My Own Words

In the past several years, Ruth Bader Ginsburg has had books written about her, a documentary and a biopic hit theaters, and been made into an action figure. She's become almost more of an idea than a person, which made My Own Words, a collection of her writings/speeches, organized with her co-writers Mary Hartnett and Wendy W. Williams, all the more relevant to read. There is an actual woman beneath the mythologizing, and that woman is whip-smart and has a lot of important things to say that can't be slapped on a photo and turned into a meme. Not that I have any beef with that picture of her that says “all them fives need to listen when a ten is talking” in the Beyonce font, but in a world where complex thought is increasingly rare, we owe it to one of our best thinkers to really listen to what she has to say.

The book's collection of her writings has examples all the way from pre-teen editorials submitted to the school paper to oral announcements of Supreme Court dissents. That she is a serious, thoughtful person is obvious even in the early writings, and examples of her work as she pushed for gender equity at the ACLU and then was elevated to the federal bench demonstrate her prodigious intellect and ability to distill arguments to their essence. But it's not all ponderous and serious. There's a written version of remarks about the role of lawyers in opera and an excerpt from the comic opera that was written about Justices Scalia and Ginsburg's close personal friendship, which included trips to the opera, despite the gulf between their views on the law. There are a few pieces that were written/delivered by Gibsburg's beloved husband Marty, whose wit made me giggle in few places.

The co-authors are apparently working on an authorized full biography of Justice Ginsburg, and the way they've worked with the material they have here gives me high hopes that it'll be excellent. It can be challenging to edit down legal writing into something that can be understood by an audience not trained to read it, but between what's clearly Ginsburg's own facility with language and careful tweaks, the material will definitely require attention but isn't difficult to understand. That it's just relatively short vignettes may disappoint some who are looking for something more like a traditional biography, though there is interstitial writing to fill in the gaps and provide context. You do definitely get a sense of who she is through reading it, though. I'd highly recommend this for anyone who's interested in the law, as well as any RBG enthusiasts.

It look me a bit to read this, but it was worth it. I have always admired Justice Ginsburg, but reading her biography has added many more layers of respect. The audiobook enhanced my reading experience, as hearing her and her husband's speeches in addition to clips of various opera performances helped make this a richly textured biography.

My understanding of the court's procedures and her philosophies on said procedures were greatly expanded during my reading of this biography. Justice Ginsburg has made history being a champion of sex and race-based discrimination; what better read for Women's History Month?

I borrowed this from the library and renewed it again and I still only got about a quarter of the way through. There is good here, but this is a mix of speeches and essays. In the audiobook that works its way out as clips from her, her husband and others speeches and then professional narrators reading the essays. Ginsburg is a clear, but dry writer. But she is a super slow and dry speaker. That doesn't mean I wouldn't be glad to hear her speak in person. But many of these speeches are pretty low-quality recordings and her age and natural speaking style is SLOW and very deliberate.

There are lots of other things I am trying to read and listen to right now and this keeps ending up at the bottom of the list. So I am giving up.

It was very informative. Ruth Badger Ginsburg did so much in her life to advance women's standing in the world. I was glad I did this one on Audio-book... I honestly don't think I could have made it through actually reading this on my own. It's about the courts, so there is quite a bit of case discussions that most non-legal people might struggle to get through otherwise. There are a lot of parts in the book (audio) where Ruth is reading her own decisions, or they're recordings of her reading her dissents. We get to hear from her husband, Marty Ginsburg, too. I enjoyed that. And I have a much better understanding of how our Supreme Court operates.