My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor

"I obviously wasn't thinking like a lawyer yet. If this was what it meant to work in a prestigious law firm, I clearly was not ready." -Sonia Sotomayor

Sotomayor is one of the Supreme Court Justices, and her story is quite remarkable. She grew up in the housing projects in the Bronx. Her father was an alcoholic who died when Sotomayor was only nine. Sotomayor also had juvenile diabetes and learned to give herself insulin shots at a very young age. Nevertheless, she graduated from Princeton (she applied there when someone suggested she consider the "Ivies" although she had no idea what that meant), and then Yale Law School.

There were a couple of surprising things that I learned about Sotomayor. I didn't know that she had been married briefly. I was also surprised that she struggled as a young lawyer learning how to think and write like a lawyer. I found it encouraging that even Sonia Sotomayor at one point was a newbie.

Sotomayor also writes about an attorney who was quite rude to Sotomayor about affirmative action when Sotomayor was still a student at Yale. Where is that attorney now? I don't recognize his name, so I know for sure he's not sitting on the Supreme Court. Hah, I hope he reads about himself in this book.

My Beloved World was sometimes slow reading at times, but overall it was interesting to read how someone's life was shaped by family, circumstances, and determination.

Thanks to Amy G. for this recommendation!