With the rapidly evolving pace of news and first quarter billables in full view, it can be hard to squirrel away time to open a good book. Fear not, The National Law Journal has you covered. Our editors and reporters share some recent works that we’re reading that are penned by lawyers and/or about the law. From a biography on RBG to Scalia’s thoughts on wild turkey, check them out here.

"Ruth Bader Ginsburg: A Life" by Jane Sherron De Hart. Published by Alfred A. Knopf.

Justice Ginsburg, also known as Notorious RBG, has been the subject of a full-length documentary ("RBG") and a full-length biopic starring Felicity Jones ("On the Basis of Sex"). As of October, she is the focus of a full-length biography by historian Jane Sherron De Hart.

Ginsburg’s official biography by Georgetown University Law Center professors Mary Hartnett and Wendy Williams is still a work in progress, but De Hart’s 723-page book goes a long way toward capturing Ginsburg’s interesting life and her unwavering strength and dedication to advancing rights for women. A fascinating segment of the book offers details about the “campaign” to have President Bill Clinton nominate Ginsburg to the high court in 1993.

De Hart interviewed Ginsburg numerous times over more than a decade and was able to view some of Ginsburg’s papers and those of the American Civil Liberties Union, where Ginsburg launched her women’s rights litigation. Ginsburg “defines the word ‘indomitable,’” De Hart writes, adding that “Throughout the years, her voice has retained—even sharpened—its characteristic moral clarity and passion, leaving its mark not only on law but on American society.” —Tony Mauro

"Invisible: The Forgotten Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down America's Most Powerful Mobster" by Stephen L. Carter. Published by Henry Holt and Co.

Stephen L. Carter, the prolific author, Yale Law professor and former clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, is at it again. This time, he tells the story of his grandmother Eunice Hunton Carter, a trailblazing African-American woman lawyer whose strategizing, witness preparation and research led to the conviction of Charles "Lucky" Luciano, the powerful Mafia leader. Sound like an improbable story? Carter, the author, acknowledges that it might. "She was black and a woman and a lawyer a graduate of Smith and the granddaughter of three slaves and one free woman of color, as dazzlingly unlikely a combination as one could imagine in New York of the 1930s."

Eunice Hunton Carter's story is indeed exceptional. She enrolled at Fordham Law School when the New York Bar Association did not admit black lawyers. She eventually was admitted to the bar in 1933 and became the only black, female prosecutor in a select group of 20 chosen by special prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey to take on the Mafia—a story that was covered by The New York Times. This followed her spending a period as a Harlem Renaissance writer, honing her craft alongside the likes of Langston Hughes and Alain Locke. Though a woman ahead of her time, many aspects of her story resonate broadly. Any lawyer who identified her path at a young age will identify with the hardworking Eunice, who charted the same course at 8 years old. And African-Americans whose forebears relocated during America's Great Migration will find similarities in her family's journey from Atlanta to Brooklyn in 1907, to flee violence in the South. While Carter the professor steadily guides readers toward Eunice's work in the Luciano trial, and the jury's eventual conviction of Luciano and his associates on nearly all counts, the heir to his grandmother's legacy shows us that he takes no small measure of joy in weaving a detailed quilt of family history that gets us there. —Lisa Helem

"Proof" by C.E. Tobisman. Published by Thomas & Mercer

A true page-turner can also have substance—and humanity. This legal thriller won the 2018 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction, given each year to a novel that best illuminates the role of lawyers in society and their power to effect change. (Disclosure: I was a judge for the award.)

The author, C.E. (Cynthia) Tobisman, is an appellate attorney at the California firm Greines, Martin, Stein & Richland, a good writer whose economy of language moved the book forward at a fast pace. And Tobisman writes not just for lawyers. At one point, she explained how money-laundering works in language that anyone could understand. And that is no small feat.

The main character is Caroline Auden, a Los Angeles solo practitioner who was taking care of her grandmother’s estate when she stumbled onto evidence of elder abuse and corporate skullduggery. Risking her life and career, she followed each lead for the greater good—something Atticus Finch would be proud of. —Tony Mauro

"Scalia Speaks: Reflections on Law, Faith, and Life Well Lived" edited by Christopher J. Scalia and Edward Whelan. Published by Penguin Random House.

The late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia had a lot of opinions about a lot of things—not just the cases for which he wrote majority rulings or dissents. In his public talks and writings, he discussed topics ranging from Catholic faith to Irish jokes, turkey hunting, natural law and freedom of speech, as you will see in this rich and fascinating book published a year and a half after his death in 2016.

In a speech before the National Wild Turkey Federation, Scalia once said, “I’ve also seen a wild turkey inside the Beltway, right on my property, 20 minutes from the nation’s Capitol. There are a lot of turkeys inside the Beltway, but this one was wild.”

The eminently readable writings were culled and edited by Christopher Scalia, a son of the late justice, and Ed Whelan, a former Scalia clerk. Whelan was in the spotlight during the confirmation hearing for Brett Kavanaugh, offering an alternate theory that contradicted Christine Blasey Ford’s allegation that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her while they were in high school. Whelan later apologized for what he called an “appalling and inexcusable mistake.” —Tony Mauro

"Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup" by John Carreyrou. Published by Alfred A. Knopf.

I could not put down Bad Blood by John Carreyrou about Theranos, the ballyhooed bio-tech start-up that became one of Silicon Valley's biggest scams. It was such addictive reading that I looked forward to my occasional bouts of insomnia—just so I could continue the story late into the night.

The page-turner is about the meteoric rise and fall of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, a Steven Jobs wannabe (at one point, her worth was $4.5 billion) who turned out to be a much younger, comelier Bernie Madoff. And who unwittingly aided her? Luminaries of all stripes (Henry Kissinger, Charles Schultz, Rupert Murdoch and President Barack Obama—among others, the author reports). And, of course, lawyers—particularly David Boies, who tried deploying a combination of charm and threats to thwart Carreyrou from publishing his expose about the company in the Wall Street Journal.

Boies and his partners come across as anything but heroes. They show little compunction in using bullying tactics to silence anyone who might speak out about Theranos. And some lawyers representing those seeking to challenge Theranos seemed thoroughly intimidated by Boies' presence (they often urge their clients—former employees of Theranos—to cave in).

This book won't give lawyers a good name. Actually, it made them downright scary. —Vivia Chen