Every day is starting to feel like a Saturday: A ton of work to do, but I don’t have to go into the office tomorrow. A lot of my free reading time is consumed with trying to understand what is going on with the current pandemic. When I’ve had enough of that, I’ve been attacking my to-read pile.
I recently finished First: Sandra Day’Connor by Evan Thomas.
It’s a great biography of the first female US Supreme Court Justice. Born in El Paso and raised on a cattle ranch in Arizona, she grew up in a time when women didn’t usually have careers.
She left home at 16 to go to college and then law school at Stanford. Even though she graduated in the top of her class, law firms only offered her a job as a legal secretary. Eventually she landed an unpaid position as deputy county attorney and had to share space with a secretary.
Her rise to the highest court in America seems almost prescient with her ranch-honed determination, brilliant mind and nose for politics.
Upon reaching the Supreme Court in her biography, Mr. Thomas starts weaving important Supreme Court cases into the story. And practical items as well. The building didn’t have a women’s bathroom nearby for her when she arrived.
Mr. Thomas apparently had wide access to her personal journals, her husband’s diary and her family. He paints a detailed and insightful portrait of an extraordinary woman.
If you’re looking for a book to read while cooped up because of the coronavirus, I recommend this one. Unfortunately (but for good reason) my local bookstore is closed. You can still get it through Amazon. I listened to it as an audiobook through Audible.