2 comments about Circle of Greed: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Lawyer Who Brought Corporate America to Its Knees.

1. There is something of interest for everyone in this book. It's a rocking good story, painstakingly researched and expertly told.



2. I am a lawyer, and have worked on class actions (for plaintiffs).
   
   Now half-way through the book, I find it interesting, but over-long and less than compelling. Judicious editing and better storytelling were needed.
   
   Also, the authors make obvious mistakes about some basic legal concepts. In particular, they confuse a motion to dismiss (defendant argues there is no legal basis for the claims) which occurs early in a case, with a motion for summary judgment (defendant asserts there is no evidence to support the claims), which occurs near the end, before trial.
   
   In sum, this is interesting to those who have been involved in class actions but will have trouble winning a larger audience.

5 comments about The Autobiography of an Execution.

1. The author has a wife, a son, a dog. He is lawyer to people who die. He is also connected to a university.
   
   One client's drug addiction had consequences. Representing people subject to execution seems like important work. The work is done through a nonprofit legal-aid corporation. Dow doesn't want his death-row inmates to be hopeful that his legal maneuvers will work.
   
   Murder is an ugly crime, but most murderers are ordinary. The author used to support the death penalty, but doesn't anymore because the system is lawless. Dow doesn't see homeless people on the streets of Houston, but he sees them in the courthouse.
   
   Dow explains how appeals fail, basically on procedural grounds, (issues not raised in state courts, and/or inferior courts), and people are executed. Sometimes innocence cannot be proved, (most of us could not provide an alibi for two days ago). Most of the time it is beside the point. The adversary system, arguably, is used as an excuse for people to do nothing.
   
   A client represented at the trial level inadequately, sleeping, and at the appellate level, is simply deemed to be out of luck by the judiciary. Capital punishment is the ultimate societal act of throwing away the key. For instance, clearly insane people are executed.
   
   The stories told in the book are true, but names have been changed to protect the attorney-client relationship. Dow's Texas Little League parents have to sign a form promising not to abuse the umpires. The Little League hires professional coaches. Even five-year-olds receive such services.
   
   Theoretically there is a presumption of innocence, but factually it is just the opposite. Execution is a case of evasion. The book is important and heart-felt.



2. The author, David R Dow, is a death penalty lawyer. This mean that he works for the worst of the worst, convicts whose execution dates have been set. Mr Dow's firm works to save these people from execution on the principle that they believe the death penalty is wrong.
   
   It's hard to review a book like this, especially at a time when, every day, we read news stories about innocent people killed by known predators. Mr Dow's principles often cause him to put his family's needs on hold, forgetting promises made to spend time with his son, sending them on vacations without him. I felt a lot of sympathy for the feelings of his wife, who often must feel abandoned in favor of some truly awful people who have committed heinous crimes. Mr Dow himself seems frequently conflicted by the compulsion to work to save people he clearly abhors.
   
   The case at the center of this book is one in which the convicted person may very well be innocent. There is considerable evidence of a false conviction, and I do believe that laws need to be changed to ensure that innocent people are not executed on mere legal technicalities such as the timing of their appeals (filed too late, it seems even a valid appeal can be rejected).
   
   The problem is, though, that the vast majority of Mr Dow's clients are guilty, horribly guilty, and are such dreadful people that it is hard to imagine why anyone would risk his family relationships in order to help them.
   
   The book itself is written without the use of quotation marks, which makes it hard to read. It's a minor problem but it's an odd choice and I wonder why the author made it.



3. This is the most frustrating and richly-felt memoir I have read since Philip Roth's "Patrimony." I could not put this book down. Other reviews, both good and mixed, found this book "unfocused." But that misses the point. Without getting to know Professor Dow's immediate family and colleagues, their idiosyncrasies and appetites, we would lose the sense of love and respect, the raw life we need to appreciate the dissonance in the lives of the people he defends. Without its discourses, The Autobiography of an Execution would simply be a technical journal about capital punishment in Texas.
   
   Dow tells the story of a boy who pushes his son, Lincoln, at Little League practice. Lincoln let a grounder go past him, provoking the pushing incident. While Dow predicts that the instigator will ultimately become a bully and one day be convicted of a serious offense, he will never murder. This boy has what most murderers do not: a middle class existence, a home in a middle class neighborhood, and a mother and father who love him. People who kill do not know what it is like to be loved. The father of one death row inmate used to beat his son with a stick every chance he had. He said he used a stick instead of his fists because he didn't want to hurt his hands.
   
   So here is a book filled with nuance and sin: corrupt prosecutors and judges, a state board of pardons philosophically in bed with the governor who appointed them, and a sea of public defenders too lazy and stupid to give their clients a decent defense. There is also the citizenry of Texas, Bible-thumping fundamentalists who cannot see the forest through the trees.
   
   And there is one convict sentenced to die, whom Dow believes to be innocent. Just one of seven in hundreds he has represented on death row over the years that he believes was wrongly convicted. This man's life is the hook that hurls us to the end with high octane drama that keeps you turning the pages non-stop until you utterly feel everything Dow and his legal team feel -- the suspense, elation, setbacks and legal maneuvering they employ to save this man's life. The Autobiography of an Execution reads like a steam locomotive barreling full throttle into the death chamber at Huntsville.



