Three and a half stars, rounding up to four. This is another book from the Goodreads list of biographies I'm slowly working my way through. I knew very little about Sotomayor before beginning, and my knowledge of the US Supreme Court was hardly greater. It remains vanishingly small because this memoir cuts off two decades before the time of writing. Sotomayor covers her childhood, student experiences, and working life as a young woman, and the book ends as she is made a district court judge. On the one hand I can understand this - as a judge, and ultimately as a member of the Supreme Court, I expect discretion is the better part of valour. On the other hand, it would have been interesting to read a book about the experiences of a judge; I've never read one before.

Admittedly, I found the first half of the book - Sotomayor's experiences as a child and adolescent - much more enjoyable to read. With the best will in the world, the practice of law does not rivet my attention, and though the second half of the book was likeable enough, for me it lacked the immediacy and appeal of the first half. I'm left feeling very glad I never went to law school, as - Sotomayor's happy experiences there aside - it sounds phenomenally tedious. Still, it takes all sorts, and perhaps she wouldn't be any happier in a lab than I would be in a court room.