My Beloved World
By: Sonia Sotomayor / Narrated By: Rita Moreno
Length: 12 hrs and 27 mins
Warm, rich with family. May I say that I’m now a fan…?
Here’s what I do: I listen to my audiobooks for the week and THEN I write the reviews for them all in one fell swoop. I know, I know. I really shoooould write reviews right after I finish the audiobook, but I rather enjoy letting each lie there in my brain, giving myself a chance to re-listen to intros as refreshers before I tackle the reviews. Of coooooourse, this often means that the first audiobook I listened to for the week can become just a trifle fuzzy in my brain, its details and such getting muddy as I travel along, tra la la, listening to other engaging works. So with My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor being the first I listened to? With other truly wonderful stories between that listen and this writing? Well, the possibility of a 12 1/2 hour listen getting all mussy is quite pronounced.
But, see, it’s like this: It totally isn’t all jumbled in my head because it was just that good. This is no chronicle of life events, with a sense of distance between us and an esteemed Justice. This is practically a coming-of-age book with stories of family, of determination, of choosing those roads less taken.
I remember Sotomayor’s Introduction, capably related by herself, and the Prologue like crazy. Maybe it’s cuz I remember my own sister’s diagnosis and first months of diabetes, but talk about a way to grab the listener from the start. She’s around 8 years old, and her parents are arguing again: Not about her father’s drinking this time but about her father’s being too afraid to give her the insulin shots she needs (His hands tremble too violently… so maybe it IS about her father’s drinking again…). Sonia can’t stand this, so even as an itty bitty girl, she leaves the two and goes to the stove to boil in water/sterilize what she needs so that she can take over her shots—This is an individual with enough guts and chutzpa to make it to the Supreme Court, without a doubt!
This self-determination is shown throughout the book, whether Sotomayor is navigating life in the Projects, or she’s filling out college applications for elite schools. It’s shown when she discovers her writing skills aren’t up to snuff, and she sets about to change this. And she’s wise enough to know when to ask for help. She’s uber into giving kudos where kudos are due as her life and career have been dotted with the powerful, with the knowledgeable, with the sensitive and kind. My personal favorite was listening to her life being changed, all because she was eyeing some free cheese in a conference room.
Tho’ I liked Sotomayor’s early narration of her story, let’s face it: Rita Moreno ain’t no slouch in the dramatic delivery department, bringing family members to life, trials and tribulations from the death of her father when she was but 9-years old to the death of her marriage to her first love. If you’re a proud Puerto Rican woman, ya GOTTA want Rita Moreno doing your work.
This is about heavy topics such as being a prosecutor but realizing your “win” could devastate a life, all the way to lighter topics such as Sotomayor ruefully saying she has a pudgy nose and has forever lacked a sense of style. Mostly, it’s about such love in her life, family members close as can be, an absent mother she came to understand and to forgive, an alcoholic father whose absence caused a lighter atmosphere in the house but who was also greatly, greatly loved. It’s about being there for an ex-addict/junkie cousin as he succumbs to AIDS at an early age; and it’s about being able to rely on a younger brother who once inspired battles but who now totally has your back.
As a memoir, I enjoyed all the stories within the larger story. As an autobiography, I enjoyed the strength from surviving childhood morphing into courage and triumph. This audiobook has it all with a little bit of everything in it.
So I went from vaguely knowing Sotomayor, the Supreme Court Justice whose decisions I admired becoming a flesh and blood woman I could understand. Can’t say I relate to her, as ambition and guiding principles aren’t my style (I’m more into slapdash efforts and writing reviews waaaaay after I listened to the audiobooks…!), but at least I could embrace the Latinx experience, what with having my own Abuelita who foisted home cooked tidbits upon me and my siblings.
Excellent, just excellent—humanizes an icon. But no WAY will I get around to anything on Scalia…!
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