Book Review: My Beloved World

The book’s jacket is significant. Across the top, the author’s name appears simply as Sonia Sotomayor, not as Justice Sotomayor. Across the bottom is the title My Beloved World, taken from “To Puerto Rico (I Return)” by poet José Gautier Benítez. And in the background is a large picture of a smiling justice, not in judicial robes but in an elegant black suit. These details foreshadow what lies inside the book — the story of Sonia Sotomayor before she became a judge; a woman sustained and propelled by her proud Puerto Rican heritage; a woman who openly and honestly takes us not just to Princeton and Yale Law School, but to the lonelier places of her life such as her father’s alcoholism and her failure to secure a job offer after working as a summer associate.