Saturday, September 15, 2007 9:20 AM
Today marks the start of a new guest writer feature at Blawg's Blog. Every Saturday, Chicago-based lawyer, author, humorist, and former journalist, Randy Richardson will be writing about books. Specifically, books of interest to the legal world, ranging from current titles to enduring classics such as One L, which is the focus of today's Highlighter.
Over the years, Randy has both turned me on to interesting new books and reminded me of past titles I may have missed or want to re-read. I hope he does the same for you...
*****************************************
One L: The Turbulent True Story of a First Year at Harvard Law School
*****************************************
I would imagine that there’s a rush on sales of One L each year that law schools open their doors to a new class of would-be legal eagles.
While I don’t have a mountain of evidence to support this theory, a quick check of Amazon.com sales figures of Scott Turow’s memoir of his first year at Harvard Law School seems to give some credence to my belief.
Its Amazon sales rank? 7,615.
How do Turow’s famous legal thrillers stand up in comparison? His breakout novel Presumed Innocent (1987) had a sales rank of 265,675. His follow-up best seller, Burden of Proof (1990)? 529,307.
More striking is that One L was No. 2 in books referencing lawyers and judges and No. 16 in books concerning legal education.
Not bad for a book that turned 30 this year and was little known until after Turow gained fame with the courtroom dramas he wrote a decade or more later.
In One L, Turow, who remains a practicing lawyer (he’s a partner of the Chicago law firm of Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal), chronicles a time that anyone who has ever taken a seat in a classroom as a first-year law student surely never forgets. He vividly captures all the emotions and changes that come with being a One L.
Each fall term brings a new audience for Turow’s first book. Which is why I would imagine that in another 30 years, One L will still be finding its way into the hands of first-year law students.
Randy Richardson is an author, humorist, former journalist, and a lawyer. His fiction debut, Lost in the Ivy, a murder mystery set against the backdrop of Chicago's storied Wrigley Field, won the Writers Marketing Association's “Fresh Voices” Book Award and the Illinois Woman's Press Association's Mate E. Palmer Communications Contest. He writes the Dad Libs column for SanityCentral.com and is a frequent contributor to Chicago Parent magazine. In his day job, he is an attorney for the Social Security Administration’s disability appeals branch. At night and during lunch breaks, he serves as president of the Chicago Writers Association (chicagowrites.org) and works on his second novel while a 4-year-old tugs on his legs. Visit his website at www.lostintheivy.com.
**********************************************************************