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Dinners with Ruth : a memoir on the power of friendships / Nina Totenberg.

Totenberg, Nina, (author.).

Summary:
"Celebrated NPR correspondent Nina Totenberg delivers an extraordinary memoir of her personal successes, struggles, and life-affirming relationships, including her remarkable friendship of nearly fifty years with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Four years before Nina Totenberg started working at NPR, where she cemented her legacy as a prize-winning reporter, and nearly twenty-two years before Ruth Bader Ginsburg was appointed to the Supreme Court, Nina called Ruth. A reporter for The National Observer, Nina was curious about Ruth's legal brief, asking the Supreme Court to do something revolutionary: declare a law that discriminated "on the basis of sex" to be unconstitutional. In a time when women were fired for becoming pregnant and often could not apply for credit cards or get a mortgage, Ruth patiently explained her argument. That call launched a nearly fifty-year friendship. Dinners with Ruth is an extraordinary account of two women who paved the way for future generations by tearing down professional and legal barriers. It is also an intimate memoir of the power of friendships as women began to pry open career doors and transform the workplace. At the story's heart is one, special relationship: Ruth and Nina saw each other not only through personal joys, but also illness, loss, and widowhood. Ruth drew Nina out of grief during the devastating illness and eventual death of Nina's first husband; twelve years later, Nina would reciprocate when Ruth's beloved husband died. They shared a love of opera and shopping, as they instinctively understood that clothes were armor for women who wanted to be taken seriously in a workplace dominated by men. During Ruth's last year, they shared so many small dinners that Saturdays were "reserved for Ruth" in Nina's house. Dinners with Ruth also weaves together personal portraits of other fascinating women and men from Nina's life, including her cherished NPR colleagues Cokie Roberts and Linda Wertheimer; her beloved husbands; her friendships with multiple Supreme Court Justices, including Lewis Powell, William Brennan, and Antonin Scalia, and Nina's own family--her father, the legendary violinist Roman Totenberg, and her "best friends," her sisters. Inspiring and revelatory, Dinners with Ruth is a moving story of the joy of friendship" -- Provided by publisher.

Record details

  • ISBN: 9781982188085
  • ISBN: 1982188081
  • Physical Description: xiii, 304 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 22 cm
  • Edition: First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition.
  • Publisher: New York : Simon & Schuster, 2022.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 281-288) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:
Prologue: Bouillabaisse for Ruth -- The first stirrings of friendship -- Making friends and a few enemies -- Unexpected friends -- Friends and love -- Friends in need -- Friends of the court -- Supreme friends -- Friends and confidences -- Male friends -- Friends in joy -- Nourishing friendships -- Friendship and hardships -- Fame and friendship -- Friendship is a choice -- Losing friends -- Finding my father's long-lost friend -- Farewell to my friend -- Epilogue.
Subject: Totenberg, Nina > Friends and associates.
Ginsburg, Ruth Bader, 1933-2020 > Friends and associates.
Radio broadcasters > United States > Biography.
Judges > United States > Biography.
Female friendship.
Genre: Autobiographies.
Biographies.

Available copies

  • 47 of 56 copies available at SPARK Libraries.

Holds

  • 2 current holds with 56 total copies.
Show Only Available Copies
Location Call Number / Copy Notes Barcode Shelving Location Status Due Date
Albright Memorial Library 92 TOTENBE (Text) 50686016222700 Adult Nonfiction Checked Out 04/22/2024
Albright Memorial Library 92 TOTENBE (Text) 50686016223575 Adult Nonfiction Available -
Altoona Area Public Library 791.4402 TOT (Text) 33240004725720 Adult Nonfiction Available -
Annie Halenbake Ross Library B Tot (Text) 00155913 ADULT Biography Available -
Boyertown Community Library TOT (Text) 33249024855318 Biography Available -
Cambria County Library 347.732 G493T (Text) 85131001844985 CACM Non-Fiction Available -
Carbondale Public Library 92 TOTENBE (Text) 50688010836436 Adult Nonfiction In Transit -
Conemaugh Township Branch 347.73 TOT (Text) 35907001765028 SOCC Non Fiction Available -
Dalton Community Library 920 TOTENBERG (Text) 50689090008581 Browsing Available -
Degenstein Community Library NF 791.44 TOTENBERG (Text) 35031301219610 Adult Non-Fiction Available -


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