Ivy Briefs--A great end of the summer read

This post was cross-posted at our sister blog, Legal Antics.
********

I recently had the pleasure to read Ivy Briefs--True Tales of a Neurotic Law Student by Martha Kimes.

I read the book in all of 2 days, which is a near miracle considering that I can barely read an entire magazine article these days, what with my two little mutts darling children constantly interrupting my thought process and demanding  "Look at us, Mom! Look!  Moooomm!  Look at us!"--which I do, expecting to see a fantabulous performance of some sort given their ridiculously high decibel levels, only to find them  doing something rather bland and generally unimpressive, such as sticking out their tongues at me.

So, the fact that I finished this book so quickly is undeniable proof that I simply could not put it down.

Ms. Kimes offers a very accurate and extremely humorous look at law school and the insanity that it breeds.  I easily recognized the cast of characters found in every law school, from the obnoxious talker to the obsessive-compulsive students who color coded their class notes with tabs and mysteriously and somewhat randomly multi-colored, highlighted text.  In fact, I actually found myself experiencing unpleasant flashbacks to my first few weeks of law school and began to remember the names of people I happily forgot about as soon as I walked out those doors after graduation.

Here's an example of the sharp and insightful wit found in this novel:    

Torts is basically a class where you study "civil wrongs"...These injuries run the gamut from surgical instruments accidentally left inside appendectomy patients to limbs severed in bizarre industrial accidents to maiming caused by unexpectedly exploding Coca-Cola bottles...Studying these injuries teaches you a lot of things. But mostly it teaches you that danger lurks around every corner.  After you study torts, you will never look at life the same way again.

Amen to that Sister!

And, the good news is that this book isn't just for lawyers or wanna-be lawyers. 

My husband, a very normal, non-lawyer kinda guy also finished this book quite quickly and really enjoyed it.  And, he told me that it helped him understand why I was "such a freak" about some things.

He's such a sweet talker, isn't he?

Needless to say, I highly recommend this book for lawyers and non-lawyers alike.  It's a funny and entertaining read.

Just make sure you're really over law school before you jump right in.  Otherwise you might find yourself working through PTSD while lying on a therapist's couch and babbling incoherently about the rule against perpetuities.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

Comments

[Aaron]

I was a little interested in the book, so I read the first chapter at the local Barnes and Noble. I couldn't continue. It seemed like another trite melodrama about law school from a Harvard/Yale/Stanford reject, I didn't care for the campy writing style, either.

God review though, good to see some people liked it.

[Keith Brough]

Why in god's name would anyone want to read about lawschool. D!mn, you guys outside of school are wierd. Although I'm still a 3L, I know I wouldn't find this crap amusing no matter how talented the writer. Now I'm nervous about what weird people lurk around the corners of my law school's hallways. Would THEY actually graduate, and later lick their lips to read such drivle?! Law Students and Lawyers are much squarer than I thought.