4. Mr. Dow is a committed and excellent lawyer. The passion he brings to his work is evident in this book. However, the essential elements of this book would have made an excellent long format magazine article in either, say, Esquire or Rolling Stone. The unfolding store of death row inmate "Henry" is gripping and the trials and tribulations that Mr. Dow goes through to help him is moving while teaching the reader a lot about the legal process.
   
   But Mr. Dow fills 2/3's of his book with musings about his family that have little or no relationship to the book's central theme. While his relationships with his wife and son appear top notch, the annectodes and asides about their daily lives are a distraction to the book's importance. In addition, the writing style includes the decision to omit all use of quotation marks. There is a lot of reporting of dialogue in this book and without the proper use of quotes, the reading is combersome and awkward. Not sure the benefit of this...maybe to seem "stream of conscienceness"????????



5. I think this is the best book I have read all year. Amazingly thoughtful, insightful with so much simple wisdom I found myself reading many of the pages three and four times.
   The fact that our country is still participating in the barbaric act of sentencing and commiting people to death is absolutely appalling and outright ignorant. To punish death by death is an unethical and unjust human principle. Yes, human beings do incredibly evil, disgusting acts, some so horrible it makes you feel ill just reading the words describing them. But how did these "evil" people learn to do these evil things? What happened to them, where did they come from? I personally do not believe that humans are born evil. So who raised them, who taught them, who loved/or didn't love them, where did they live, did they have a home, who hurt them? Humans are creatures of instinct and do what they have learned and ultimately have one goal in mind....,to survive and be loved. What else do we all want more than those two things? So for the government of a very powerful, "Free country" who prides itself on free speech , free thought, equality, etc.., to kill a man is a true hypocrisy to me.
   This book will make you think, make you feel, and leave a sense of relief that there are people who fight for the right thing.

5 comments about A Piece of Cake: A Memoir.

1. Actually, read all of the 1-star reviews. They are absolutely right-on! This book is so not inspiring as several 5-star reviewers seem to think. The writing is juvenile, predictable and NOT believable beyond finding her mother dead in the first chapter. Yes, that's sad, but the rest? Actually all of the time I was reading it, I was thinking how could this woman have such excellent recollection when she was loaded, blacked-out, boozed up, knocked up and throwin' up for the majority of her youth. I don't buy it -- actually I did buy it (the Kindle version), and I am sorry to say it's been a huge waste of time. For the last half of the book I employed my best version of Evelyn Woods' Reading Dynamics and basically skimmed and read a sentence or two which was pretty much all I needed to know to move on to the next page.
   I'm sure everyone who gave this more than a 1-star review must have found a glimmer of believability in it, but I found it unwarranted for any kind of truth beyond the first chapter.



2. I loved this book. I read it in two days and shared it with several of my friends and family.



3. This was an Amazon recommendation for me. I saw that I could read pages from the book, so I did. I read every single page they allowed me to. When the book arrived I started reading and could not put it down. I read at work, I read at the traffic lights, I read in the drive-thru...I simply could not stop reading this story. I finished it in one day.
   
   Many have said that it's not the best written material but yet I believe the purpose of writing a story is so people understand and enjoy reading it. I so enjoyed hearing this sister's story and have recommended the book to everyone.



4. Finally a memoir that was worth the money I paid for it!!!! Honest, heartbreaking, ugly and beautiful all at the same time. She spares no detail and because of this you are able to relive it with her. Stark naked. Inspiring. Everyone should read this book.



5. This book should be read by anyone who wants to understand what it is like to lose a parent at a young age, go into foster care with a woman who is a foster parent just to make money, to be abused at the hands of her foster parents, and to have no support system. I couldn't put it down. This woman also joins a gang and gave me huge insights into the reasons young people find gangs attractive. She is an alcoholic and a drug abuser--and yet is able to finally break free of her demons and soar. I bought this book for both of my foster daughters (now adults and part of our family). This book is one of the most compelling books I have ever read--and increased my understanding tremendously of people living on the margins. No young person should have to go thru what Cupcake Brown endured. I give her a tremendous amount of credit for turning her life around. What an inspiration! She has definitely been in the trenches.

5 comments about One L: The Turbulent True Story of a First Year at Harvard Law School.

1. This is only my partially educated opinion, but I cannot imagine someone enjoying this book who does not see themselves going to law school. I don't know how much people who have already gone through law school would enjoy this book either. But for me, having not gone to law school yet, but having a great desire to do so, this book was very good indeed.
   
   I enjoyed learning about the delicate politics involved with being a one L. I enjoyed learning about the egotistical professors, and I enjoyed the seemingly honest nature of the author. The narrator seems to present the experience of his first year with great humility. Once I get into law school and finish my first year, however, my opinion about this book may change.
   
   I recommend anyone planning on going to law school read this book, you will certainly enjoy it. I actually think it is required reading in some law schools.



2. I am heading into law school in a few months and was given this book as a gift. It was a really easy and quick read. I feel even more excited to head into school now than ever. I also feel it was good perspective on what law school will be like (according to my friends who are already there).



3. Could this guy whine just a little bit more? Oh....Harvard Law....too much work.... sketchy explanations....do it on your own.....gotta take responsibility for my own learning........Harvard Law.....almost guaranteed first year salary of high 5 figures and 3-4 year salary in the 6 figure range.........permanent prestige....write your own ticket.........
   
