#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER - A "searching and emotionally intimate
memoir" (The New York Times) told with a candor never before
undertaken by a sitting Justice. This "powerful defense of empathy"
(The Washington Post) is destined to become a classic of
self-invention and self-discovery.
The first Hispanic and third woman appointed to the United States
Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor has become an instant American icon.
In this story of human triumph that "hums with hope and exhilaration"
(NPR), she recounts her life from a Bronx housing project to the
federal bench, a journey that offers an inspiring testament to her own
extraordinary determination and the power of believing in oneself.
Here is the story of a precarious childhood, with an alcoholic father
(who would die when she was nine) and a devoted but overburdened mother,
and of the refuge a little girl took from the turmoil at home with her
passionately spirited paternal grandmother. But it was when she was
diagnosed with juvenile diabetes that the precocious Sonia recognized
she must ultimately depend on herself. She would learn to give herself
the insulin shots she needed to survive and soon imagined a path to a
different life.
With only television characters for her professional role models, and
little understanding of what was involved, she determined to become a
lawyer, a dream that would sustain her on an unlikely course, from
valedictorian of her high school class to the highest honors at
Princeton, Yale Law School, the New York County District Attorney's
office, private practice, and appointment to the Federal District Court
before the age of forty.
Along the way we see how she was shaped by her invaluable mentors, a
failed marriage, and the modern version of extended family she has
created from cherished friends and their children. Through her
still-astonished eyes, America's infinite possibilities are envisioned
anew in this warm and honest book.
