Summer Updates - Legal Fiction

We know all of you are busy working and studying, making the summertime an essential part of your overall legal education. However, it is still summer, and if you have some down time at the beach or the pool (or even indoors in the air-conditioning), we thought we’d suggest some riveting and interesting legal fiction for you to check out.

Each year, the University of Alabama School of Law and the ABA Journal jointly award one book the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction; the winner is the work “that best exemplifies the role of lawyers in society.” The 2014 winner will be announced on August 28th, as the winning book will be honored on that day at the Library of Congress National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. Check out these past (and possibly future) winners of the award:

Ronald H. Balson’s Once We Were Brothers

Finalist for 2014 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction

This book won the largest percentage of votes in this year's readers' choice online poll, which is one of the factors considered in determining the winner for the year.

Paul Goldstein’s Havana Requiem

Winner of the 2013 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction

This book was last year's highly acclaimed winner, and also received the highest number of votes in the readers' choice poll for 2013.

William Landay’s Defending Jacob

Runner-Up for the 2013 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction

This book came in a very close second in last year's readers' choice online poll, coming in second by only ten votes.

Have you read any of these books? Come by the reference office and let us know – we’d love to chat with you about it! Of course, you can always read the book that inspired it all, and inspires us still:

Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird

We’ll post again soon with some more interesting reads.

In the meantime, keep calm and read on.