The City of East Lansing and Michigan State University announce the book selection for the 2018 One Book, One Community program: "My Beloved World," a memoir by Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Supreme Court of the United States.
Sotomayor's story is one of determination and the hope, tenacity, hard work and self-reliance that would propel a little girl who grew up in a Puerto Rican corner of the Bronx to the highest court in the land.
In "My Beloved World," Sotomayor provides readers with a frank and loving account of her coming of age and her large extended family, many with roots still in Puerto Rico. Sotomayor also recounts the adversity she has faced in her life - from growing up in poverty with an at-times challenging family life to her lifelong management of juvenile diabetes and her determination to adapt to a wider world that would eventually result in her becoming the first Latina and third woman appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Sotomayor's retelling of her exuberant, colorful and close-knit family is reminiscent of many first and second generation immigrants, who rely on each other as they adapt to a new world. Always personal and intimate, her story is that of the importance of family and the determined reach for participation in the American dream. Sotomayor's story gives us insight into her passage into the heady and, to her, often strange world of academia and later the practice of law.
A foretelling of her grit and tenacity, Sotomayor learned to give herself insulin shots at the tender age of 7 when she was first diagnosed with juvenile diabetes. That grit and tenacity later carried her from being named valedictorian of her high school to graduating with honors from Princeton University and serving as an editor of the Yale Law Journal at Yale Law School.
"Experience has taught me that you cannot value dreams according to the odds of their coming true."
As part of the 2018 OBOC program, Sotomayor will visit the East Lansing-MSU community in August 2018. Community members are invited to the OBOC Kick-off Event: An Evening with Justice Sotomayor at 6 p.m. Aug. 26 at the East Lansing High School Theater, 509 Burcham Drive.
Justice Sotomayor also will speak during the MSU Academic Welcome at 9 a.m. Aug. 27 at the Jack Breslin Student Events Center, 534 Birch Road. Both events are FREE and open to all community members.
The One Book, One Community program encourages the East Lansing-MSU community to read the same book and come together to explore its themes and issues at a variety of campus and community events each fall. The selected book is widely read on and off campus and is a required reading for all incoming freshmen. The highlight of the program is the visit by the author(s) to the community in the fall. OBOC is one of the first community reading programs to bring together the students of a major university and the residents of its surrounding community. Learn more about OBOC and the 2018 program at www.onebookeastlansing.com.