My Own Words

This book is part biography and part writings by RBG. Both parts are interesting. RBG has a distinct, clear, very readable style and my respect for her after reading this is immense. She comes across as not only extremely intelligent but also as just the sort of person you'd love to sit and just talk with. Excellent role model for us all.

Justice Ginsburg has long been one of my favorite justices, along with Justice O'Connor. I found her decisions and opinions most insightful and well-thought out. I enjoyed the book thoroughly. I guess what I appreciated most about it was the fact that she explained that all of the justices respected each other, and at the end of the day, even though they may have disagreed, they were still friends and civil and courteous to one another. Would that members of the executive and legislative branches were able to say the same and act with such civility to one another.

It seems like some people are reading the book as if it were a biography. That isn't the intent of the book and it even describes in the beginning of the book that it doesn't intend on being a biography. The biography will be released later by the same authors. The book tries to convey who RBG is by including sections of their speeches, decisions, and writings over the years. It does an admirable job picking applicable clips from as early as elementary school all the way to this year. While you will find repeated references to some court cases, anyone familiar with case law would see why. The cases references Such as Reed v. Reed were instrumental not only for the fight for representation and equal rights under law.

The book is not for everyone. It includes beautifully written bench judgement, but at the end of the day it does not read like a biography would with a flowing story.

Would have liked more of an thoughtful insight into Justice Ginsburg's rigorous mind with reflections and analysis of her work by the brilliant and clearly knowledgeable authors. Would have also liked more thorough and historical examination of RBG's scholarly legal arguments and achievements and less redundancy and superficial clips from speeches. But this book is still interesting and worth reading. I applaud the authors and their work. I will await Justice Ginsburg's autobiography and personal letters someday.

This is a collection of her speeches and writings. Each is introduce by her coauthor. The intros are often longer and more innteredting than Judge Ginsberg's writings. Several of the speeches were delivered to more than one group. I managed to push through,

Ginsburg is one of the most contemplative geniuses of our modern day. Very down to earth and humble, but confident in the possibilities. Well worth your time. I chose CDs, and listened throughout my travels. Narrated by Ginsberg herself... what a plus!

Excellent information about her early life and career, then excerpts from major speeches and opinions. I gained even more respect for her and the dignity, brilliance, wisdom and intelligence that she brings to her role.

This book is entertaining and enlightening about the intricacies of law and the judicial branch. I loved learning about one I consider an outstanding human being who has served tirelessly as a jurist and wish her many more years on the Court.

This woman has contributed so much to this country through her roles as attorney, law professor, federal judge and Supreme Court Justice. It was great to hear her reflect on past decisions of herself or other justices. She is a credit to the court. May she live well beyond her current years and continue to serve by elevating law over despotism.

An intense read of her judicial opinions and briefs. Being a conservative it gave me a prospect of the liberal stance. It took me awhile to read as I went back and reread passages. Her husband's quotes were good and such a great relationship she had with her husband. I would love the opportunity to sit and visit with her about a couple opinions she rendered. I liked the book

Not what the title causes one to expect, that is, a memoir. The book captures many of the articles and opinions of Ginsburg's career. It does, however, give insight into a marvelous loving marriage and the life of a woman who quietly embodied and promoted the best of feminism.

I was really torn between this and the Notorious RGB, but I am really glad I bought this one first. I think her words, her style come through more here, and it's an excellent read for anyone even passingly interested in who this impossibly great woman is.

It's just not that good. In fairness to the store - it is noted that this is a collection of writings, speeches, etc. so perhaps I should have read closer. However, the book description also said that it was witty and engaging of which it was neither! Transcripts of speeches (of which there were many) just don't translate well into a book. With all due respect to RBG - find another book.

