Hard Time & Nursery Rhymes: A Mother's Tales of Law and Disorder

by Claudia Trupp

Book Overview

What kind of woman leaves three young daughters at home every morning to spend her days representing convicted murderers and rapists? That is the question criminal defense attorney Claudia Trupp... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1594868247
• ISBN13: 9781594868245
• Release Date: April 2009
• Publisher: Rodale Books
• Length: 306 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.6" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

A MUST READ FOR EVERY MOM!

Hard Time & Nursery Rhymes is gritty and compelling and impossible to put down. It takes the fluff, predictability and softness out of work/life balance. Instead, it relays an honest, intense and funny depiction of working motherhood that has inspired me to do better (and be better) at both work and home.

Unique Experiences -- Universal Appeal

Quite simply, I loved this book. Ms. Trupp is a criminal defense attorney specializing in appellate litigation. Her book is framed by the stories of her clients - all convicted of heinous crimes - and her efforts to overturn their convictions. However, she and her story are grounded by her life outside of courtrooms and prison cells. She is the loving mother of three young daughters, devoted wife to an equally devoted husband, and supportive daughter to aging parents. Her story is unique but universal. Any working mother can relate to the tales she tells about having to try to get out of the house when children do not want you to leave. Any lawyer can relate to her stories of trying to do right by your client while still trying to maintain a personal life. Any woman lawyer can relate to her descriptions of trying to master gender dynamics in the workplace. It is a witty and moving book. I am recommending it to everyone I know. I strongly recommend it for people with an interest in the law. Ms. Trupp has an uncanny ability to make complicated legal procedures and processes accessible and understandable. College and law students contemplating a career in the law, in particular, would benefit from Ms. Trupp's insights and experiences.

Something for everyone

What a great read. The stories of Trupp's legal cases are exciting and accessible, and her familial interludes provide a welcome counterpoint to the drama and intrigue she creates in retelling those cases. The book is structured in six sections around the cases, with family anecdotes, memories, and life experiences retold as relevant in brief departures from the main narrative of the criminal cases. While this might sound contrived the way I've described it, the book doesn't read that way at all. This book is unselfconcious, candid, and real. It reads quickly and provides rare glimpses of the largely hidden world of criminal appeals. The language and voice are casual but sophisticated - just like one imagines Trupp to be after reading the book.

A GREAT READ -- NOTHING ELSE LIKE IT

First off, I should say that I am not a working mother--I am a working father married to a working mother. Second, I don't usually write reviews about anything, but after reading this book I had to share, and also give Ms. Trupp her props. This is a great read for ANYONE partial to layered human stories, true crime and/or intelligent and humorous memoir. With a great sense of humor and a human touch, Trupp invites us into a world mixing intense legal drama with everyday struggle and joy that anyone with a job or a family can identify with. While reading this book I felt like a friend was sharing her best personal stories with me, which just happen to be a lot more interesting and funny than my real friends' stories. This book was recommended to me by a lawyer friend as a Mother's Day gift for my wife, and I didn't originally intend to read it myself. Very glad I did (once I started, I couldn't put it down). I hope Ms. Trupp writes another one soon.

I Loved This Book

Claudia Trupp takes memoir in a unique and compelling direction with her candid account of her family life and her professional life, and the unexpected ways that they intersect and overlap. What makes Trupp's memoir sing is the passion she feels for her work -- the little-known area of criminal appellate law -- which she generously shares in entertaining and thought-provoking chapters, each one devoted to a particular case set against a backdrop of events on the homefront. Her chapter "Dust," for example, covers 9/11 (Trupp fled the World Trade Center as a plane hit, using the transcript of a notorious case she was reviewing to shield her head from falling debris), while at home, she was dealing with a basement renovation - replete with the trials and tribulations of any major project - which stirs up "dust" of its own. We have had plenty of books to date about working mothers pulled in a thousand different directions. But Trupp goes beyond that paradigm. A talented and driven lawyer and a devoted and loving mother, Trupp advocates for doing the work one loves because, despite the occasional lows and the unrelenting pressure, there are enormous payoffs in both spheres. Trupp is a great storyteller, and her tales of her most memorable cases are gripping and affecting no matter what one's previous knowledge of the law or political stripe. Trupp unpacks some of the law's mysteries, carefully explaining the inner workings (and failures to work) of the justice system. Her cast of characters is richly drawn and true-to-life. There are no cliches here -- Trupp's account is fresh, original, and an all-around great read.