Teaching Lessons from Teach for America

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 12:30:00 GMT

The Atlantic has a great article about Teach for America (TFA), which aims to end educational inequity by recruiting recent college graduates to teach in low-income schools for 2 years. According to the Atlantic article: Until now, Teach for American...

'Indiana Laws of Aging' handbook available for minimal fee

kim.dayton@wmitchell.edu (Kim Dayton) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:23:00 GMT

The Indiana State Bar Association and the Indiana Bar Foundation are pleased to announce that the Indiana Laws of Aging handbook, formerly known as the Legal Reference for Older Hoosiers, is available for purchase at a minimal price! Members of...

Books: Oscar the Cat Knows When Death is Near

kim.dayton@wmitchell.edu (Kim Dayton) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 21:10:00 GMT

PROVIDENCE, R.I. —The cat’s uncanny. It knows when death approaches. At first this was just a curious observation. Now it’s an undeniable conclusion, first published two years ago in a medical journal and now in a new book that came...

Divorce Attorney Tells All

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 05:16:39 GMT

A Massachusetts divorce attorney has co-authored a new book with a journalist, entitled Sex, Love, and Money: Revenge and Ruin in the World of High-Stakes Divorce. The book description is as follows: In this riveting memoir, one of the nation's...

olp

hs@styronlaw.com (Harry Styron) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 17:41:25 GMT

I’ve posted as a page, under the “Diversions” category (see sidebar), a work in progress, which is an overview of Ozarks fiction. My intent is to gradually assemble a fairly detailed compilation of links and impressions about fiction in which the setting of the Ozarks and the people of the Ozarks play significant roles. I hope [...]

I hope readers will comment, point out out omissions and quibble with my choices of authors and titles to mention. As I receive comments and suggestions, I’ll make changes in the body of the text, so that we’ll end up with a wiki-type compiliation.

Don’t be shy about commenting.

Filed under: Arkansas, Branson, Missouri, Ozarks, Uncategorized Tagged: authors, books, novels, Ozarks fiction, writers

Elizabeth Gilbert on Marriage

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:06:00 GMT

For fans of Elizabeth Gilbert (author of Eat, Pray, Love), here’s a CNN interview with the writer on her new book Committed, which covers her view of marriage following a bitter divorce and (happy?) remarriage. We’ll be seeing a lot...

Atticus Finch: Friend or Foe?

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 02:46:28 GMT

The year 2010 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of To Kill a Mockingbird. Of course, this novel has been very influential both inside and outside the legal profession, and it was again the subject of headlines a few...

"Sobriety diminishes, discriminates, and says no; drunkenness expands, unites and says yes."

annalthouse@gmail.com (Ann Althouse) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 16:31:35 GMT

So wrote William James in "The Varieties of Religious Experience" (1902), quoted in "The Harvard Psychedelic Club" (2010).

Law & Magic: A Collection of Essays Now Available

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 19:46:48 GMT

The book Law & Magic: A Collection of Essays made its debut at the AALS meeting in New Orleans. It's available at CAP's website (discount!) and also via amazon.com and bn.com.

Query on ebooks for law firm (and other) marketing

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 17:09:47 GMT

Over the years, I have ghostwritten more than 15 comprehensive books on a wide range of legal and business subjects. I recently persuaded a new client to go the ebook (rather than hard copy) route. She liked the idea -- and now I must "walk the talk" by familiarizing myself with the process, including ebook compiler software. Based on preliminary research, it looks like folks write in Word, transfer to PDF and then upload to a compiler. Is this correct? Any recommendations on process as well as ebook compiler software would be welcome. Is there any software that lets you compose and publish in the same package?

"Montauk Chia."

annalthouse@gmail.com (Ann Althouse) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 17:19:54 GMT

Whatever the hell that is...

... orgasms are involved, in amongst other incomprehensible nonsense.

Another photo from the New Age bookstore — called Whole Life — that we stumbled into after the movie last night.

ADDED: Chia petting?

The Value of Checklists

KMAdvice@gmail.com (Mary Abraham) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:15:54 GMT

Let’s start with the premise that you’re fantastic. In fact, you’re well-trained, experienced and routinely exhibit good judgment. So, do you need a checklist? Ask a pilot or a surgeon. Surgeon Atul Gawande did exactly that and learned some interesting — and sobering — things. In a recent interview, he discussed his latest book, The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right, which recounts his exploration of the value of checklists. Time and again, he found that checklists were an effective antidote to ignorance, uncertainty and complexity. He and his team developed a two-minute checklist that covered some basics for surgery (e.g., do we have enough blood and antibiotics?), as well as some basics for good teamwork (e.g., does everyone in the Operating Room know the name of each person in the room?). They then tested these lists in eight different hospitals. The results were stunning. For example, when they took the time to make introductions, they had a 35% decline in deaths and complications related to surgery.

