Ivy Briefs is a fascinating and insightful look into law school and beyond. Author Martha Kimes takes the reader on a journey with her through admittance to law school, three years of schooling, and all of the ups and downs in between. In this funny yet very true to life and entertaining memoir, Kimes shows readers the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of becoming a laywer.

A Midwesterner with a penchant for standardized testing, Martha Kimes aces the LSAT and ends up admitted to Columbia law school, one of the top-ranked schools in the country. She and her husband move to New York City, a huge change itself, and embark on a three-year, 24-hour-a-day, brain-taxing ride. The reader gets to experience life right along with the author, from her professors to the awe-inspiring amount of studying to the cut-throat world of interviewing, internships, and job hunting.

Ivy Briefs is an entertaining read. It moves at a fast pace, keeping the reader involved and intrigued throughout. I am sure that those who have experienced law school firsthand will really identify with the incidents and people she describes. For those like me, who have never even considered law something remotely interesting, she makes her experiences so universally applicable that the story is good anyway.

One thing that missing is “the rest of the story.” It’s obvious from her author bio that she doesn’t keep the job she got right after law school graduation. It would have been nice to know the journey her life has taken since the end of the book. Maybe she’s planning a sequel, but still, a couple of paragraphs of follow-up would be appropriate.

Overall, Ivy Briefs is compulsively readable and should appeal to a wide variety of people—lawyers and non-legal-types alike.