I asked the members of the Bench and Bar Section Council to choose one book with a legal bent that they would recommend every lawyer read. Among the suggestions are classics, novels, unknown gems, biographies, and plays. All of the books, though, will make you think, and perhaps re-think.

You might have read some of them, but that means there are many that you have not yet read or even heard of. I hope you will decide to pick up and try a few of these recommendations. As Henry David Thoreau wrote, “Read the best books first or you may not have a chance to read them at all.”

Here are the responses:

• A Civil Action by Jonathan Harr (Law)

• Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow (Biography)

• A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt (Play)

• Anatomy of a Murder by Robert Traver (Mystery)

• A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson (Travel)

• Breaking Through Bias: Communication Techniques for Women to Succeed at Work by Andrea S. Kramer and Alton B. Harris (Business)

• How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie (Self-help)

• Illinois Code of Professional Responsibility (Law)

• Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson (Memoir)

• Kick-Ass by Mark Millar and John Romita (Series of Graphic Novels)

• May It Please the Court: The Most Significant Oral Arguments Made Before the Supreme Court Since 1955 by Peter H. Irons and Stephanie Guitton (Law)

• Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63 by Taylor Branch (History)

• Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow (Novel)

• Prosser on Torts by William Lloyd Prosser (Law)

• Simple Justice: The History of Brown v. Board of Education and Black America’s Struggle for Equality by Richard Kluger (History)

• The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein (Novel)

• The Black Banners: The Inside Story of 9/11 and the War Against al-Qaeda by Ali Soufan (History)

• The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger (Novel)

• The Diversity Training Activity Book: 50 Activities for Promoting Communication and Understanding at Work by Jonamay Lambert and Selma Myers (Business)

• The Foreign Correspondent, by Alan Furst (Mystery)

• The Future of the Professions: How Technology Will Transform the Work of Human Experts by Richard Susskind and Daniel Susskind (Business)

• The Great Debate: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the Birth of the Right and Left, Yuval Levin (Politics)

• Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman (Psychology)

• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (Novel)

• Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom (Biography)

• Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose (Play)

• Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand (Biography)

Now go and get some rewarding reading done! 