Sonia Sotomayor: The True American Dream

by Antonia Felix

Overview

"Necessary reading" (Booklist) from a New York Times bestselling biographer.

Drawing on in-depth interviews with Sonia Sotomayor's former colleagues, family, friends, and teachers, New York Times bestselling biographer Antonia Felix explores Sotomayor's childhood, the values her parents instilled in her, and the events that propelled her to the highest court in the land. With insight and thoughtful analysis, Felix paints a revealing portrait of the woman who would come to meet President Obama's rigorous criteria for a Supreme Court justice, examining how Sotomayor's experiences shed light on her Supreme Court rulings-and how she will continue to write her great American legacy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101434864
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	07/06/2010
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	273,675
File size:	1 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Antonia Felix is the author of more than fifteen nonfiction books, including bestselling political biographies of Condoleezza Rice and Laura Bush. A frequent and much-sought-after speaker on women’s political topics, she has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, FoxNews Channel and many other networks. She has reported on the state of women’s rights in Iran at briefings in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate and also writes a column on energy and sustainability issues for the historic Emporia Gazette. A longtime resident of New York City, Felix now lives with her husband in Kansas.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments XI

Prologue XV

Chapter 1 Talking To The Trees 1

Chapter 2 The Bronxdalians 13

Chapter 3 Princeton 37

Chapter 4 Yale Law 55

Chapter 5 The Tarzan Murderer And Other Tales From The Da's Office 69

Chapter 6 A Fendi Crush 115

Chapter 7 Pitch It To The Judge 147

Chapter 8 "Only In This Country" 181

Chapter 9 Two Promises 209

Chapter 10 Her Honor 237

Notes 257

Bibliography 277

Index 287

Editorial Reviews

Because Sotomayor's mother was raised in Puerto Rico in "a context of poverty" unseen in the United States, she worked hard to instill in her daughter, Sonia, the believe that "education was the key to everything." Even so, when Sotomayor arrived at Princeton and realized the gap between her skills and those of students from elite high schools, she spent the next summer reading classics and reviewing grammar books. Felix, who has written biographies of Laura Bush and Condoleeza Rice, provides anecdotes to illustrate Sotomayor's pluck and perseverance. During a recruiting dinner with a large law firm, for instance, Sotomayor accused the interviewer of asking discriminatory questions, filed a complaint against the firm, and petitioned Yale to drop their recruiting privileges. Sotomayor's impressive resume includes jobs with the Manhattan DA's office (the first time she "had given any thought to public service other than the State Department"), Pavia & Harcourt, where she worked on the "Fendi contra counterfeiting program," and the distinction of becoming the first Hispanic judge on a federal bench in New York. Readers looking for a riveting and meticulously researched book on the Supreme Court Justice will be engrossed.
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Publishers Weekly

In this pleasant biography, Felix (Condi: The Condoleezza Rice Story) recounts Sotomayor's remarkable life so far. A daughter of Puerto Rican immigrants, Sotomayor was raised in public housing in New York and gained admission to Princeton and then Yale Law School, successfully combating discrimination within these two elite institutions. After a tour as an assistant district attorney (ADA) under Robert Morgenthau and eight years in a private law firm, she was appointed by President George H.W. Bush to a federal district court in 1992, inaugurating her judicial career, with President Clinton elevating her to the federal appeals court in New York. Last year, America's first black President named Sotomayor the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice and only its third woman. VERDICT Felix offers substantial detail about some of Sotomayor's cases as an ADA and as a judge along with perhaps more background on her personal life than has been aired, but by and large there's little new in this telling. The legal detail makes it unsuitable for most readers below college age. Recommended for large public libraries and all college and university collections.—Cynthia Harrison, George Washington Univ., Washington, DC

Library Journal