Becoming by Michelle Obama

Becoming

By Michelle Obama

I wasn’t going to read this book as some of the blown-up media coverage made me think this book was more of a political slam on Republicans and the current administration which it does with four or five sentences in the middle and end of the book. However,  it turned out to be so much more than politics. There are so many wonderful tidbits in this book. So much learning about a couple who both excelled and chilled their way through life. Michelle was a perfectionist, needed to control her every move in life. Barak was the chill, genius from Hawaii who spun Michelle’s world on its axis. Before she met her husband is where this book starts. The love that her family has for each other, childhood and now was freeing to Michelle “becoming” who she is today. Her mother was not overbearing, she let Michelle and her brother Craig make their own decisions in preparation for “becoming” adults. Her father a blue-collar worker who suffered from MS and decades later dies from it. So much good happened in her life, so much ease and then so much hardship at the same time for her older family members. 

Mrs. Obama writes like she talks—brutally honest which sometimes comes off as an angry woman which I guess is her right as a woman who has had hate thrown at her when she never wanted the limelight.  She also shares some of her deepest, darkest fears, her hopes, her dreams and her drive for what she considers the ills of the world. Hand in hand with her husband, she doesn’t only do things because they will make him look good and support his presidency but installs programs as First Lady that she sees need to be paid attention to better the lives of minorities.

I enjoyed the book immensely, only occasionally did it seem to be filled with anger towards whites and especially white men, and I was saddened that she didn’t talk about helping other poor or afflicted children not just the minority children, which I am hoping she had done as First Lady.

I give this book 3 stars as I would not read it again, but I did enjoy it. :)