   IMHO being able to have that opportunity should leave any student leaping for joy every single morning and evening and thanking God that they got accepted.
   
   Listen kids, an education is NOT a right. Ask all the people who are not able to go to college in this country. Education is a privilege. The more prestigious the school, the more of a privilege it is.
   
   Don't follow in this guys footsteps and whine all the way through it.
   
   He might be a Harvard Law graduate but I really hope his character has grown since his 1L days. A more self-pitying, ungrateful wretch I have rarely known.



4. This book may have had some value if you went to law school 30 years ago and you went to Harvard. Beyond that, its pretty useless. The impact technology has had on law school and the study of law is tremendous. Obviously, Turow doesn't comment on this because it didn't exist then. This book hasn't been updated because naive would be law students still buy in droves making him a boat load cash so why should he update it. It also is MUCH MUCH too specific to his particular situation. Being married, attending Harvard, carries some unique elements while going through law school that do not exist for that vast majority of law students. Reading this book will inform you about some aspects of law school, but will also severely misguide you regarding others. I think it leaves you worse off than if you had simply not read the book in the first place.



5. My son is attending HLS this year and doesn't share too many details of his experiences as a first year student. So this book gave me an insider's view of the
   challenges and struggles of the students. The time period is late sixties and seventies so I know there have been some changes but still the atmosphere and
   daily routines of the students who are learning a new language-the law-come through and are relevant to today's I L class.
   I recommend the book to people who considering law school and for their families so that they can understand their sons and daughters better!

5 comments about The Great Depression: A Diary.

1. I've always wondered why people who emerged from the Great Depression are so different than my generation (boomer). They are more nervous, cautious, a bit fearful, but way more sensible than the carefree, debt-ridden generations that were born after the depression ended. When someone says, "my folks lived through the depression" you know what they're like. Forever changed, savers, and never crazy with investments.
   So the chance to read a nunc-pro-tunc account of what daily life was like to a person living in the Great Depression, it's a fantastic historical opportunity to enter a time capsule with such granularity and texture that you feel like you are there.
   But what's haunting is the similarities of life then to life today. Phantom ups and downs so the unaware public is being convinced that the worst is over, when in fact, history showed that it was only going to get worse. The government bailouts, and the fear of inflation. In many ways reading this book is like reading today's papers.
   Scary and enlightening - it's a great piece of american history.



2. My favorite book is still David M Kennedy's Freedom From Fear. I have a great interest in the subject and have read much on the Great Depression. The view from this young, then older, lawyer in a once thriving, then despondent city, is amazing. I ask my older relatives about this era and I get nothing of the flavor of Mr. Roth. I enjoyed it highly.



3. read this book if you want to fathom what is going on today - it gives a extremely useful perspective on today



4. The stock market sinks to all time levels. Banks, after years of approving questionable loans, collapse under the burden of too many defaulted mortgages. The nation is in foreclosure and eventually the banks begin to close. Unemployment rises at alarming rates. Entire industries fall into receivership and the dollar is devalued. The economies of the other nations in the world market begin to mirror the United States. The voters respond by voting a very unpopular Republican out of office and vote in a Democrat who promises change.
   
   The year is not 2008. It's the 1930s and Benjamin Roth, a young conservative attorney in Youngstown, Ohio, begins to keep a diary chronicling the Great Depression. Through Roth's eyes the reader gets a bird's eye view of the Depression unfolding and the consequences on the national and local levels. Every entry is an education. Roth spends the rest of his life reading about economics and evaluating the events of the 1930s with the goal to determine what caused this devastation and how to prevent it from ever happening again.
   
   The Great Depression, A Diary is an education in global economics and fiscal responsibility. Through this book, readers gain insight into what happened 90 years ago and what is happening in our country today. Benjamin Roth proves what every high school history teacher has been saying for years, "Those who do not learn their history are doomed to repeat it."



5. As a child of the Depression I found The Great Depression: a Diary very interesting and informative. My father was not a professional person and I am sure he did not have any stocks, but the traumatic events that occurred happened to everyone. There are so many similarities to todays events: bank closings, credit problems, the closing of so very many businesses and the institution of so many programs to save jobs and the economy and very few of them having the stimulus needed. I also found it interesting to track the professional person as I have worked for lawyers and they seem to suffer immediately from a downturn in the economy. Apparently it was the same many years ago. A very good read and I would recommend it to anyone who lived through the great depression or would like a comparison of the present situation and the dark days long ago.

5 comments about Louis D. Brandeis: A Life.

1. In "Louis D. Brandeis: A Life," author Melvin Urofsky has achieved, above all, three things--a history of the life and times of an American who put an indelible mark on his country at a time of monumental political, intellectual, and social change, encompassed by the progressive era; of a liberal Jew who helped in integrating the Jewish religion and culture into the American mainstream, while at the same time playing an important role in the development of Zionism; and who as a justice on the United States Supreme court helped reshape the legal foundations of the Amerian republic to the benefit of a broader population base.