Although I admire Ruth Bader Ginsberg for her accomplishments, her intelligence, her tenacity and her spirit, I found this book very dry. Perhaps an attorney would enjoy it as many of the chapters explore legal details of her career. I could only get about 1/4 of the way through the book and then decided that I could use my time for more enjoyable and fruitful pursuits. I am sorry about this. I still love RBG, just not this book.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg addresses her good readers with an explanation of how MY OWN WORDS came into being. She was visited in chambers in 2003 by Mary Hartnett and Wendy W. Williams, who volunteered to be her official biographers. Williams, equally invested in the law since the ’70s and a founder of the San Francisco-based Equal Rights Advocates, was on the faculty of Georgetown University Law Center. Hartnett was an adjunct professor there, and she was smart and sympathique --- an excellent partner in this venture. With no hesitation, Ginsburg accepted their offer. However, they changed course and decided to write her biography closer to the end of her term on the Supreme Court. They instead collected and edited landmark pieces of writing and talking engagements that are helpful in showing characteristics of Ginsburg, as well as establishing the national changes that have occurred since her birth in 1933.

The first section of the book is somewhat chronological, beginning with Ginsburg’s 1946 high school editorial charging the children of public schools to promote peace and to support the newly created United Nations. The second and third parts are devoted to acknowledging those who have paved the way for her and the cases and background on gender equality.

The fourth very brief section contains her nomination to and ratification for her appointment to the Supreme Court. Her acceptance speech in the Rose Garden with President Clinton standing beside her is both moving and strong; it shows again her intelligence, humor and respect for that moment and the possibilities she envisions.

The final segment gives samples of Ginsburg’s articles on the nature of the Court, the job of the Justices, and the standards they observe. Her style is “modest and measured” yet distinctive; she may capture her views in a pithy quotation from someone else. (A brief aside details Ginsburg’s ability to go without sleep and pull all-nighters, a habit begun in high school when she would slip away and study after others were in bed.)

An early chapter centers on Louis Dembitz Brandeis, the first Jew to serve on the Supreme Court. Brandeis’ leitmotif as lawyer and later judge was his emphasis on the obligations of women regarding citizenship: “We cannot relieve her from the duty of taking part in public affairs.” This strong directive from one of Ginsburg’s role models continues to shape her life and work ethic.

Ginsburg’s sweet devotion to her husband, Marty, and her realistic reservations about her cooking abilities are just a few of the pieces of her personal life that come to light.

One of the pieces in the concluding chapter on Highlights of the 2015-16 Supreme Court Term revisits the Whole Woman’s Health case from Texas. We are given a description of how the brilliant, incisive questioning of Judge Ginsburg, Justice Kagan and Justice Sotomayor dominated the bench. A blog for Slate crowed: “It felt as if, for the first time in history, the gender playing field at the high court was finally leveled.” Judge Ginsburg’s words were quoted again and again when she reminded the defense attorney that “a woman has a fundamental right to make this [abortion] choice for herself.” Her cut-to-the chase approach is seen after she joined Justice Bryer’s 40-page opinion with a concurring opinion reminding us what life was like before abortion became legal. She fully subscribed to everything Justice Bryer wrote, she said, but wanted something concise. “I wrote to say, ‘Don’t try this anymore.’” Her keen awareness of just how wrong Texas lawmakers were is amplified by her imperative: Stop trying to control women’s lives.

Entertaining may not be the first word that comes to mind when choosing MY OWN WORDS from a bookshelf. But, somehow, it describes exactly the spirit of this memoir. This carefully explained collection of Ginsburg’s work shows by fascinating examples what this brilliant, persuasive woman has contributed to today’s America.

Reviewed by Jane Krebs

My Own Words by Ruth Bader Ginsburg is part traditional biography and part a compilation of certain speeches Judge Ginsburg gave throughout her career. The autobiographical parts are written in the third person. (Mary Hartnett, and Wendy Williams share author's credits with the judge). The speeches, with minor revisions made for different audiences were, of course, written by Judge Ginsburg herself.

The problem with this format it that is quite repetitious. The readers learns about key cases (almost exclusively gender issues or abortion) in the judge’s career in the biographic part and then re-reads essentially the same information in the speeches, often multiple times.

