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Review by Claire Hickman

Property: A Contemporary Approach by John G. Sprankling & Raymond R. Coletta was published by West Academic in 2018. The hardbound 4th edition consists of 1001 pages, with a table of cases and an index. Throughout the book, photos and diagrams are used to help the reader better understand the material. An interested reader can find the book in the reserve collection at the Law Library.

Property: A Contemporary Approach introduces the core concepts of property law to its readers. The book is centered on the four essential property rights, or the bundle of sticks. Each case falls into one of these categories: transfer, exclude, use, or destroy.

In my Property I course, I found this book to be a great guide to the theories of property law. The cases selected to demonstrate each topic are comical and appealing to the modern reader. My favorite part about the book is its “Points for Discussion” section, offering application questions and insight into the aftermath of the case. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for an elemental breakdown of core property law concepts.

*This book is a Spring 2023 textbook and is available at the circulation desk.

Review by Kathryne Smith

This book was an interesting read that I would recommend to any law student or working legal professional. Lauristen starts by explaining how lawyers, in general, can better maximize their time, money, and brainpower into creating information systems which are reusable. It focused on the different types of digital information systems lawyers have available to them, then teaches the reader how to effectively use these tools in practice.

I recommend it for students who are using digital tools for legal research or want to run their own practice in the near future. Time is money for lawyers and this book will help make sure their time is not wasted. One of the more effective tools it provided was charts that help the reader look at their goals and then pinpoint what digital information systems they could benefit the most from. Overall, this book could be a useful tool to anyone who is looking to maximize their assets in the legal field

Review by Mason Mackovjak

The book I chose to read was The Lawyer Millionaire: The Complete Guide for Attorneys on Maximizing Wealth, Minimizing Taxes, and Retiring with Confidence by Darren P. Wurz, MSFP, CFP®. Published by the American Bar Association in 2022, this book is about 230 pages. The author, David P. Wurz is a financial planner, investment advisor, and co-owner of Wurz Financial Services. Mr. Wurz specializes in working with attorneys and law firm owners.

In this guide Mr. Wurz dives deep into the path that many attorneys and law firm owners embark on in their career, from getting started as a lawyer post law school and paying off loans, up to planning when to retire and what to do with your firm once you decide to. Along the way Mr. Wurz minimizing your taxes as a law firm owner and different investing strategies for different lawyers. He also advises how to deal with economic hardships such as a recession when owning your own practice. Mr. Wurz ends this guide with how to make the sale of your firm successful if that is the path you choose to go down.

Though I am yet to be a practicing attorney, reading this book really opened my eyes to the challenges and benefits of owning your own firm. As an attorney with your own firm, you also must be a business owner as well as practicing law. This comes with the need to develop a business plan and goals to reach along the way in order to pay off debts, grow, and eventually sell or give away your business. I thought this book did a great job by starting off with going over student loans that many law students will have. I thought by doing this, the author pulled me in right away. Additionally, Mr. Wurz stressed topics such as minimizing taxes and preparing for retirement as though retirement may seem a long way off, as a firm owner it is crucial to think about it early so you know exactly how to budget and how much business your firm must be doing.

Overall, I thought this was a great book that I would recommend to any student who is interested in one day working at their own firm and wants to get a general game plan for how to set yourself up for financial success.

Review by Isabella Phillips

Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know by Adam Grant is about 257 pages and was published in 2021. Adam Grant is an organizational psychologist who explores the interaction of your own cognitive skills with those of others and encourages readers to rethink and unlearn. Grant categorizes the novel into three parts: a deep dive into our own thinking, understanding the thinking of others around us, and the building of a beneficial cognitive community.

Some of the key takeaways from the book that resonated with me were: think like a scientist, reserve the right to change your mind, plan just one step ahead, be curious, listen and stay calm in a debate, build meaning to bring happiness into your life, find joy in being wrong,  schedule checkups with yourself, and plan time to rethink.

Grant draws meaningful analogies and provides real world examples and testimonials as to how these various thought processes can have a profound impact on individual lives. Grant is well researched and does a wonderful job of integrating this research into these stories to resonate with the reader on both a scientific and human level. I would recommend this book for anyone who is curious to learn more about themselves, who wants to integrate positive psychological habits, or anyone embarking on a new or demanding journey. Specifically, to law students, this book is tremendously helpful as law students navigate an environment with diverse perspectives, opinions, and challenges.