2. Roosevelt referred to him as Isaiah. Louis Brandeis was an idealist. Idealism was wed to pragmatism. Born before the Civil War, he almost survived to witness the entry of the United States into World War II. He demonstrated how law could be an instrument of reform. He was born and grew up in Louisville, Kentucky. When Brandeis entered Harvard Law School, Christopher Langdell was introducing the case method of law study. Brandeis was a fervent supporter of the method. His connection to Harvard was lifelong. Brandeis encouraged Felix Frankfurter to work on case books for administrative law and federal jurisdiction and supplied funds to help the cause. He was the first Justice to cite a HARVARD LAW REVIEW article in an opinion.
   
   Brandeis spent more than thirty-seven years in the practice of law in Boston until his appointment to the Supreme Court by Woodrow Wilson in 1916. His interest in reform placed him in a position of opposition to the State Street interests. His areas of activity included manufacturing, labor, street cars, railroads, gas companies, and life insurance. For reform to succeed one had to play the political game he was led to conclude. The brief in MULLER v. OREGON used sociological material and became a model, the Brandeis brief, for the introduction of nontraditional sources in court cases. Louis and his partner, Sam Warren, wrote an oft-cited law review article in 1895 sketching out a claim for a right of privacy, the right to be left alone.
   
   Justice Brandeis believed the function of his law clerks was to correct his errors. He was not paternal. He called his clerks by their last names. David Riesman considered Brandeis an ideal judge. (By the time of Great Depression, Brandeis had, in his earlier work, all of its causes.) Justice Brandeis never assigned the statement of facts to his clerks. Brandeis served on the Court for nearly twenty-three terms. In dissents Brandeis sought to be persuasive and instructive. Harold Laski wrote to compliment Brandeis on his opinions. Holmes and Brandeis served together on the Court for sixteen years. Many of Brandeis's dissents became accepted by the Court. In the twenties the Court's majority hewed to classical legal thought based upon the freedom of contract and substantive due process.
   
   In 1932 Cardozo took Holmes's place on the Court. Roosevelt's court-packing plan alienated Brandeis and the other Justices. Acknowledgments, Notes, and Index appear at the end of this wonderful biography. Do not be mislead by my somewhat dry statements, this book is filled with human descriptions and details and should be of great interest to historians, law students and lawyers, and general readers.



3. This is over the line -- this price breaches everyone's understanding of the Kindle price. This scholar won't buy until 9.99! Brandeis would throw Amazon out of court.



4. This is one of the best books I have ever read on the law. Every attorney, judge, law professor, and law student should read this book. It not only describes a life well lived, it describes an important era in American legal history. I learned more of true significance about several courses in law school (including constitutional law, economic regulation, and antitrust) than I learned in law school.



5. It is evident that Urofsky is an outstanding history professor at UCV because the chapters of this book are pedagogically arranged like a syllabus for a graduate-level seminar course. This book is lengthy and comprehensive, but easily digested and well organized. I am a big fan of David McCullough's presidential biographies (Truman, John Adams) because McCullough takes that same professorial approach to the organization and content of his writing. Urofsky is in the same league as McCullough.
   Before reading this book, I knew Brandeis only for his infamous Brandeis Brief in Muller v. Oregon and his tenure on the U.S. Supreme Court. This book shows that those events were mere chapters in the extraordinary life of Brandeis. That is why I also recommend this book to anyone who may not necessarily be interested in Brandeis or the Supreme Court, but who simply enjoys the study of U.S. history.
   Brandeis is the product of the Progressive Era, and this book provides a deep and scholarly understanding of that era, including some in-depth coverage of other notable Progressive Era figures, such as Robert LaFollette and Woodrow Wilson. Urofsky does not even discuss Brandeis's tenure on the Supreme Court until more than half way through the book. The first half mostly covers Brandeis's various reform movements, including his efforts to change industrial insurance into savings bank insurance, his infamous law review article on the right to privacy that later became the springboard for a new area of tort law, his fight against railroad monopolies, his role as mediator in the early days of the unionized labor movement, his shakedown of the Taft Administration in the Pinchot-Bollinger affair (an interesting foreshadow of the tensions to come when Brandeis and Taft would later serve together on the U.S. Supreme Court), and his wise counsel to Woodrow Wilson during the 1912 Presidential campaign.
   Urofsky's professorial approach enables the average reader to clearly understand the complex historical, political, social and moral background for each of these reform movements. For example, Urofsky provides a simplified "Business 101 style" explanation of the insurance industry, which gives Brandeis's reform efforts in that area a perspective that any other historian might overlook. As another example, Urofsky provides a clear context of American Zionism (Jewish-American awareness of the need for a Jewish homeland in Palestine) against the backdrop of Teddy Roosevelt's suspicion of hyphenated Americans (Roosevelt believed you had to be either Jewish or American but not Jewish-American).
   For those readers who are interested in the U.S. Supreme Court, this book includes a wealth of history, with detailed chapters on Brandeis's confirmation process (he was almost Borked decades before Borking became a verb in the English vocabulary), the inner workings of the Supreme Court in the early 20th Century in surprisingly sharp contrast to the modern Court (for example, the Justices worked out of their homes because they didn't have private chambers and they paid their law clerks out of their own pockets), and Brandeis's jurisprudence (particularly his contribution to the birth of administrative law).
   For those who are interested Brandeis as an historical figure, the book is an exhaustive biography summed up best by the first sentence of Chapter 2: "Throughout his life, Louis Brandeis had the good fortune to be in the right place at the right time, and the courage and perspicacity to grasp the opportunities before him." The book is loaded with stories of such places, times and opportunities, most notably Brandeis's time as a student at Harvard Law School at the point in history when Langdell changed the course of legal education, but also his humble Louisville roots and his brief stop in St. Louis. In sum, this biography shows (as promised in the author's introduction) that Brandeis was idealistic (a true figure of turn-of-the-20th-century progressivism comparable to LaFollette), pragmatic (formulated the most expedient means to achieve his idealist ends), and prescient (warned against "the curse of bigness" more than one hundred years before the U.S. government bailed out businesses that were "too big to fail"). Hope these are enough reasons to buy this book.