The autobiographic part does, and rightly so, spend a great deal time about two of the most important men in her life: Her devoted husband and her friendship with Judge Scalia. But even here the book can be wanting. There is a large excerpt of a legal-themed comic opera written especially for the Justices Ginsburg and Scalia. Maybe hearing it performed would be entertaining, but reading the lyrics, without knowing the melody is tedious. (Imagine how much would be lost if you read the lyrics for say, the Sound of Music without knowing the tune). The autobiographical portion with regarding Justice’s Ginsburg’s upbringing in a working class Jewish family is clearly written and cleverly included some of the Justice’s writing as a teenager.

For a much better book by a Supreme Court Justice, read “Scalia’s Court: A Legacy of Landmark Opinions and Dissents.” This book, like “My Own Words” is mostly the Judge’s own writing, but is not at all repetitive. It is a far, far better book, even though this reviewer in more politically inclined with Ginsburg than Scalia.

This one is a crushing disappointment. I seldom buy books anymore, but I was so pumped about this collection that I went all out and got a hard copy, expecting to love it enough to keep it in my home library forever. Sadly, this isn’t what I expected.

Obviously, no U.S. Supreme Court justice is going to have enough time to sit down and write his or her memoirs, let alone an octogenarian justice, but I had hoped to find a collection of her meaty and sometimes even audacious opinions, particularly her dissents. Instead, this slender volume is packed with filler. There are two co-authors whose names are written in miniscule font, and it is they that write sometimes windy introductions to just about everything; to make matters worse, they don’t tell us anything you cannot find in other biographies written about this feminist luminary.

And what of Ginsburg’s writing? I didn’t buy the book to see the precocious things she wrote as a child, as an adolescent, or in college. I just want to read her court opinions. That’s it. And that’s not what I got.

I can’t give anything that bears Ginsburg’s name a rating below four stars, but seriously, if your discretionary income forces you to buy books strategically, either skip this one or get it used. Surely at some point something more scholarly will be released, and then I’ll wish I still had the dollars that I spent here.

Fascinating memoir/biography about the incomparable Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I thought I knew a decent amount about her but this book made me realize how little I really did. My knowledge of her just scratched the surface. I am in awe of her... as a person, lawyer, professor, wife, colleague, friend, trailblazer, researcher, feminist, and jurist. The body of work that she has contributed to our society, our law schools, our courts and our world is astounding. And she does it all with calm, grace, humor and an uncanny intellect.

I think this book appealed to me more than the average person as I’m a female lawyer that was obsessed with constitutional law during law school and in the decade that I practiced law. It is a dense book filled with select lectures, speeches, hearings and writings of Bader Ginsburg. It may be a bit too detailed for some reader’s taste. But it is a rare treat to be able to go so deep into one person’s body of work while she remains a member of the court. At 83 years old, Bader Ginsburg is still going. And I for one will be forever grateful that she rose to the level of Supreme Court Justice. What a legacy she will leave us! She is now one of my new personal and professional heroes.

From one opera lover to another... Brava Ginsburg!

My Own Words by Ruth Bader Ginsburg is part traditional biography and part a compilation of certain speeches Judge Ginsburg gave throughout her career. The autobiographical parts are written in the third person. (Mary Hartnett, and Wendy Williams share author's credits with the judge). The speeches, with minor revisions made for different audiences were, of course, written by Judge Ginsburg herself.

The problem with this format it that is quite repetitious. The readers learns about key cases (almost exclusively gender issues or abortion) in the judge’s career in the biographic part and then re-reads essentially the same information in the speeches, often multiple times.

The autobiographic part does, and rightly so, spend a great deal time about two of the most important men in her life: Her devoted husband and her friendship with Judge Scalia. But even here the book can be wanting. There is a large excerpt of a legal-themed comic opera written especially for the Justices Ginsburg and Scalia. Maybe hearing it performed would be entertaining, but reading the lyrics, without knowing the melody is tedious. (Imagine how much would be lost if you read the lyrics for say, the Sound of Music without knowing the tune). The autobiographical portion with regarding Justice’s Ginsburg’s upbringing in a working class Jewish family is clearly written and cleverly included some of the Justice’s writing as a teenager.

