Barbara Engstrom offers a summer reading roundup from the King County Law Library and Foundation staff, with picks ranging from speculative fiction and literary classics to true crime and historical adventure. The column pairs staff reading recommendations with a sense of who each recommender is, turning a summer book list into a lively snapshot of the people behind the library. Selections include Sky Full of Elephants, The Serviceberry, The Historian, The Count of Monte Cristo, and more.

One of the first things that struck me when I started working with pro se litigants at KCLL was that many folks were operating in a vacuum with no real sense of how the litigation process works or why. It occurred to me that pro ses could really use an introductory civil procedure class. To that end, the law library joined forces with fabulous volunteer attorney Jeff Cowan in 2018 to create the class, Civil Litigation without Tears: The Basics of Representing Yourself in Court. While the class might be more accurately called Civil Litigation with Fewer Tears, it was a 90-minute dive into the court rules, deadlines, and procedures that pro ses are most likely to encounter.

I learned a new word usage recently—neighboring. In Thomas Friedman’s op-ed, “Why Minnesota Matters More Than Iran for America’s Future,” he discussed returning to his native Minnesota and witnessing, “something that I’d never seen in nearly 50 years: a spontaneous uprising of civic activism propelled by a single idea—I am my neighbor’s keeper, whoever he or she is and however he or she got here…. they were all propelled by a verb I’d never heard before: ‘neighboring,’ as in, Today I will be neighboring—going out to protect the good people next door or down the block.”

I love reading good books. And almost as much as I love reading them, I love talking about them. I ran into a book loving friend of mine at Mirabelle in Pioneer Square at lunch the other day and our conversation (in between bites of heavenly quiche) quickly turned to—what have you been reading lately? 

We are living in very strange times. The practice of law, in particular, seems perched on notably shaky ground. Court orders are routinely ignored at the highest levels, longstanding norms and precedents are swept away in shadow docket opinions with no explanation of the reason why, and AI assistance that was supposed to be a boon to the overextended attorney has resulted in the public shame of sanctions for several.

At the law library, our resources and services can help take some of the stress out of the daily woes of practicing law. And we can even help you find a good place for lunch when you’re down at the courthouse.

Every day I count myself lucky that I am living in Washington state where there are so many wonderful organizations doing their best to ensure that pro-se litigants have access to resources that help them successfully navigate their cases. Being in King County, I am particularly grateful to Kristina Ralls and the King County Family Law Facilitators program for creating concise and easily accessible form packets for those dealing with family law issues. You can see the breadth of their handiwork at their How-to Resources for Family Law page. In addition to their web presence, the facilitators also run a walk-in Family Law Helpdesk in both the Seattle and Kent courthouses from 9 a.m. to noon every day. At the helpdesk, after a short consultation, patrons are given forms and instructions responsive to their legal issues. As you might guess, the helpdesks are very busy. They lack the capacity to assist people with drafting their forms.

Barbara Engstrom rounds up King County Law Library staff reading recommendations, encompassing fiction, science fiction, history, and local nonfiction. These picks offer something for everyone — even the hard-to-shop-for — and invite readers to settle in for the dark season.

As with so many other facets of our government that we’ve only recently internalized are grounded in norms, traditions, or political will (I’m looking at you, enforcement of the Hatch Act) rather than hard and fast law, the current Supreme Court’s increased employment of the shadow docket has taken many by surprise. When most of us think of a case coming before the Supreme Court, we imagine the long, slow, deliberative journey through the trial and appellate courts and, if the case is granted cert, the briefing, oral argument, and considered reasoning of the final opinion. With the shadow docket, once the case hits the Supreme Court — cue the record-scratch sound — we get the black hole of an unsigned order with no explanation of the reasoning behind it, and just to add further mystery, sometimes released in the middle of the night.

Barbara Engstrom highlights tools for tracking the rapid pace of federal regulatory change in Drinking From a Firehose. She points to resources monitoring climate, health care, and immigration shifts, as well as dwindling government data. Librarians, researchers and "regular Joes" are working to preserve public information and help us stay informed.

Barbara Engstrom shares the King County Law Library staff’s summer reading recommendations — ranging from dystopian fiction to philosophical meditations and include an acclaimed novel set in Seattle. There's Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping, a humorous sleuth novel; A Flicker in the Dark, a twisty psychological thriller; Blackout and All Clear, historical sci-fi during the London Blitz; The Every, a satirical take on big tech’s overreach; and Flights, a nonlinear novel exploring transience and identity. Then there's the close-to-home, post-apocalyptic Hollow Kingdom. These eclectic, and electric, suggestions offer inspiration to bookworm yourself into a hammock.