5 comments about Don't Pee on My Leg and Tell Me It's Raining: America's Toughest Family Court Judge Speaks Out.

1. I bought this for a birthday gift, not knowing if the cover would be in good shape. It was gently used and perfect for gift giving.



2. Hey it's Judge Judy I love her. Outspoken but that is what makes her a good Judge. Many people come to court for nonesense and frankly I think they make themselves look foolish. Go Judge Judy you tell them. If you like Judge Judy you will enjoy the book.
   BW frm VA



3. I just read this book and I loved it! What a great book: it's a wonderful examination of our failed government programs by someone exposed to them and the results every day. Judge Judy has no trouble telling it like it is, and that is why this book is such a great read. The books is a quick read, as if she is speaking one on one with you.
   Granted, the bleeding heart liberals will hate this book. The truth hurts: As long as we enable people not to work, they won't. She's fed up with the system, and so are a great many people, myself included. Sure the government programs help a few, but for most, it just keeps them from working. Welfare, public assistance, whatever label you give it, is supposed to help you get back on your feet. Instead, sadly for most lazy Americans and non-Americans alike, it has become an income. How do you like paying taxes to help someone, a total stranger stay home and do nothing at all but procreate, lounge about and lament.
   Children are victims, and instead of the government helping them out, they're aiding them in being abused more than once in many ways. Judge Judy knows this, too.
   I don't always agree with every verdict Judge Judy rules on her tv show, but I agree with everything in this book.
   You go, girl! Looking forward to reading "Beauty fades. Dumb is forever" and isn't that the sad truth, too?



4. This book could be titled: Events That Made the Judge Judy We See on TV. Written before the advent of her TV show, this book is a series of cases she dealt with while in family court. Though the purpose of the book was not to get into her head, it does offer some excellent insight on how she thinks and why she is the hard-willed, mouthy judge we love (or hate) on TV. This book tested my patience as I read about things people tried to get away with and the failing of our judicial system. A good and easy read for any fan of the show.



5. I just finished reading this book and it was amazing! I couldn't put it down. Judge Judy is so honest and has many incredible positions on the justice system that each state should take note. I personally agree with her on all of her stances toward welfare, incarceration, and law in general. A must read for all politicians!

5 comments about Happy Hour Is for Amateurs: Work Sucks. Life Doesn't Have To..

1. After being an Amazon customer for many years and purchasing many items, this is the first time I have been motivated to write a review.
   
   Some who read this book will look at it simply as a cautionary tale against becoming a lawyer. An even shorter-sighted contingent will read it as a self-indulgent sex and drugs adventure. In actuality, it is a painfully honest memoir of a directionless yet intelligent young man that followed the path of least resistance into a "prestigious" profession. As the environment suffocated him, he escaped with the help of his friends, drugs, and sex.
   
   Happy Hour is for Amateurs is the Fight Club for the young professional, an anthem with more realism than idealism. Anyone who has ever worked a grinding office job and lived for nights and weekends will get this immediately, recognizing the inevitable slow erosion on the psyche that this work promotes. The Philadelphia Lawyer's surgical dissection of corporate culture is both hilarious and haunting.
   
   However, this book is not about just hating your job, it's about finding meaning and happiness. While The Philadelphia Lawyer is one of the rare few to actually leave his cushy job and pursue his dream, this book is a refreshing breeze to anyone who works in the system but doesn't take it too seriously.
   
   I hope that Happy Hour is for Amateurs is just the first of many books to come from this author.



2. //Happy Hour Is for Amateurs: Work Sucks. Life Doesn't HaveTo// by Philadelphia lawyer is a story about his three-year journey through law school and a decade of practicing law. In law school he spent a lot of time in bars "knocking back beers" with other law students. From the start, he is a hopeless drunk living a debauched life. Yet he says the biggest problem in law school is not the demanding professors or the difficult nature of the work, but the attitudes of the students whom he refers to as "angry insignificants," who can look sound and appear utterly normal, but most are insecure with a need to fight and impress everyone and always get the last word and be the smartest person in the room.
   
   Why is his story relevant? If your attorney is negotiating with a bartender to get a Triple Knob Creek with a splash of ginger ale, is it possible you may have hired a Philadelphia lawyer?
   
   //Happy Hour Is for Amateurs: Work Sucks. Life Doesn't Have To// is true to the nature and environment of the work, but it not a good read for a teen.
   
   Reviewed by Vivian Dixon Sober



3. I have been a fan of PhilaLawyer's website for a little while, so I knew somewhat what I was getting into. As I read it, however, I realized how well reading this book applied to my life. As a college senior about to graduate and enter the workforce, his stories were a realization of the potential numbing effect of the cubicle life. In between tales of escapades and hi-jinks, this book is a reminder that work should not define your life.



