My Own Words by Ruth Bader Ginsburg

My Own Words by Ruth Bader Ginsburg
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I love The Honourable Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I think she's one of the most brilliant Americans alive today. This collection of speeches is a mess though. For example, one of them is a brief introduction for Gloria Steinem at an event for her, but we learn nothing about either Ginsburg or Steinem for the inclusion of the introduction. There are two speeches that are actually her husband's, and he has the same opening joke in them. There is an entire cut-and-paste of the opera, Scalia/Ginsburg, which was just the worst. This book could have been really great, and it does have some great feminist writing in it, but you'll have to wade through a lot of poorly edited content to get to it.

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Congratulations, By the Way by George Saunders

Congratulations, By the Way: Some Thoughts on Kindness by George Saunders
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm a deeply biased Saunders fan. This "book" is just one graduation speech he gave at Syracuse University in 2013. It's a really great speech, and as close to conveying the meaning of life in as few words as possible as I have yet read. It takes less than 20 minutes to read so everyone should read it.

It's available in its entirety online, but of course, the book version makes a lovely graduation gift.

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The People Speak by Howard Zinn

The People Speak: American Voices, Some Famous, Some Little Known: Dramatic Readings Celebrating the Enduring Spirit of Dissent by Howard Zinn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It's been a number of years since I read Zinn's A People's History, so I don't recall most of these speeches. However, even if I had recalled these speeches, I am certain that they carry more weight with me during the current administration, than they would have carried previously. I particularly enjoyed the McCarthy trial transcript. It's a very short book with 86 pages, and the audiobook is less than two hours long, so I highly recommend reading or listening to it.

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