Publisher’s note: The Texas Lawbook is pleased to offer this new column in partnership with Texas-based Half Price Books sharing our readers’ favorite reads. “My Five Favorite Books” will publish every other Wednesday. Please email brooks.igo@texaslawbook.net for more information.
It is hard to narrow a list of favorite books to five, but here is my list – at least today’s version.
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First, Lonesome Dove. A little slow getting the story started, but so sad to see it end. An epic journey with great dialogue, and a large cast of very memorable characters (We named dogs after two of them, Gus and Woodrow. If our next dog is female, Lori Darlin’ would be in strong contention.) The mini-series did a remarkable job of bringing the characters and story to the small screen, and it is hard now not to think of Gus and Captain Call without thinking of Robert Duvall as Gus, and Tommy Lee Jones as Captain Woodrow Call. I am still quoting lines from the book some forty years after reading it.
And while we are on the subject of Larry McMurtry and great Texas novels, I would put Horseman, Pass By, McMurty’s first novel, in the category. It is very different from Lonesome Dove – an unsentimental look at life on a cattle ranch in west Texas in the mid 1950’s, and the very different values and aspirations of an older and younger generation. It is, inpart, a coming of age story, and part elegy to the old West. The one similarity in the two novels is McMutry’s ability to write great dialogue and descriptions which feel authentically Texan. It was later made into the movie Hud starring Paul Newman.
Next on my list is A Prayer for Owen Meany. Set in New England in the 50’s and 60’s, it is the story of Owen Meany, a very small, odd, and ultimately heroic kid, who is one of literature’s unforgettable characters. Author John Irving mixes bazaar and profound elements in a story touching on faith, fate and character.
My colleagues at JW know Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage would end up on this list. It is the unbelievable story of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ill-fated attempt in 1914-1917, to cross the Antarctic on dog sleds in the age of the other great explorers and fame-seekers Peary, Scott and Amundsen. Before they could land the expedition, his ship is captured in ice and ultimately crushed, leaving the crew to survive on the ice during the long, dark and frigid Antarctic winter. When the ice melts in the spring, they must find a way to survive and make their way back to civilization, with only three small life boats and the supplies they could carry – making their way across one of the roughest stretches of open water in the world. It is an incredible story of adventure, survival and leadership.
Finally, I would add Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. This is a dense work of non-fiction, which really shatters the illusion that we are rational actors; instead demonstrating that we often rely on heuristics and mental shortcuts, and that the framing of the question is often more outcome-determinative than the substance It is one of the cornerstones of the new area of behavioral economics, and the research that he and his colleague Amos Teversky performed earned Kahneman a Nobel Prize. Their powerful insights are very relevant to the work we lawyers do, and some passing understanding of their work is crucial, I believe, and well worth the effort of working through this important book.
Wade Cooper is the managing partner of Jackson Walker. He chairs the Management Committee and the Compensation Committee of the firm, and has held this position since 2010.