4. This is a fantastic read especially for students considering law school. Philalawyer gives a point of view so different from the idea of law given by college brochures and tv dramas. Anyone considering law school just because its there will have well justified second thoughts after reading this book (perhaps a blessing now before 3 years and 6 figure debt).
   
   The stories are entertaining and can be read on a number of levels. The drugs, booze and partying are simple fun that surround the commentary on modern American life. Some of his thoughts are complicated and make the book worth rereading but if you don't want to make the effort the crazy incidents are more than enough to justify this book. Tucker Max's book (also great) is much simpler for a party/alcohol book but Philalawyer's work makes you think much more, its real literature not frat lit.
   
   All in all, I'm a huge fan of Philalawyer. I give his work huge credit for stopping me from making a huge career mistake in going to law school, especially considering the fields current market. His website is great (check out his alcohol reviews) and I look forward to his next book.



5. I didn't think there was anyone out there who so clearly understood and shared my disdain for law school until I read this book. However, If you thought your 3 years were even slightly tolerable you'll likely read this and be confused, because after all, moot court competitions are a great way to make friends and professional contacts you'll keep for a lifetime right? gag.

5 comments about American Original: The Life and Constitution of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

1. The dust jacket says that this is a "full-scale biography" of Justice Antonin ("Nino") Scalia. It is not a biography in the usual sense of the word. It is more like one of the "Highlights" videos that are regularly produced by NFL football teams. To be sure, there are some elements of biography. For example, we learn that Scalia's father was Italian, that he earned a Ph.D. and that he taught English in Brooklyn College. Also, we learn that the Scalias are Catholic, and that Nino was educated at a Jesuit-run high school and college. These biographical aspects of the book are important because the author frequently concludes that Justice Scalia's legal opinions can be traced back to the rigid rules of a father who taught languages, or to the legalistic beliefs held by Catholics - Jesuits in particular.
   
   Like a highlights video, the book is organized around interesting constitutional issues and cases rather than following a traditional chronological timeline. Frequently using excerpts from the written opinions of Justice Scalia, there are short summaries of cases dealing with discrimination and affirmative action, abortion, religion, gay rights, the Bush/Gore presidential election, the Guantanamo detainees, and other important matters that came before the Supreme Court in the last twenty-five years. By and large, the summaries are substantively excellent. They are very well written and highly entertaining. Scalia's feistiness and dominating sense of humor are clearly presented. Opposing views of some of Scalia's colleagues on the bench and law school professors are presented, usually in conclusional form, sometimes through the author's introductory or concluding clauses. It is like reading a series of inter-related short stories. You do not want to put the book down.
   
   The issue-oriented organization of the book does give rise to some difficulties, although those difficulties do not detract from the interesting narrative. For example, the book does not deal with the evolution of the Supreme Court, except insofar as it involves Scalia's contemporaries. The most senior of those contemporaries was Justice William Brennan. The Supreme Court was in existence 166 years before Justice Brennan was appointed, but no mention is made of the pattern of Court decisions during that span of time. Nor is there any mention that Brennan, who was only the second Catholic appointed to the Supreme Court during those 166 years, was exceedingly uncomfortable with the fact that his appointment was largely because he was a Catholic. (President Eisenhower was appealing to Catholic voters.) On the other hand, the book does mention the comment of Professor Stone, a former Brennan law clerk, that "All five justices in the majority [banning partial birth abortion] are Catholic." The implication is that the ruling was made on religious grounds. Finally, the reader gets no sense of the difficulty that must have been encountered by a person of average means who competes with the brightest lawyers in the country and succeeds as a Justice of the Supreme Court. That element is missing from this account.



2. I've argued before Justice Scalia and as I've said before, I disagree with him a lot. However, he is undeniably a remarkable person and one to be admired.
   
   He's not the best writer on the Court. That honor, in my opinion, goes to Justice Thomas. He's not the most well-prepared justice on the Court. That honor, in my opinion, goes to Justice Breyer. He is though, in my opinion, the best oral advocate on the Court. If you spar with him, you are destined to be pinned. If law were music, he would be Mozart and the rest of us would be Salieri. If law were literature, he would be Shakespeare and the rest of us would be Marlowe. If law were comedy, he would be Seinfeld and the rest of us would be Kramer.
   
   So what of the book? Wonderful. It is remarkably even-handed, well-researched, and even funny in places. (A student once said he had named a fish "Justice Scalia." When asked if he had other fish named after Supreme Court Justices he replied "I did, but Justice Scalia ate them all.")
   
   I thought there was just one "cheap shot." It is a chapter called "Quack, Quack" the book dwells upon a hunting trip which Justice Scalia took with Vice President Cheney while a case which named Cheney as a party was pending. It's a non-issue, or at least it should be. Read sometime about FDR and his contact with Supreme Court Justices before their New Deal decisions, and his threat to pack the Court. That smacked of coercion. Justice Scalia is permitted to have friends and acquaintances, even if they have cases pending before the Court.
   
   In summary, buy it, read it, learn from it.



3. If this first-ever biography of the colorful and prickly Associate Justice were a New Yorker profile, it would merit four stars; if an Atlantic Monthly feature, three. It is an accessible and compact survey of Scalia's public writings and pronouncements, and of public commentary on them. But as biography, it is disappointing.
   