For a much better book by a Supreme Court Justice, read “Scalia’s Court: A Legacy of Landmark Opinions and Dissents.” This book, like “My Own Words” is mostly the Judge’s own writing, but is not at all repetitive. It is a far, far better book, even though this reviewer in more politically inclined with Ginsburg than Scalia.

This one is a crushing disappointment. I seldom buy books anymore, but I was so pumped about this collection that I went all out and got a hard copy, expecting to love it enough to keep it in my home library forever. Sadly, this isn’t what I expected.

Obviously, no U.S. Supreme Court justice is going to have enough time to sit down and write his or her memoirs, let alone an octogenarian justice, but I had hoped to find a collection of her meaty and sometimes even audacious opinions, particularly her dissents. Instead, this slender volume is packed with filler. There are two co-authors whose names are written in miniscule font, and it is they that write sometimes windy introductions to just about everything; to make matters worse, they don’t tell us anything you cannot find in other biographies written about this feminist luminary.

And what of Ginsburg’s writing? I didn’t buy the book to see the precocious things she wrote as a child, as an adolescent, or in college. I just want to read her court opinions. That’s it. And that’s not what I got.

I can’t give anything that bears Ginsburg’s name a rating below four stars, but seriously, if your discretionary income forces you to buy books strategically, either skip this one or get it used. Surely at some point something more scholarly will be released, and then I’ll wish I still had the dollars that I spent here.

Fascinating memoir/biography about the incomparable Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I thought I knew a decent amount about her but this book made me realize how little I really did. My knowledge of her just scratched the surface. I am in awe of her... as a person, lawyer, professor, wife, colleague, friend, trailblazer, researcher, feminist, and jurist. The body of work that she has contributed to our society, our law schools, our courts and our world is astounding. And she does it all with calm, grace, humor and an uncanny intellect.

I think this book appealed to me more than the average person as I’m a female lawyer that was obsessed with constitutional law during law school and in the decade that I practiced law. It is a dense book filled with select lectures, speeches, hearings and writings of Bader Ginsburg. It may be a bit too detailed for some reader’s taste. But it is a rare treat to be able to go so deep into one person’s body of work while she remains a member of the court. At 83 years old, Bader Ginsburg is still going. And I for one will be forever grateful that she rose to the level of Supreme Court Justice. What a legacy she will leave us! She is now one of my new personal and professional heroes.

From one opera lover to another... Brava Ginsburg!

"My Own Words" was a fascinating look into Ruth Bader Ginsburg's life and legal history. Using actual speeches and writings plus introductions into the history leading up to each, this is a unique piece of work that highlights the many changes in law and advancements in gender/racial equality that have happened since RBG entered the scene in the 50s. It also highlights how far we still have to go. I found the Loving v. Virginia section to be one of the most interesting- it really made the case come alive for me and brought new context to something we have all heard of, but I personally did not live through. I also really enjoyed the bit about the opera written about her and other justices- with the songs on the audiobook, this added some fun to an overall serious book.

Overall, I thought this was a great book to highlight some of the US legal past plus RBG's role in the legal scene as she worked for the ACLU and then on the Supreme Court. The personal tidbits were also great- including what the children said of Ruth and husband Marty (paraphrasing, but that they were very equal- he did the cooking and she the thinking). I highly recommend the audiobook also, which also allows the reader to hear the primary speeches and so on. It was a great and worthwhile listen.

When Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been asked when there will be enough women on the Supreme Court, her eyes twinkle as she responds, “My answer is, when there are nine.”

My Own Words is much more than a biography or a memoir. It is also a collection of lectures, writings, and Court decisions by one of only four female justices in the history of the United States Supreme Court. I didn’t find it to be an easy read, even though it is not filled with difficult legal language. It does contain weighty, substantial stuff, and I often found myself re-reading paragraphs, even whole pages, to understand their importance. I didn’t breeze through this book. I took my time and balanced it out by reading other novels concurrently. I never once considered setting it aside, however. Justice Ginsburg impressed me first of all from early childhood with her intelligence and her desire to learn and to make a difference. The more I read of her speeches and opinions, the more awed I was of her wisdom, her practicality, and her passion.