Creating checklists for routine procedures makes sense. They allow you to act quickly and confidently. Creating checklists for complex situations are even more important since these are precisely the times when you are most beset by uncertainty and may not even know what you don’t know. In these cases, it’s helpful to have a checklist that can help pin down facts and eliminate areas of concern.

After the trial period in eight hospitals, 80% of the surgeons involved said they would continue to use the checklist. Interestingly, 20% remained resistant. They believed that the checklists were a waste of time and didn’t add value. However, when asked if you were having an operation, would you want your surgeon to use the checklist, 94% of those resisters said they would.

So why are professionals resistant to checklists? Atul Gawande thinks that this is because experts have a hard time admitting their own fallibility. There are also experts (be they lawyers or knowledge managers) who approach their work as “artistes.” Therefore, they believe their creative outflow cannot be reduced to a dry checklist. Finally, there are the thousands of us who fly through our days just struggling to get things done. In the press of business, it is hard to take the time to stop and reflect on what works and what doesn’t. It’s harder still to take the time to document it. Tragically, when an error or accident happens, we are forced to stop and think about what went wrong. Under those circumstances, the analysis is charged, value-laden and painful for all concerned.

Is there a two-minute checklist you could develop this week that might help strengthen your work flow or work product? If so, can you afford not to make the investment of time required to create that checklist?

[Photo Credit: Adam Sacco]

"For those who might like a hint or two: 'Gary Oldman' is Albert Goldman..."

annalthouse@gmail.com (Ann Althouse) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 18:12:48 GMT

Blech. If you have to explain it, all the fun and surprise is gone.

I am reminded of the entry of the lion in the play within a play in "A Midsummer Night's Dream":

You, ladies, you, whose gentle hearts do fear
The smallest monstrous mouse that creeps on floor,
May now perchance both quake and tremble here,
When lion rough in wildest rage doth roar.
Then know that I, one Snug the joiner, am
A lion-fell, nor else no lion's dam;
For, if I should as lion come in strife
Into this place, 'twere pity on my life.

I wonder if the editors' meetings about the need for a prologue were as ridiculous as the discussions among the actors in the old play.

I grant you, friends, if that you should fright the
ladies out of their wits, they would have no more
discretion but to hang us: but I will aggravate my
voice so that I will roar you as gently as any
sucking dove; I will roar you an 'twere any
nightingale.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, the Beatles:

A REALLY COOL BOOK ABOUT VIKINGS

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:17:35 GMT

Ever since I can remember remembering I have been fascinated with Vikings. I think it began when I read a condensed version of Beowulf in a Childcraft encyclopedia. The story was exciting and the pictures of huge warriors wearing horned or winged helmets wielding massive swords captured my imagination. Shortly thereafter I [...]

However, the more I learned about the Vikings the more I understood that they were not, to put it mildly, friendly to Christendom. As the product of a devout Southern Baptist upbringing this was always somewhat troubling for me. Imagine my excitement when I discovered Lars Walker’s books about Erling Skjalgsson, Norway’s first Christian lord. The first book, The Year of the Warrior, is a rousing page turner that I simply could not put down. Simply put, it is an exciting mix of historical fiction and fantasy. Mr. Walker has continued Erling’s saga with his most recent book, West Oversea. In this book, Erling and his companions journey to the new world. As with the first book, West Oversea not only delivers an action packed story but also some penetrating spiritual insights. However, it does this without getting “preachy” or sacrificing good story telling. If you are strapped for gift ideas then look no further, just remember to get a copy for yourself.

"I love audiobooks, in part because I’m lazy and in part because I’m not."

annalthouse@gmail.com (Ann Althouse) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:18:09 GMT

"Rather than sitting still and moving my eyes over a page, I like to roam around and do stuff—iron, say, or defrost my freezer. I take walks, I soak in the tub, I turn up the volume and vacuum."

Says David Sedaris, who goes on to list audiobooks he likes because of the perfect match between the reader and the material. I agree with Sedaris about the lazy/unlazy quality of listening to audiobooks and want to add what he can't say, which is that his own writing and reading are a brilliant match.

Kindle v. Books: Books Not Dead Yet…Except Maybe Law Books

ppengelley@cozen.com (Pamela Pengelley) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 20:05:40 GMT

Kindle is the latest in a series of electronic devices some have suggested will sound the death knell of the book. The demise of the printed book has been predicted since at least the 1970s – remember the “paperless office” that was supposed to be just around the corner? Admittedly, it’s difficult to think of [...]

