Just how much of a groundbreakinger was former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

Evan Thomas will be here to talk about his new biography.

First, how do you tell a story about race and class through the lives of the men in your

own family?

Mitchell Jackson will be here to talk about his latest book Survival Math.

Alexander Altar will give us an update from the literary world.

Plus, we'll talk about what we and the wider world are reading.

This is the Book Review Podcast for the New York Times.

I'm Pamela Paul.

Joining us now, Evan Thomas, he is the author most recently of first, Sandra Day O'Connor,

an intimate portrait of the first woman Supreme Court Justice.

Evan, thanks so much for being here.

Thanks, Pamela.

You've written many books, many biographies, both group and individual.

How do you decide who it is that you want to write about?

The great thing about being a journalist and not an academic is I really don't have a

specialty so I can theory I can write about anything.

In fact, I've written a lot about post-World War II America.

That interest me, my dad was in World War II and that whole age of the rise of American

power after World War II fascinates me.

First book I ever did with Walter Isaacson was The Wise Men about the group of men,

and those days all men, who sort of created the Western Alliance and created the post-war

...