Sandra Day O'Connor (1930–2023)

A nostalgic cowboy-romance in non-fiction form. This is the memoir of a supreme court justice, not about her life, but about her birthplace and her father. Think if Arya Stark wrote a book about Winterfell, but Americanized completely.

Sandra Day O'Connor and her brother write a book that spends few words on politics, however history of American law is in there regardless. At times not so subtle, this book chronicles the lives of those who lived on The Lazy B ranch, and the changing world distantly around them. If you look you can see America evolve in the background, legally, infrastructurally, and ecologically.

Politics are downplayed to a minimal. Nothing partisan or truly controversial. It is simply inter-mountain ranching of the twentieth century laid bare for a reader to observe.… (més)

Given the subject nature of this book, it wasn't bad. But unless you're about to enter a trivia contest dealing with the U.S. Supreme Court, there's a lot of history and information which just wasn't of much interest to me. For example, I really don't care much about who swore in many of the associate or chief justices, or how many times they took the oath. Also, when O'Connor includes a section of the book trying to show the sense of humor of the justices, the fact that the stories were a little lame doesn't indicate that she can't write well, rather it indicates that these guys she works with just aren't all that funny. But she does give a good history of the Court, from its earliest days through the modern era, and there was a lot of information I hadn't heard before.… (més)