This is the second episode of the Reading Interview Series, where I chat with bookworms, avid readers and learners, to unpack their reading habits and philosophy.

 

 

In this episode I chat with Amy Ratsara. She is an attorney in the state of Michigan, who is a good friend. We love to talk about books and podcasts we like. One of the main reasons I want to interview her is her background in history and law, and we talk a lot about reading history in this conversation. For those of you who are thinking about or currently attending law school, she has some great tips on reading case laws and preparing for class. Hope you’ll enjoy this episode. As usual, all the books and links mentioned in the interview can be found below.

 

Connect with Amy on Twitter and Instagram: @amyratsara

Mentioned Books, Authors, Podcasts, and Links

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Living History by Hillary Clinton
Madam Secretary by Madeleine Albright
Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel
The Path of Loneliness by Elisabeth Elliot
House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Feedly RSS reader
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
Skipping Christmas by John Grisham
Hidden Christmas by Timothy Keller
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas
Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks
The Desire of Ages by Ellen White
The Meaning of Marriage by Timothy Keller
American girl books
Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
 
 
 
Minute Markers:
Childhood reading [1:08]
How her reading changed as she grew older [4:16]
Discovering her love of history [12:00]
Why history is important and inexhaustible [15:41]
How she picks books and resources now [21:00]
Good audiobooks she listened to recently [23:27]
Continual learning in law [26:26]
Reading tips for law students, how to annotate passages [30:15]
Applying the reading tips for general reading [36:31]
How to learn the historiography of a topic [37:25]
Debates on how history is popularized [40:20]
Bias in biographies [43:43]
Methods to select books to buy/borrow/purge [46:48]
What she’s reading right now [51:37]
Resources for people who want to start learning about American History [53:55]
How 2017 impacted her reading habits [57:15]
How to keep learning [1:00:39]
 
 

 

 

Attributions

 
 

 

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