Ruth Bader GinsburgCritiques

I was truly disappointed with this book. I was expecting more about her life, insights into her feelings about her accomplishments, and some reflection about the effects of her accomplishments in a historical sense.
Instead, it was mostly a selection of her supreme court decision and speeches, printed in the book for the reader's perusal.

My favorite parts of the book were how Ruth thinks about cases she hears. Those thought processes are fascinating. Of course, the workings of the court were so different from the highly political fashion that the current justices practice. Ruth’s words take on a nostalgic tone. The way she uses women’s rights with examples of men is genius.

A fantastic look into Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Career through her own writings, from editorials in the school newspaper, to Supreme Court Dissents. Always well written, with humor, and someone who can understand all sides of an argument (and disregards that side if its obvious that what they say doesn't make sense, or has a very biased view). I especially like included Opera of Scalia and Ginsburg - Amusing, and shows how two people who disagree can agree.

I especially like the insight into how the Supreme Court decides cases, makes decisions, and generally comes to agreement. Her ACLU cases are incredibly important, showing how there is unfairness (to both sexes) when it comes to laws.

An amazing lady who is one of the few women of her day who actually managed to make a successful career, while having a successful family.

Highly Recomended.

Survey of RBG life as judge including many cases she felt were important. She also gently presents her dissents in several important decisions that roll-back voting rights, women's equality under the law, Roe v W, Citizens United, etc. Especially nice is that the audio book contains her and sometimes her husband's recorded speeches rather than the transcripts presumably contained in the book.

This was a wonderful book! It was a lot more about her court life and rulings than her personal life but my, what a legacy! I listened to the audiobook and there are a lot of excerpts read by RBG and even a couple by her husband which I just loved. The "other narrator" was Linda Lavin which would occasionally pop me out of the narrative because her voice is just so distinctive. She would also summarize some of RBG's dissents and rulings and then we would hear RBG read the actual dissent. So, I kinda thought that was unnecessary as it was read for us so why the summary? In any case, it was amazing to go through her remarkable career and very inspiring. We are lesser country without her guidance and her passion for steering us toward true equality is sorely missed.

This is a wonderful book. I learned so much and Ginsberg is such a wonderful writer. It took quite awhile for me to finish it, but that is only because the information is quite complex and I had to re-read sections often to understand fully. That is the shortcoming of the reader, not the writer.

A must read for all women, Although a bit stale in places, some interesting events and cases were influenced by RBG and these are important historical things to know to understand the advancement of women and issues such as Roe v. Wade (and more).

Law is so interesting to me because it really does, on paper anyway, drain all the emotion out of the situation and look, largely, at ideas. I don't agree with everything but, because of the ideas and evidence, I respect and understand the words.

audio nonfiction/autobiography - legal history; civil rights; a glimpse into the Supreme Court.

using the life's work of the late RBG, including archival recordings of her own voice delivering her dissenting opinion statements and tribute speeches, this is a thorough compilation of the Justice's achievements--she did not always carry the majority opinion but used her measured words to inform Congress about the gaps in the laws that needed to be fixed.

I think the audio gets slightly repetitive sometimes, but it does offer the frequent and not insignificant benefit of getting to hear her actual voice deliver those carefully measured, precise statements. The print version would be better for many readers for skimmability purposes - maybe get both?½

What more can we say about Notorious RBG? She didn't want to leave a biography which would be impressive enough. She left us with a collection of some of her most consequential rulings. I would have liked to have seen them in toto, but the book probably would have stretched to thousands of pages. I am grateful that she left us with this book.

Oh. My. God.
Personally, I had only learned about Ruth Bader Ginsburg recently due to her death in September 2020 as a result of cancer. I did a quick Google search on her and saw, from all the results of the search, what an amazing woman she was. I saw this book in the Libby app and knew that I had to give it a read.
I can't say how inspired and amazed I am by RBG. She truly did so much with her life, and her writing is incredible. It was also nice reading the excerpts from her husband, Marty, who obviously loved and supported his wife with a deep, heartfelt conviction. I highly recommend this as a read.

An oblique biography of a consequential justice. Intertwined in her public speeches are glimpses of her private life. Missing is a discussion of her guiding philosophy beyond a commendable loathing of any form of discrimination

The more I learn about RBG, the more I love her. I adore the way that she is able to give credit to people who do go things even though they have different opinions politically. She talks about her friendships with them even. I aspire to be so evolved. I love how she's still fighting for what she believes is right. This book is a mix of her background and personal life, speeches she's given and some of her thoughts about laws. She's an inspiration for sure.

My Own Words is a collection of essays, speeches and bench statements from Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Though not a biography, the book does give you a strong sense of who Justice Ginsburg was, and what she stood for.

The book is divided into five parts, moving from her early years, to tributes she wrote to others, her commitment to gender equality, her nomination to the US Supreme Court, and some speeches and opinions from her time on the Court.