Admittedly, it’s difficult to think of something that isn’t online nowadays. Even the legal profession, which perhaps most vividly conjures up the image of bookshelves filled with stacks of solemn law tomes and serried law reporters, has gone electronic: court decisions from all over the word, legislation, government debates and legal publications of all types, almost everything is available online at the click of a mouse.

Yet in the face of the technological leaps and bounds of the past centuries, books have persisted in more or less the same format, largely unchanged. The previous post on this site, discussing Google Goggles (see below), links to a fascinating presentation by researchers at MIT in which they showcase technology that will allow a somewhat frightening degree of information to be made instantly available to the wearer of the device. I mention this, because I was delighted by the interaction between this cutting-edge technology and the book. The wearer of the MIT device would only have to look at a book (or even think in the direction of a book, as mention is made of embedded brain chips) in order to receive a virtual projection of the latest book reviews, Amazon ratings etc. I find the implications fascinating: purchasers of this futuristic technology will use it to help them decide what books to buy. Aww. I had to smile. Here we have it folks, from researchers at MIT on the cutting, not to say bleeding, edge. However far we might advance, we’ll still be buying books. Actual books.

That said, no-one wants to curl up in bed or in front of a fire with a law report, or a piece of legislation. What is their use today, except as space-fillers? Their demise in printed form is long overdue, except perhaps to the film industry; their nice, uniform bindings do look attractive, after all. The next time you watch a movie or television show, take a closer look at the books in the background – 99.9% of the time, they are discarded law reporters. Goggle them, or ogle them, but let’s stop destroying trees to store them when, let’s face it, nobody looks at them anymore.

Peñalver and Katyal's Property Outlaws

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:41:03 GMT

Yale University has just published Property Outlaws, by Eduardo M. Peñalver (Cornell) and Sonia K. Katyal (Fordham). Here's the burb from the YUP website: Property Outlaws puts forth the intriguingly counterintuitive proposition that, in the case of both tangible and...

"Kings of Torts" (aka The Dickie Scruggs Story)

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:44:14 GMT

In yesterday's Clarion Ledger, Sid Salter reviewed "Kings of Tort" by Alan Lange and Tom Dawson. The book tells the story of Dickie Scruggs's fall from grace in the bribery scandal that led to his current address in federal prison....

"In her luminous memoir..."

annalthouse@gmail.com (Ann Althouse) — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 16:06:43 GMT

I thought the memo had gone out that the word "luminous" had been banned from book reviews:

Several years ago, overwhelmed by the flood of material unleashed annually by the publishing industry, I decided to establish a screening program by purchasing only books that at least one reviewer had described as ''astonishing.''

Previously, I had limited my purchases to merchandise deemed ''luminous'' or ''incandescent,'' but this meant I ended up with an awful lot of novels about bees, Provence or Vermeer. The problem with incandescent or luminous books is that they veer toward the introspective, the arcane or the wise, while I prefer books that go off like a Roman candle. When I buy a book, I don't want to come away wiser or happier or even better informed. I want to get blown right out of the water by the author's breathtaking pyrotechnics. I want to come away astonished.

That's Joe Queenan, writing in the New York Times in 2007, but now here's the New York Times with its 10 Best Books of 2009, calling a memoir "luminous." How can I trust their judgment? To be fair, they didn't call anything "incandescent" or "astonishing."

New Book On Harry Potter and the Law Forthcoming From Carolina Academic Press

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 20:13:00 GMT

Forthcoming in January 2010 from Carolina Academic Press, The Law and Harry Potter, edited by Jeffrey E. Thomas and Franklin G. Snyder. Here's a description from the website. This volume considers the depiction of law and legal institutions in J.K....

Forthcoming in January 2010 from Carolina Academic Press, The Law and Harry Potter, edited by Jeffrey E. Thomas and Franklin G. Snyder. Here's a description from the website.

This volume considers the depiction of law and legal institutions in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels. It contains more than twenty chapters by legal academics from the U.S. and abroad. The chapters are organized in five sections: Legal Traditions and Institutions, Crimes and Punishments, Harry Potter and Identity, the Wizard Economy, and Harry Potter as an Archetype. Some chapters analyze the way law and legal institutions are portrayed, and what these portrayals teach us about concepts such as morality, justice, and difference. Other chapters use examples from the narratives to illustrate or analyze legal issues, such as human rights, actual innocence, and legal pedagogy. The volume is suitable for undergraduate or law school courses, and will be of interest to those Harry Potter fans who also have an interest in law and the legal profession.

Get a ten percent discount by ordering from the website. (Full disclosure: CAP is my publisher as well).

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