My Beloved World
LC Class | KF8745.S67A3 2013 |
My Beloved World is a
Background
In July 2010, Sotomayor agreed to publish a memoir, described as "a coming-of-age" book by publisher Alfred A. Knopf,[1] for which she received an advance of nearly $1.2 million.[2] A simultaneous Spanish-language edition was contracted to Vintage Español.[3] Literary agent Peter W. Bernstein represented Sotomayor.[3] Sonny Mehta, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, stated, "Sonia Sotomayor has lived a remarkable life and her achievements will prove an inspiration to readers around the world. Hers is a triumph of the Latino experience in America."[1]
Sotomayor modeled her approach towards the memoir after
Synopsis
In recounting her early life, Sotomayor describes growing up in a
The memoir does not cover aspects of her later life or her appointment to the Supreme Court, aside from incidental mentions.[6] It is apolitical and does not discuss or reveal her legal philosophy.[7] It discusses her 1976 marriage and subsequent divorce in 1983.[8] It reveals many details about her early life that even her closest friends and mother were not previously aware of,[9] as well as many things she had difficulty confronting ("I disclose every fear I've ever had in this book").[4] It also includes a candid description of the effects of affirmative action upon her at Princeton;[6][9] she acknowledges that "I had been admitted to the Ivy League through a special door", but concludes that the measures served "to create the conditions whereby students from disadvantaged backgrounds could be brought to the starting line of a race many were unaware was even being run".[10]
Critical reception
Nina Totenberg of NPR writes, "This is a page-turner, beautifully written and novelistic in its tale of family, love and triumph. It hums with hope and exhilaration. This is a story of human triumph."[8] NPR's Jason Farago also finds it "intelligent, gregarious and at times disarmingly personal," but also says that "Sotomayor's tone can sometimes irritate when she whips out facile homespun wisdom."[10]
Dahlia Lithwick of The Washington Post states, "Anyone wondering how a child raised in public housing, without speaking English, by an alcoholic father and a largely absent mother could become the first Latina on the Supreme Court will find the answer in these pages. It didn't take just a village: It took a country."[13] Legal scholar Laurence Tribe has referred to My Beloved World as a "captivating memoir".[14]
Promotional efforts and commercial reception
Sotomayor staged an eleven-city book tour to promote her work,[9] with appearances intermingled with Supreme Court deliberations in Washington and two swearings-in there of Vice President Joe Biden for the inauguration of his second term.[15] Indeed, the time of Biden's first, official swearing-in (on a Sunday, with the public one held the next day) was moved up from around noon to around 8 a.m. to accommodate Sotomayor's previously arranged book signing at a Barnes & Noble store in New York on Sunday afternoon.[15][16][17]
In Sotomayor's appearance on The Daily Show, she described the book's primary purpose as a way "to remember the real Sonia" and to remind herself of her humble beginnings and the obstacles she had to overcome throughout her childhood.[18] A signing at an Austin, Texas book store attracted estimates of 700 to 1,500 people.[4][19] In an appearance at New York's Spanish Harlem-located El Museo del Barrio before a capacity crowd of 600 people, she engaged the audience by answering questions in both Spanish and English.[17] The popularity of the book caused, in writer Jodi Kantor's estimation, Sotomayor to be "suddenly the nation’s most high-profile Hispanic figure."[4]
My Beloved World debuted at the top of the
Paperback edition
A trade paperback edition of My Beloved World was published in 2014 by Vintage Books.[23]
Children's adaptation
In 2018, an adaptation of the book for middle graders was published by
See also
References
- ^ Knopf Publishers. July 12, 2010. Retrieved January 24, 2013.
- ^ "Justice Sotomayor gets over $1 million for memoir". San Francisco Chronicle. Associated Press. May 31, 2011. Retrieved June 11, 2011.
- ^ a b Andriani, Lynn (July 12, 2010). "Knopf to Publish Sotomayor Memoir". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved February 16, 2013.
- ^ a b c d Kantor, Jodi (February 4, 2013). "Sotomayor, a Star on the Book-Tour Circuit, Sees a New Niche for a Justice". The New York Times. p. A11.
- ^ a b Bravin, Jess (January 14, 2013). "Memoir Details Justice's Difficult Ascent". The Wall Street Journal.
- ^ a b c Liptak, Adam (January 13, 2013). "Washington Is Home (for Now at Least), but Sotomayor Stays True to New York". The New York Times. Retrieved January 14, 2013.
- ^ Main, Carla (January 17, 2013). "A Tale of Aspiration". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved January 26, 2013.
- ^ a b Totenberg, Nina (January 12, 2013). "Sotomayor Opens Up About Childhood, Marriage In 'Beloved World'". NPR. Retrieved January 24, 2013.
- ^ a b c Wolf, Richard (January 13, 2013). "Sotomayor makes surprising revelations in book". USA Today. Retrieved January 26, 2013.
- ^ a b c Farago, Jason (January 14, 2013). "Of The People: Sonia Sotomayor's Amazing Rise". NPR. Retrieved January 27, 2013.
- ^ Kakutani, Michiko (January 21, 2013). "The Bronx, the Bench and the Life in Between: 'My Beloved World,' a Memoir by Sonia Sotomayor". The New York Times. Retrieved January 24, 2013.
- ^ Bazelon, Emily (January 20, 2013). "The Making of a Justice". The New York Times Book Review. p. 11.
- ^ Lithwick, Dahlia (January 11, 2013). "Book review: 'My Beloved World' by Sonia Sotomayor". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on January 18, 2013. Retrieved January 24, 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-8050-9909-6.
- ^ a b Mears, Bill (January 20, 2013). "Shuttling justice: Sotomayor administers oaths, sells books". CNN. Retrieved January 26, 2013.
- msnbc.com. Retrieved January 26, 2013.
- ^ a b Bloomgarden-Smoke, Kara (January 22, 2013). "Justice Is Swift – and in a Hurry". The New York Observer. Retrieved January 26, 2013.
- ^ "January 21, 2013 - Sonia Sotomayor". The Daily Show. Comedy Central. Retrieved January 22, 2013.
- ^ Rudner, Jordan (January 24, 2013). "Justice Sonia Sotomayor visits Austin to promote new memoir". The Daily Texan. Retrieved January 26, 2013.
- ^ "Best Sellers – February 03, 2013". The New York Times. Retrieved January 26, 2013. Go forward on date for subsequent weeks.
- ^ a b Totenberg, Nina (January 30, 2013). "Sotomayor's Memoir Already A Best-Seller". NPR. Retrieved February 2, 2013.
- ^ "In Hardcover, It Looks the Same, but It's Not: Facts & Figures 2013". Publishers Weekly. March 14, 2014. Retrieved March 8, 2015.
- ^ "My Beloved World By Sonia Sotomayor". Penguin Random House. Retrieved January 18, 2024.
- ^ "The beloved world of Sonia Sotomayor / Sonia Sotomayor". Vanderbuilt University. Retrieved January 18, 2024.
- ^ a b "2019 Nonfiction Award". American Library Association. Retrieved January 18, 2024.