I listened to the audiobook on this one, and if you can get a hold of the audiobook I really recommend it. It's unique in that many of the speeches or statements where recorded, and it's those recordings of RBG that you hear in the audiobook, along with brief introductions by her co-authors Mary Hartnett and Wendy Williams (and read by Linda Lavin). It's an effective way to present the material.

One of my favorites is not a speech by the Justice, but by her husband Martin Ginsburg - it's hilarious. Who knew a tax attorney could have such a good sense of humor?

A vast and complete collection of speeches, writings and bench announcements dating back to the 8th grade. In 1993, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, was the second women ever appointed to the Supreme Court. Her remarkable character and humanity surface in these writings and excerpts. Ginsburg's legacy will always be as a humanitarian, who has done so much work towards gender equality and woman's rights, inspiring many along the way.
This is not a memoir, but it does share her insight into her education, and how her upbringing has been so important to her philosophical outlook, in life. A great edition to any book collection.

Excerpts of her writing and speeches with context. Best for RBG newbies.

Here's the thing about RBG: she's got such a sharp intellect, you're likely to cut yourself on it if you're not careful.

The first time RBG was part of the team that sued for sex discrimination (or maybe it was the second) someone gave the Courts a very long list of laws that were written to include specific gender descrimination language.

RBG turned that list into a hit-list: laws that she wanted changed.

She went on to change them.

Here's the other thing: she doesn't dissent unless the dissent holds water, is worthwhile, and is necessary to clarify what the dissent is about. Her most famous dissent, at least as I see it, was over Roe V. Wade. She did not dissent over the requirement that abortion be made legal; she dissented in the way that it happened.

To understand, imagine you have a big container (a very, very large container. Bigger. There you go.). This container is filled with water. If you drop a pebble in, some water is displaced and a ripple shows, but it really isn't that big a deal and truly, nobody would notice. Plop some more in there. Enough to cover the bottom, and then some.

If you toss a big rock in there, though, all at once, you'll get wet, water will splash out, and everyone is unhappy. You might have even dented or scraped or cracked the container. That's not good, because you need the container to last a long time.

From what RBG, and the two co-authors to this biography told me, laws are very similar to pebbles. You need a lot of pebbles in place to support the big rocks, or everyone is uncomfortable, annoyed, and/or wet.

Roe V Wade didn't have the kind of structural support it needed to be a truly excellent judgement. RBG argues that the SCOTUS made an incredibly preemptive ruling--nay, law--that could have been left up to Congress or states to make into stronger laws that everyone agreed on.

This is not to say that I don't think the decision reached in Roe V Wade was a wrong one. But it has left an unfortunate juxtaposition for state and federal laws to attempt to make work.

Again, to be clear: I agree that abortion must be legal. And quite honestly I'd rather it be federally protected, especially considering that if we left it up to the states, we would see a large upswing in denial of care from deeply religious states, despite the supposed separation between it and law.

Back to the book.
I really enjoyed reading it. It clarified a lot about who RBG is as a person, as a lawyer, and as a justice. I fully recommend you read it, as it includes discussion on SCOTUS's practices, histories, and traditions. There is some minor legalese but it is always explained.

10/10. Read this book.

RBG has been a leader in the right too equal rights from the beginning of her career. She has been a dynamo. A clear thinker.

2017
https://www.librarything.com/topic/244568#5992385

RBG is a beautiful writer - this was a dense volume at times, but full of fascinating narrative.

While i believe that she is an amazing woman and did great things, the book is very legalize

I was a little bit torn about whether to give this book 3 or 4 stars. A 3 rating because the book was , at times, awfully technical and so it dragged for me, a non-lawyer. However, I decided on a rating of 4 stars because Ruth Bader Ginsburg has led an amazing life and her measured thoughtfulness and wisdom shine through, as does her sense of humor. I learned a fair amount about the workings of the Supreme Court as well. She is a marvelous exemplar of a woman who ng has lived through the Civil Rights movement and gone on to wring all the juice from its fruit. Inspirational!

this work is awesome, in the truest sense of that word. it is the best work I've ever experienced.

I highly recommend the audiobook. Don't think of this book as a biography in the sense of recounting chronological events in a woman's life; think of the biography as a stream of conversations revealing the deep inspirations and knowledge of a mind developed from childhood to adulthood. Get to know Justice Ginsburg by her ideas and interests, and her collected environment of information, all laid out by topic.

also, I love how much history of women's rights there is in this book.

I always knew Ruth Bader Ginsburg was pretty amazing, but this book helped by saying specifically why she's so amazing. I listened to the audiobook version, which included portioned that were actually read by Ginsburg herself - always an extra treat. I came away from this book with a better understanding of how the Supreme Court actually works and an appreciation for the work Ginsburg did on gender discrimination, both before and after becoming a Supreme Court justice.

Although called In Owns My Words, you will find very little personal insight into Ruth Bader Ginsburg in this book because it is not a biography. It's more a collection of news stories on legislation with a few personal photos thrown in. Although I have a lot of respect for the lady and her work, I don't feel like the book provided much insight into who she is.