Book Choices of Sacramento Lawyers

As lawyers, we work with words all day. But when that work day is over, what do we read for pleasure? The Sacramento Lawyer surveyed a random sampling of local lawyers by e-mail, asking them to name their favorite books and the books that they had read most recently. Below is a collection of their responses.

Keith D. Cable
Associate at Schwartz, Zweben & Associates
Favorite Book: "Pretty much any children's book my young sons and I enjoy together."
Last Book I Read: Ghost Soldiers. "As a war buff, I found it to be a fascinating account of the U.S. Army's plan to rescue prisoners of war in the Philippines in 1945."

Tamara Colson
Deputy Attorney General
Favorite Book: Everything I Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum. "It is a great book even though I never went to kindergarten."
Last Book I Read: P Is For Peril by Sue Grafton

Shirley Hart David
Director Sacramento County Public Law Library
"I am currently reading Endangered Dreams: the Great Depression in California by Dr. Kevin Starr, the California State Librarian. This is the fourth in Dr. Starr's series of books capturing the social and cultural history of California.

Stacy Boulware Eurie
Deputy Attorney General
Favorite Book: The Day After Tomorrow by Allan Folsom. "The mystery and intrigue sets a whole new level for the genre."
Last Book I Read: Pinstripes & Pearls by Judith Richards Hope.

Richard Fathy
Recommends Waiting by Ha Jin, a novel set in 1960s China, for wonderful writing style and the incredible sense of duty displayed by the main characters.

Robert King Fong
Partner, Mackenroth, Ryan & Fong
"The last book I read was The Natural by Joe Klein, which documents the Clinton years in the White House, and my favorite book is Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury."

Carly Hegle
Sacramento County Counsel's Office
Last Book I Read: The Emperor of Ocean Park by Stephen L. Carter. "A multi-layered whodunnit involving the family of an African American judge, with good social commentary as well."

Heather Cline Hoganson
Staff Counsel, Office of Administrative Hearings
Last Book Read: The War on Pain by Dr. Fishman (Chief of Pain Medicine, UC Davis). "Written for lay people, it describes what pain is, how it affects us, and how it can be treated. Dr. Fishman uses patient stories to convey pain's emotional component and to illustrate what pain can do to a life."
Favorite Book: "I guess I'm more of a series person — David Eddings, Robert Asprin (Myth), C.S.Lewis (Narnia), J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter)."

Marc B. Koenigsberg
Associate, Bullivant Houser Bailey
Favorite Book: "Sorry to say, but it's a tie: John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and Thomas Harris' Hannibal. "Two completely different books, but both just as compelling in very distinct ways."
Last Book You Read: Thomas Harris' Black Sunday. "Though written 30 years ago, it is very topical given the age of terrorism."

Marc A. Levinson
Partner, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP
"My favorite book is two books: Joseph Heller's Catch-22 and John Irving's The World According to Garp. Both are literate, compelling and full of dark humor. The last book I read was Full Court Press by Mike Lupica. It's a humorous and almost-convincing novel about the first woman to play in the NBA. A particularly good airplane read."

Hon. Loren McMaster
Sacramento County Superior Court Judge
"I am currently reading David McCullough's biography of John Adams. The first part of the book focuses on Adams' career as a lawyer in Massachusetts, and thus far is quite interesting. I just finished Blue Latitudes by Tony Horowitz. This is a book on Captain Cook, a kind of combination history of Cook's voyages and the author's attempt to follow in Cook's footsteps. It is an excellent book. A few months ago I completed a one-week CLE course in Law and Literature in which we read, among other things, some old classics such as (Herman) Melville's Billy Budd, Trollope's The Warden, The Oresteria (by Aeschylus), Kafka's The Trial, Shakespeare's Measure for Measure and part of The Merchant of Venice, and Joseph Conrad's The Heart of Darkness."

Elizabeth Rindskopf Parker
Dean, University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law
Last Book I Read: In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World It Made by Norman F. Cantor (author of The Civilization of the Middle Ages—my second-to-last book).
Favorite books (those I recommend often): Swan's Way by Marcel Proust, A Peace to End All Peace by David Fromkin, Wild Swans, Life and Death in Shanghai by Nien Cheng, Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope.

Rosemarie Benitez Ruggieri
Senior Staff Counsel, DMV-Legal Affairs Division
Favorite Book: Dostoyevski's Crime & Punishment. "Until then I thought teachers only assigned novels to strengthen my endurance to remain awake. It was such an exciting read. I re-read it every few years."
Last Book I Read: Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban - "I read the first book to keep up with cultural references. I enjoyed it so much that I am reading all of the books."

Robert Ryan, Jr.
Sacramento County Counsel
"While on vacation last summer, I finally made it through Charles Dickens' Bleak House, a tragi-comic look at the world of Probate Law.

Jennifer Brown Shaw
Senior Associate, Jackson Lewis LLP
Last Book I Read: Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo.
Favorite Book: "One of my favorite books is The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver.

Noreen Skelly
Deputy Attorney General
Favorite Book: Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. "I like where she goes and the things she has to puzzle through."
Last Book I Read: The Honest Courtesan: Veronica Franco, Citizen And Writer In Sixteenth-Century Venice by Margaret F. Rosenthal and Catharine R. Stimpson

Julie Weng-Gutierrez
Deputy Attorney General
Last book I read: The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller "just in time for Valentine's Day."
Favorite book: Fyodor Doestoevsky's Crime & Punishment; his grasp and portrayal of the human psyche is utterly impressive.