Accessible, well-edited selections amply demonstrating the astute thinking and sharp voice of an indispensable legal mind.
This entry in the new Penguin Liberty series focuses on the case writings of the most recognizable associate justice on the Supreme Court.
Long before she was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1993, Ginsburg, aka the Notorious RBG, was a crusader for such issues as equal protection for women, reproductive freedom, and civil rights. Stung by her own experiences of discrimination—during pregnancy, as a law student at Harvard, and through her struggle to land a clerkship despite her sterling record—she first grasped how the 14th Amendment, intended to end racial discrimination, could be interpreted to protect sex, as well. As editor Brettschneider, who also serves as the Liberty series editor, notes, “Ginsburg needed to show that sex discrimination fell into the same category as race discrimination—an arbitrary form of discrimination based in factors individuals did not have power over.” She wielded the Equal Protection Clause first as a litigator with the ACLU in Reed v. Reed (1971), which challenged an Idaho law upholding irrational stereotypes about women as inferior to men. In her arguments, she successfully rendered sex a “suspect classification.” Her work as a litigator culminated in what the editor deems her “crowning achievement in this area”: United States v. Virginia (1996), in which Ginsburg argued against the long-standing rule that “barred women from entering” Virginia Military Academy. She prevailed by establishing what she termed “skeptical scrutiny, a "standard made clear that women could not be denied opportunity simply because of their sex.” Other key cases have included such issues as pay equity, affirmative action, voting rights, and religious freedom. Furthermore, writes Brettschneider, whose shrewd shaping of this volume makes it a good choice for students and nonscholars, Ginsburg’s “famous dissent in Bush v. Gore linked the integrity of our electoral process to the security of the people’s rights.”
Accessible, well-edited selections amply demonstrating the astute thinking and sharp voice of an indispensable legal mind.Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-14-313511-1
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Penguin
Review Posted Online: June 5, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.
A warts-and-all portrait of the famed techno-entrepreneur—and the warts are nearly beyond counting.
To call Elon Musk (b. 1971) “mercurial” is to undervalue the term; to call him a genius is incorrect. Instead, Musk has a gift for leveraging the genius of others in order to make things work. When they don’t, writes eminent biographer Isaacson, it’s because the notoriously headstrong Musk is so sure of himself that he charges ahead against the advice of others: “He does not like to share power.” In this sharp-edged biography, the author likens Musk to an earlier biographical subject, Steve Jobs. Given Musk’s recent political turn, born of the me-first libertarianism of the very rich, however, Henry Ford also comes to mind. What emerges clearly is that Musk, who may or may not have Asperger’s syndrome (“Empathy did not come naturally”), has nurtured several obsessions for years, apart from a passion for the letter X as both a brand and personal name. He firmly believes that “all requirements should be treated as recommendations”; that it is his destiny to make humankind a multi-planetary civilization through innovations in space travel; that government is generally an impediment and that “the thought police are gaining power”; and that “a maniacal sense of urgency” should guide his businesses. That need for speed has led to undeniable successes in beating schedules and competitors, but it has also wrought disaster: One of the most telling anecdotes in the book concerns Musk’s “demon mode” order to relocate thousands of Twitter servers from Sacramento to Portland at breakneck speed, which trashed big parts of the system for months. To judge by Isaacson’s account, that may have been by design, for Musk’s idea of creative destruction seems to mean mostly chaos.
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781982181284
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change.
Artist and activist Vaid-Menon demonstrates how the normativity of the gender binary represses creativity and inflicts physical and emotional violence.
The author, whose parents emigrated from India, writes about how enforcement of the gender binary begins before birth and affects people in all stages of life, with people of color being especially vulnerable due to Western conceptions of gender as binary. Gender assignments create a narrative for how a person should behave, what they are allowed to like or wear, and how they express themself. Punishment of nonconformity leads to an inseparable link between gender and shame. Vaid-Menon challenges familiar arguments against gender nonconformity, breaking them down into four categories—dismissal, inconvenience, biology, and the slippery slope (fear of the consequences of acceptance). Headers in bold font create an accessible navigation experience from one analysis to the next. The prose maintains a conversational tone that feels as intimate and vulnerable as talking with a best friend. At the same time, the author's turns of phrase in moments of deep insight ring with precision and poetry. In one reflection, they write, “the most lethal part of the human body is not the fist; it is the eye. What people see and how people see it has everything to do with power.” While this short essay speaks honestly of pain and injustice, it concludes with encouragement and an invitation into a future that celebrates transformation.
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change. (writing prompt) (Nonfiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09465-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
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