   Biskupic devotes only 21 pages to the first 38 years of her subject's life--the very period the reader is most curious about. How can this be called biography? Compare the first volume of Robert Caro's life of Lyndon Johnson-- 800 deeply illuminating pages on Johnson's first 33 years.
   
   The book offers few glimpses of the influences that shaped Scalia's thought and temperament. Who were the teachers, priests, and professors who taught him? What courses did he take, books did he read, bull sessions did he attend, course papers and letters did he write? He did years of ROTC in school but never served in the military; why not? He spent his junior year at Switzerland's University of Fribourg in what Biskupic calls "a yearlong academic and sightseeing feast." That feastful year gets 43 words.
   
   What was his work during his six years at the law firm of Jones, Day? Hardly a word on this. His four years as a professor at the University of Virginia get only glancing coverage.
   
   The book is drawn almost entirely from published sources. The author did interview the Justice himself several times, and a scattering of family and acquaintances, but collectively these interviews add only the faintest coloration to the public record. Most of Scalia's friends, classmates, and colleagues are still alive, and so loquacious a man certainly has left a lot of private writings and utterances scattered about. But Biskupic did not bother to do the hard digging necessary to uncover them. She worked libraries, not the streets.
   
   Biskupic surmises, casually and obviously, that his view of Roe v. Wade might have been shaped by his Catholic faith; and that his view of the District of Columbia's gun ban might have been influenced by his lifelong hunting hobby. Hardly profound.
   
   Two speculations are particularly tantalizing. First, Scalia's literalist "originalism" in constitutional interpretation has a parallel in the literalist catechism of the Catholic Church. Second, as a law student he was taken with Herbert Wechsler's doctrine of "neutral principles" of constitutional law--the notion that judges should decide by applying transcendent principles that are detached from the outcome in a particular case. Both of these beg for elaboration, but Biskupic simply tosses them into a paragraph or two and moves on.
   
   If you want a refresher on recent constitutional struggles, as expressed in Scalia's opinions, speeches, and writings, this is a useful book. If you are looking for illuminating biography, you will find, on finishing it, that you have learned almost nothing that was not already extant.



4. American Original is well worth reading, if repetitive at times (yes, we understand Scalia dislikes judicial activism and has a sharp tongue). This book was a pretty even-handed biography of one of our most controversial justices. I like that Biskupic discusses Scalia's deeply held religious beliefs, and how Scalia handled cases when they conflict with an objective interpretation of the law. Most people's opinions of Scalia probably won't change much after reading American Original. The author, for the most part, stays impartial toward most of Scalia's opinions. The exception is Bush v. Gore, which she believes was an indefensible decision (as do I). Scalia's fans shouldn't complain about this book; I thought it was a fair and balanced look at Scalia's life (please don't sue me, Fox News).



5. As I read this book, my thoughts returned to Glen Beck and Sean Hannity who constantly rail against activist judges. When I review the legacy of this putz of a justice, I get nauseous over the state of our democracy. Thank you justice Scalia for screwing the average American.

5 comments about Sex, Love, and Money: Revenge and Ruin in the World of High-Stakes Divorce.

1. I gave this book four stars because of the ending: Part five, Chapter Twelve, "A PIECE OF ADVICE." Here, the author Nissenbaum shines. His advice is wise and well worth listening to. Although it probably won't do anyone any good because as he states fairly early: "All marriages start with sex ... " and in " ... the full range of divorce cases ... everything comes back to money." His advice--marry well and "avoid a bad marriage." Basically, it his opinion that people don't change. He counsels--look to their previous behavior because that is how they will behave with you. Well, as I said, who's going to listen to that? Not when there's is sex and money to be had.
   
   Now what I don't like (albeit there may be truth here.) He writes: "At the risk of cultural stereotyping, I'll say that I've generally found Germans to be precise, logical, orderly people." (p.216) On the previous page, with no qualification, he wrote: "She was a Rhode Islander by birth, a child of Spanish immigrants, and she had the wild emotional intensity that I associate with Spaniards." Well, Mr. Nissenbaum, what does that make you, a New England Jewish high-stakes divorce lawyer?
   
   Here is another thing I don't like--the title. There is no love here, not in the section headings (The Scene; Sex; The Money; The Kids; A Piece of Advice) or in the discussion. A word search would not find the word "Love" often--if at all. The stories he tells (all true) are ugly and disheartening. Nissenbaum doesn't discuss love, except love of money. A better title-- "DIVORCE: A story of sex and money." Always, always, the ugliness rains down on the kids, the consequence of the sex, and who are then used as a way to manipulate the money and hurt the former sex buddy. The children are used as a weapon.
   
   Who is complicit in this travesty? The lawyers, judges, P.I.s, and expert witnesses. They are all in for the money.I would not do this work for any amount of money. The lawyers are, in my opinion, part of problem. This book makes that clear.
   
   The last section should be a mandatory assignment for examination in all high school classes.



2. One of the best books I have read on Divorce Law. I found it an insightful book into the real world of divorce: loaded with incredible, almost unbelievable stories of divorces and how sex, love, and money come into play. He made soap operas seem tame in comparison. This is one book you will pick up and not want to put down until you are finished. I've had a few jaw-dropping moments while reading this, and believe me either your jaws will drop like mine or your eyes will strain to get out of their sockets...Murder, revenge, deceit, this book has all the melange of a good thriller. You will be introduced to a few legal terms and the authors will take you through several cases with very in depth analysis.
   
