Two book finished in November; basically my normal pace now. As much as I’d like to get back to my old pace, that doesn’t seem likely to happen any time soon. After finals, I will have a month free of school, maybe I can hit my book goals for December and January. Or maybe not.

The Shattered Tree

Charles Todd

A decent little mystery. This is another one starring Todd’s WWI nurse Bess Crawford. This time, she has a French patient who comes in in the wrong uniform. There a just a lot of mysteries around this patient. When Bess is injured and sent away from the front to recover, she happens to see this patient in Paris, she at first attempts to check in on him and then starts trying to unravel the mystery of who exactly he is. It was entertaining. Bess thinks she’s on to something here and realizes that people in charge are willing to go with a theory that doesn’t really match the facts, so she is determined to figure things out. I will likely check out more of these. They have largely been pretty good.

Justice Brennan: Liberal Champion

Seth Stern and Stephen Wermiel

A detailed biography of Justice William J. Brennan Jr., that despite running some 700 pages doesn’t do a whole lot to illuminate who he was. It is very thorough on what he did; on his work over 30+ years as a Supreme Court Justice, but other than noting that Brennan was an intensely private person it does little to illuminate him as a person. Readers will not find out what drove Brennan. It does point out when his personal thoughts seemed at odds with his judicial philosophy, but it doesn’t really tell you anything unless you think there is a disconnect between believing in reporters right to report something but not being happy with what they choose to report. It does go into detail on some of the inner workings of the Supreme Court, following Brennan’s appointment to the court and his solidifying of the Warren Court. There are lots of good details on how the sausage of a supreme court decision is made. Even more detail on Brennan’s role, as he shifted pieces of opinions to get other justices to sign on. It paints Brennan as an effective justice and one willing to sacrifice smaller points to achieve a greater one.