Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Wendy W. Williams

"The first book from Ruth Bader Ginsburg since becoming a Supreme Court Justice in 1993--a ... collection of writings and speeches from the woman who has had [an] ... influence on law, women's rights, and popular culture"--

My Own Words

Marcy Pursell 

I'm not going to lie, when I first picked up this book, I was excited to read it, but as I read it, it took me a while to really get into it, and because it was a lot of information about cases themselves and readings from dissents and remarks Ginsburg had given over the years, it wasn't a super fast read for me. Overall, it was interesting, but not quite what I was expecting.

linda

This book took me forever to get through (November to June). I think I have fallen asleep more times while reading/listening to this book than any other book. I only just finished the last few pages, which include some of the bench announcements Justice Ginsburg has delivered in recent years and highlights of the Court's 2015-2016 term. I would be stretching the truth if I said this was a fun read - for someone without a law degree (yet), I definitely grinded through this book, and there was a lot of Oyez and Wikipedia involved. 

It's a weird hybrid between biography and memoir and legal tome. And as a dedicated RBG fan, I learned so much from this book. It's packed with court cases, lectures, history excerpts, civil rights legislation, etc. I learned about the purpose of the court - "to repair fractures in federal law, to step in when other courts have disagreed on what the relevant federal law requires." In Ginsburg's opinion, the court's disagreement is what makes it effective. The questions the court entertains are never easy, and the law is seldom ever clear, but reasoning with depth and precision lead to more prudent decisions. 

Ginsburg also addressed what a good justice does:
- use the best of his or her ability to work for the advancement of the law
- read the whole constitution rather than rewriting it to fit political perspectives (Clinton)
- keep doing what the founders said - to found a more perfect union
- make inquiry, not injury, the motivation
- seek to understand others; weigh the interests of others without bias
- dialogue with other organs of government and with people as well; judges legislate interstitially and play an interdependent role in our democracy (Justice Holmes)
- act with integrity, knowledge, and judgement

Throughout the book, Justice Ginsburg emphasized that the primary purpose of the Supreme Court is to find new legal solutions "to realize a more perfect Union" and to "affect the preservation of liberty to ourselves and our posterity." Justice Ginsburg argues that our constitution is a "living constitution." Supreme Court Justices serve the nation not only now, but also in the long term. Our concepts of equality have changed much from when Madison and Jefferson wrote it, and we must keep adapting it to our era. 

I wish I had more extensive legal knowledge to fully appreciate all of Justice Ginsburg's dissents/speeches, but it was cool to connect what I learned in APUSH about the Marshall Court, Taney Court (Dred Scott), Muller v. Oregon, Loving v. Virginia, Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, Roe v. Wade, Grutter v. Bollinger, with advancements in civil rights. It was especially cool to see what RBG accomplished as a young lawyer at the ACLU, when I was reading her amicus brief for Frontiero v. Richardson, and then her bench announcement for US v. Virginia (a.k.a. the VMI case). 

RBG is a badass and I love her. :))

Jordan /

I really didn’t like this. The work Ruth has done is unmatched but the audiobook was very hard to listen to. Will be trying again as just a book.

Katharina Hoffmann

"'The law is reason free from passion.' Well, no offence to Aristotle but [...] I have come to find that passion is a key ingredient to the study and practice of law." - Elle Woods, Legally Blonde (2001)

I could be wrong though but reading this book gave me the impression that Ruth Bader Ginsburg would have liked Elle Woods and maybe even agreed with this statement. 

is a biography unlike any other I've read. When RBG died in 2020 it was a shock to many of us. Though still young, and not American, I had heard and knew of the icon that was the Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. However, I came to this book knowing only that RBG was hailed by everyone as a champion of women's rights as well as being understood as the Supreme Court's "standard bearer" of democracy and justice; well, that, and the fact that I had watched and enjoyed Mimi Leder's "On the Basis of Sex (2018)". Given my poor knowledge of Bader Ginsburg's life and her work on the Bench, this book provided a wealth of information yet unbeknownst to me.

While many biographies published nowadays choose the traditional way of telling their subject's story even though the book does start off telling the story of young Ruth "Kiki" from her childhood on through her Harvard years, the reader is presented with a unique narrative that is a selection of RGB's own writings and texts published throughout the years. The first text gives a taste of what's to come

The interesting thing about this book is that we get to know RBG not only through her authorized biographers Mary Hartnett and Wendy W. Williams' account of her life story (they introduce each chapter, giving biographical context and quotes gleaned from hundreds of interviews) but through the Supreme Justice's own writings as well. Student newspaper articles, public dissents, bench announcements, writings on being Jewish, on the value of understanding the workings of international law, bench announcements.
And herein lies the beauty of the audiobook version. Many of RBG's speeches are original live recordings that make the audiobook just so much more lively. How many biographies have you read (listened to) in which you were presented with actual recordings of the event in question?

While the audio recordings made me feel as if I had been in the same room as her, listening to the archive footage also meant that especially the older audiotapes weren't of the best quality. Judging by the crackle and background noise, one tape might even have been a phone recording which was quite painful to listen to at times (you know, similar to when you're listening back to to a recording of that concert you went to and the only thing it does is make you appreciate the quality of your CDs, even more). Another problem that arose because of those tapes is that I, as a non-native speaker of English, had trouble understanding some of the footage of lesser quality, simply because I couldn't catch every single word.

However, despite these slight hindrances, I found myself really enjoying the book. There is simply a difference in reading (listening to) a book in which we are told what a certain person was like and getting to know a person by what they themselves think about certain issues. I certainly feel as if I understood the Notorious RBG better than I did before. I might not remember when she graduated from Harvard or when she wrote her first public decent, but it was infinitely more interesting to get to know her arguments regarding specific abortion cases the SC decided on or why she dissented this but not that. 

I don't study law, I'm not particularly interested in the law but I realise how important it is to uphold democracy and a functioning society. This book was truly a worthwhile read and an interesting account of a trailblazing feminist's life.

When she was asked when there would be enough women of the Supreme Court, she said: When there are nine.

Erifili G

Always super interested in literally whatever RBG has to say

lily

Brittany Wu

The New York Times bestselling book from Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg—“a comprehensive look inside her brilliantly analytical, entertainingly wry mind, revealing the fascinating life of one of our generation's most influential voices in both law and public opinion” (Harper’s Bazaar). My Own Words “showcases Ruth Ginsburg’s astonishing intellectual range” (The New Republic). In this collection Justice Ginsburg discusses gender equality, the workings of the Supreme Court, being Jewish, law and lawyers in opera, and the value of looking beyond US shores when interpreting the US Constitution. Throughout her life Justice Ginsburg has been (and continues to be) a prolific writer and public speaker. This book’s sampling is selected by Justice Ginsburg and her authorized biographers Mary Hartnett and Wendy W. Williams, who introduce each chapter and provide biographical context and quotes gleaned from hundreds of interviews they have conducted. Witty, engaging, serious, and playful, My Own Words is a fascinating glimpse into the life of one of America’s most influential women and “a tonic to the current national discourse” (The Washington Post).

My Own Words

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