Calling all book lovers!

That’s right – August 9th is National Book Lovers Day (who knew!).

Today’s contest prize winner, Heather Varanini, was selected by random drawing. Thank you to everyone who posted their favorite justice-related books!

We’ve co-opted today to make it JUSTICE Book Lovers Day, in honor of the OneJustice network.  (As if we needed an excuse to celebrate books . . . or justice!)

Thank you to everyone who posted, tweeted, and otherwise gave a shout out to their favorite justice-related books.  The clear winner in terms of number of entries was “Just Mercy: a Story of Justice and Redemption” by Bryan Stevenson, with a runner-up award to “Evicted: Povery & Profit in the American City” by Matthew Desmond.

Congratulations to Heather Varanini, whose favorite justice book of “Dead Man Walking” was selected by random drawing as the winner of this #OneJusticeContest!  As the special prize, Heather will receive a copy of “Anatomy of Injustice: a Murder Case Gone Wrong” written by Pulitzer-prize winner and OneJustice co-founder Raymond Bonner.  Congrats, Heather – and enjoy!

And we hope all of you will enjoy the justice-focused reading list below.  You can also check out a similar justice-centered reading list from our blog back in 2011.

Go forth and celebrate all you justice book lovers – today is YOUR day!

The Contest Prize, written by OneJustice co-founder Raymond Bonner

Ray Bonner, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his foreign correspondence for the New York Times, turns his considerable reportorial gifts to the issue of wrongful conviction as seen through the lens of a particular, outrageously mishandled case. The case, from 1982, centered on the conviction of a young black man for the murder of a white widow in South Carolina. Although the trial dates back decades, Bonner reanimates the wrongs of racism, inept defense, and prosecutorial misconduct seen in this case and also in cases across the U.S. Far-ranging in its implications, thoughtful, and utterly absorbing, this book is a fine example of involving narrative nonfiction


Most Posted: Just Mercy: a Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
What is the one commonality of people on death row? If the victim is white, the perpetrator is 11 times more likely to be condemned to die than if the victim is black. When Stevenson was a 23-year-old Harvard law student, he started an internship in Georgia where his first assignment was to deliver a message to a man living on death row. This assignment became his calling: representing the innocent, the inadequately defended, the children, the domestic abuse survivors, the mentally ill—the imprisoned.

Runner-Up for Most Posted: Evicted: Povery & Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond
It’s the rare writer who can capture a social ill with a clear-eyed, nonjudgmental tone and still allow the messiness of real people its due. Matthew Desmond does just that with Evicted as he explores the stories of tenants and landlords in the poorest areas of Milwaukee during 2008 and 2009. Desmond gets very close to the “characters,” relating their words and thoughts and layering on enough vibrant details to make every rented property or trailer come alive. Through both personal stories and data, Desmond proves that eviction undermines self, family, and community, bearing down disproportionately hard on women with children.

List of Justice-Book Suggestions:

Thank you to everyone who shared their favorite books – we appreciate you!