Born into a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York, in 1933, Joan Ruth Bader learned about prejudice at an early age. World War II brought with it the realities of Hitler’s terrible hate crimes. Her mother died of cancer just before her high school graduation, which Ruth did not attend. She went on to attend Cornell University, where she met her future husband, Martin Ginsburg on a blind date. Not long after graduation, she and Marty were married. (He died in 2010.) The couple had a daughter and a son. Ginsburg’s trailblazing did not begin with SCOTUS. When she was admitted to Harvard Law School in 1956 in 1956, she was 1 of 9 women in a class of 500, and two years later, she was 1 of 12 women in her Columbia Law School class and she graduated first in her class. She taught as a professor of law at Rutgers and later at Columbia University; she pioneered courses in gender equality, which later proved to be a mainstay in her judicial career. Some called her the “Thurgood Marshall” of the women’s movement. But she has stood up not just for women’s equality, but for men also. She partnered with husband Marty, a tax attorney, argue a case for fair treatment for a husband in an IRS case. Some twenty years later, in 1980, President Jimmy Carter appointed her to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and in 1993, at the age of 60, she was picked by President Bill Clinton for the U.S. Supreme Court.

Ginsburg recalls a very charming story about meeting President Clinton prior to being confirmed. It seems they were each impressed with the other. Clinton is quoted as saying, “Every judge needs to have both the intellectual capacity to deal with the incredible variety and complexity of the issues and an instinctive and immediate understanding of the human implications of the decisions being made…it was way more than just an intellectual concern of hers. She got the actual human impact of these decisions.” The Senate Judiciary Committee confirmed her with a vote of 18-0, and the Senate voted 96-3 to confirm her as the second female Supreme Court Justice. I couldn’t help but wonder if we will ever see that kind of vote again.

Ginsburg speaks to both style and substance on the bench. Over the course of her tenure on the bench, Justice Ginsburg has proven herself to be fair, to have diligent work habits, and to have a very human side. Her approach to the Constitution is that it is a living document. She also favors harmony and cooperation among members of the court because this encourages better decisions and also enhances public respect. I am amazed at her friendship with Justice Antonin Scalia, a man whose interpretation of the Constitution is the polar opposite of hers. When they would differ on an opinion, he would urge her to let it go, to basically leave it at the office. They shared a love of opera, an appreciation so great that a one-act comic opera was written about the two. Ginsburg was deeply saddened by Scalia’s death last year. Of note, she quotes other Justices, historically and in recent times, but she makes very few personal comments regarding others she’s served with on the Court.
Regarding substance, she says judges “play an interdependent part in democracy, participating in
‘a dialogue with other organizations of government, and with the people as well.’”

In the later chapters that reveal her decisions, both majority and dissent, Ginsburg continually expresses her strong beliefs in equality of all people, regardless of race, religion, or gender. She points to cases that preceded her time on the Court, such as Dred Scott v. Sandford, Brown v. The Board of Education and Roe v. Wade, and she makes numerous references to Title VII, which was the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

I learned so much! One of my favorite tidbits was the value of the dissenting opinion, which comes from Chief Justice Hughes in 1936: “A dissent in a court of last resort is an appeal…to the intelligence of a future day, when a later decision may possibly correct the error into which the dissenting judge believes the court to have betrayed.” Justice Ginsburg has proven herself to be both outspoken and sensible when authoring the dissenting decision.

My Own Words is one justice’s experiences on the Supreme Court. We get a small sampling of her childhood, education, and pre-court career. She gives us a history lesson, too, about some of the early traditions of the Court. But the real value lies in what Ginsburg tells us about herself – her values, her ideals, her interpretation of the law. She is a woman of passion and compassion – passion for the law, compassion for those who need justice. She has intelligence, energy, and wit. It is no wonder that she is much loved, sort of a cultural idol. I laughed out loud when I read about the preschoolers from a synagogue in Texas who named their pet fish “Ruth Beta Ginsburg.” That sounds like a pretty high honor to me!

