Evan Thomas' biography of Sandra Day O'Connor sums up an overachiever

The O'Connors' marriage is at the heart of this biography

For some time now, Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been having a moment. Books, documentaries, a major feature film, even a best-selling comic-book-cum-biography have celebrated the feminist litigator and second woman to serve on the United States Supreme Court. Still, all this attention to No 2 implicitly raises the question of whatever happened to No 1.

Evan Thomas answers that question in his fascinating and revelatory biography, First: Sandra Day O’Connor. There are many parallels between the lives of RBG and SDO — early confrontations with discrimination, fierce work ethics, supportive and enlightened husbands — but there is one major distinction: