Dinners with Ruth: a memoir on the power of friendships, by Nina Totenberg

 

I really liked this touching and heartfelt memoir by NPR reporter Nina Totenberg about her decades long friendship with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Long before Ruth became a Justice, she argued cases before the court beginning early in the 1970s, and Nina interviewed her regularly about those cases. What began as a professional relationship grew into a close personal friendship with both Nina and her first (and later second) husband dining regularly with Ruth and her husband. I find it amusing that in both cases, the husbands were the better cooks than the wives, so they did most of the cooking when hosting. When Nina lost her first husband in the late 90s, Ruth was very supportive, a favor that Nina returned when Ruth lost her husband Marty two decades later. I loved reading not just about their growing friendship but also how their careers began and flourished. Both women faced gender discrimination throughout their respective careers, and Totenberg shares those experiences through her many anecdotes scattered through the book but without dwelling overly long on those issues. Totenberg makes clear the historical importance of RBG's appointment as the second woman Supreme Court Justice, and she writes about Ruth's friendships and working relationships with Sandra Day O'Connor and Antonin Scalia. She discusses many of the cases that came before the court over the last 50-plus years without becoming dry or overly detailed. This is a fairly short book (304 pages) and she covers a lot of ground, all while keeping it highly interesting and entertaining.