4 stars

RBG fans will devour this in a weekend. A surprising mix of Supreme Court writings, historical insights and personal recollections. I expected to learn more about Justice Ginsburg's pioneering work advocating for women's legal rights - and I did. But the unexpected entries in this collection were my favorites, like RBG's fascinating analysis of Supreme Court wives and a moving tribute from her husband Marty. Brooklynites will especially enjoy the wise-beyond-her-years essay she wrote while attending PS 238 and the entry from the East Midwood Bulletin.

Born March 15, 1933, Joan Ruth Bader was the second daughter of Nathan and Celia Bader. Her older sister Marilyn died at the age of six of meningitis when "Ruth" was just 14 months old. From an early age Ruth loved to write and, at thirteen she was the editor of her school newspaper (some of those articles are included in this bio). She was awarded a full scholarship to Cornell where she met the love of her life Marty Ginsburg.

A few interesting facts:
The writer who influenced her most was Vladimir Nabokov.
She was very close to the late Justice Anthony Scalia despite the fact their views were very different.
I love RBG and all that she has done for race and equality. I couldn't wait to read this memoir but, I was expecting more of a biographical style and that was not the case.

This book is more about her writings, briefs and Supreme Court decisions which are covered in much detail. I learned a lot about the workings of the court selection and case processes. In many respects this book was a collection of all of RBG's writings from the age of 13 until the present. I do wish I listened to the audio version as there were actual transcripts of various cases.

Overall, I found this book to be very informative even though at times the material felt a tad heavy. I guess I was expecting a more personal flair and not as much history but I do recommend this book.

A collection of writings and speeches by Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, interspersed with brief biographical details and other context. Ginsburg's collected remarks provide an engaging (and fairly apolitical) view into one of America's finest legal minds, and I was particularly struck by her understanding of how our shared Jewish heritage has shaped her lifelong commitment to justice. The collection itself could have been better curated to cut down on repeated themes and details, and it's frustrating that the audiobook replaces narration with archival recordings whenever available, even when those recordings are very low-quality and hard to make out. But overall these are minor faults in a close insider's look at the top level of the US justice system.

RBG is undoubtedly a star on the Supreme Court, an amazing intellect, woman of immense courage, and standard bearer for equality and justice. Finding out more about her achievements and thoughts, has been truly instructive. I am in total awe of the Justice. That being said, I found the audio version of this book somewhat disappointing. From a content perspective, there is an annoying level of repetition that does nothing to add to insights provided. But more annoying was the delivery, which was really marred by the reader's annoying delivery, which ranges from artificial stylization to cliche to caricature, as she tries to provide a 'personal' flavor to the 'voices' of the people she is portraying. Probably the best way to digest this publication is to buy a hard copy. That way you can skim over parts that are unnecessarily repetitive and let the words speak for themselves.

I really enjoyed this book. Justice Ginsberg has an excellent grasp of what her readers want to know about her life, her history, and her time on the Supreme Court. I thoroughly enjoyed her writing - from when she was a law student to her more recent speeches and opinions, I gained deeper insight on important issues such as gender equality, affirmative action, and more. One thing I would add - when it comes to the most important documents in the world's history, I would add the US Constitution and its amendments.

Still in the process of listening to this audiobook but thoroughly enjoying it. Audio quality is very good overall. It’s also a fascinating window into the inner workings of the Supreme Court over its history.

The first disappointment was a chronology with no SC cases listed. The book is a collection of old articles involving amateur sociology and ignorant history. In her democracy background, citing the 'Glorious Revolution,' she thinks that William III was fighting Spain in 1689. There's even a bit of vanity press poetry. A lot of space is devoted to advocacy of women's rights, commendable, but hardly the distinctive contribution expected from a SC justice or a Secretary of State. The only jurisprudence is in the final chapter, a badly edited summary of 2015-16 cases featuring the vote counts that could be written by a beginning law clerk and very likely was.