You can find out what's on librarians' lists for the "2007 Best of the Best From the University Presses" on C-Span2 Book TV, Saturday, July 28, at 12:00 PM (Eastern time, US). (You can always view archived programs on the Book TV website later on.)
It is a broadcast of a program from this year's American Library Association Conference.
Just one of my favorites is John Fabian Witt, Patriots and Cosmopolitans: Hidden Histories of American Law (Harvard University Press, 2007). This is an interesting book to think about for course adoption, especially for an American legal history survey, since the scope of the book takes you from law at the founding to 20th century tort law and the administrative state, always with an eye on the relationship between law and national identity. If you haven't yet revamped your teaching materials to "globalize" your American legal history course, this book will help with that. Witt takes up just four broad-ranging stories, which could be taken up at various points during a semester. And it's an elegant read. An excerpt is here.
I would be so interested to know about your favorites.