   You will read about a woman who took everything from her husband, and left only two items in the house (I wouldn't want to ruin this part for you), to a German father who spent years trying to get his two sons back from their mother who fled to the US, to a former Prostitution Madam who married a millionaire and tried to extort money from him... as well as kill him. The list goes on and on. Do yourself a favor and read this book.



3. This book is a page-turner, so funny and salacious that you might consider it a guilty pleasure, or an indulgence in schadenfreude, if it weren't also finally both humane and wise in its treatment of these astonishing real-life divorcers. In his job as a divorce lawyer, Nissenbaum sees human behavior from a unique perspective; in this book he manages to use that perspective to illuminate the workings of the human heart.



4. Jerry Nissenbaum has captured the true essence of a variety of cases in the world of divorce. The stories are riveting. You can't put this book down. Enjoy! Joy Feinberg, Chicago divorce attorney



5. Boston Attorney Gerald Nissenbaum and co-author John Sedgwick have just published Sex, Love, and Money: Revenge and Ruin in the World of High-Stakes Divorce. The true-life tales from Gerald's forty years of practice as a divorce attorney are very funny and pretty much prove that truth is stranger than fiction. Many of his cases are more fun to read about than the juicy gossip on "Page 6" or the rumors of life between the bed sheets oozing from the sizzling items contained in the supermarket tabloids. Some of these cases were covered by those same tabloids.
   Nissenbaum charges $700 an hour and because of that rate he mostly handles divorces only for the very wealthy. In one case his fee was more than a million dollars. Another case involved legal warfare that lasted 17 years. In order to afford him his clients usually have to have at least five million dollars in assets and that would be for a relatively easy divorce case. He also does a lot of prenuptial agreements, which usually save his clients millions if experience triumphs over hope and the couple becomes one of the 43% of marriages that end in divorce.
   Some of the author's truths included in this tome included:
   "Deceit takes practice."
   "The thing is, chiselers chisel, and liars lie. That's what they do. It's their job."
   "...Everything is money--everything you see, and many of the things you do. It's almost like the world is one huge bank, and everything in it has a dollar value."
   "I put asunder what man has joined together."
   "I think of myself as being in the business of turning a crappy situation into something better. When clients come to me, their lives are a mess. There's money flying out the window; they're not seeing the kids' they're ready to kill. It's pretty awful. I can't fix everything, but I can make it better, so my clients can breathe again and not hurt so much."
   "If you ask me to name the biggest single cause of divorce in this country today. I'd have say it's marriage. And the biggest single cause of marriage. That would be sex."
   "But the sexual urge, the ache, never ends. That's the part that amazes me. It lasts and lasts. " It's also the reason most marriages end. The Tiger can't really change his stripes.
   The true stories in this book are sifted from the 8,000 plus cases the author has handled over his long career. Sometimes the names have been changed, but it's easy to figure out who is who if you've lived in either Boston or Providence and have followed the news headlines. These wealthy clients make good media copy. And many of them try to manipulate the media in hopes of helping their cases.
   One of the longest stories in the first half the book concerned the "North Shore Madam" who married one of her 73 year old clients, got control of his fortune and property, parked him a nursing home while she plotted with her butch cell mate about how to murder him. If this tale was fiction, nobody would believe it, but it really happened. One sample of the weird legal turns included in this case was that one of the married judges had apparently been one of the Madam's customers and didn't want her to spill the beans.
   This lawyer has indeed seen all sides of the real lives of his clients. Even he is continually amazed and can't wait to get to the office each morning to pick up the latest details of each of his cases.
   One of the good points to the divorce cases he handles is that all of the clients are wealthy enough that neither of the parties is going to be seriously hurt financially once the divorce is finally completed. As he puts it, none of them cries about the costs of the case. They may argue and weep endlessly about the kids, property or even the pets, but writing the checks doesn't really bother them enough to produce tears. The reader will be interested in one client's comment about what difference it really made to him that he finally had to give his former wife half of his $200 million fortune.
   Since this reviewer lives in Boston and has a lot of contacts in Providence, where most of these cases are fought out, the material was both entertaining and informational to me. I know some of the clients and lawyers mentioned in this memoir and can attest to the author's accuracy in describing them. It was interesting to learn some of the public case details that were barely covered by the press. The author knows that most people can't stand divorce lawyers, but they are still interested in getting free advice from them. As the author points out, at least 43% of them will probably eventually be in need of the service he provides.
   This is a page-turner, but as one cases ends, and another starts, it is possible to put aside the book for a while and then return to it later for an entirely different story. Some of the author's earliest legal work was for a member of Boston's infamous Winter Hill Gang. Since one of is fellow lawyers was the victim of a gang related car bombing, Nissenbaum decided to give up criminal defense and handle only divorce work. Even then he had to get permission of the mob in order to avoid accidentally offending or insulting them. Such an insult would have had to be dealt with in order for the mobsters to save face. This is a fascinating read. It almost makes the reader want to change their low opinion of divorce sharks, err, attorneys. Just kidding folks. This is real entertainment.