with it for a while.
I also plan to catch up on recent literature on the history of smallpox vaccination in Canada and will probably spend most of summer doing that. There is a long list of articles and books that I need to read for that, with the goal of updating my book on law and vaccination in 19th century Ontario.
David Percy [bio]
Phillippe Sands, The Ratline
This book is the successor to his excellent East West Street which is one of my all time favourites and which I recommended a couple of years ago. The Ratline describes the means by which prominent Nazi war criminals were able to escape from central Europe in 1945-46. It involves the cooperation of some unlikely allies including the Vatican and the CIA as escape routes were established through Austria, Northern Italy and Rome. The BBC Podcast of the same name provides a compelling synopsis.
Hilary Mantel, The Mirror & The Light
I have been saving this book for the summer. I love Hilary Mantel’s dense and evocative writing. One of the reviewers describes how she imagines exactly how one of her characters smells. No-one knows of course, but her account is apparently totally convincing.
Elena Ferrante, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay
I will also read the penultimate volume in Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Quartet. She is a post war Italian Dickens in her portrayal of a life of grinding poverty in a suburb of Naples. The tale describes the main character's escape from the neighbourhood through the encouragement of teachers who coax her into obtaining a university education. She then suffers a sense of total dislocation on her rare return visits, as she observes the resigned acceptance of the status quo by the remaining inhabitants. For a quick background, the first 2 volumes are the subject of a superb television series on HBO under the title "My Brilliant Friend."
Linda Reif [bio]
Caroline Criado-Perez, Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men
This is a book that caught my attention when JD student Jenny Wang relied on it in her research paper on international women's rights law and the need for gender disaggregated data. It is proving to be very readable and thought-provoking, based on the argument that a lot of data exclude women's concerns, even data that appear to be neutral. Criado-Perez addresses data bias in daily life, the workplace, design, going to the doctor and public life. Its early example on gender bias in urban snow clearing policies should be a light bulb moment for Albertans.
Erik Larson, The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz
I am a fan of Larson's popular nonfiction and have already read this book on life in the UK during the Blitz when the Nazis bombed London and other parts of the country heavily during 1940-41. It put the current pandemic in perspective in describing how the population had to worry about being bombed to oblivion and invaded. It also has diverting parts about the private lives of family and close associates surrounding Churchill, including his youngest daughter Mary, his daughter-in-law, Pamela Churchill Harriman, Lord Beaverbrook and private secretary Jock Colville.
Christopher Samuel [bio]
Cixin Liu, The Dark Forest
I recently finished reading "The Three-Body Problem," the first book in the "Remembrance of Earth's Past" Trilogy. It was a novel that had a heavy focus on the "science" in science fiction, yet was incredibly readable from start to finish. Hard sci-fi is my favorite science-fiction subgenre, so I'm excited to move on to the second book in the series!
Eric Baskind, Mooting: the Definitive Guide
This book contains everything you ever wanted to know about moot courts, covering everything from their historical origins to how to write a moot problem. Although this is an English resource and not a Canadian one, I hope that I can integrate some of this material into our mooting program to continue our competitive teams' streak of national successes. There's also a chapter on how to organize a moot court competition, which may be handy as we prepare to host the Western Canadian Family Law Moot this year.
Nathan W Pyle, Stranger Planet
I'm not sure if this counts since it's a collection of comic strips rather than an actual book, but I absolutely love this webcomic. The second "Strange Planet" book releases on June 16th!
Bruce Ziff [bio]
All the books I am reading this summer relate, in some fashion, to the life and culture of the Southern Appalachians Mountains.
Beth Macy, Truevine
Beth Macy, Dopesick
Malcolm Smith, Appalachian Fiddler Albert Hash: Last Leaf on the Tree
RB Drake, A History of Appalachia
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