My daughter, Katie, attended the event where Former first lady Michelle Obama and moderator Michele Norris addressed the crowd at TD Garden in Boston last Saturday night. Michelle Obama is on a book tour marketing Becoming, her memoir.
“I grew up with a disabled dad in a too-small house with not much money in a starting-to-fail neighborhood, and I also grew up surrounded by love and music in a diverse city in a country where an eduction can take you far. I had nothing or I had everything. It depends on which way you wan to tell it.” (p. 416)
I found Michelle Obama’s Becoming a choppy book. I was intrigued by her early years. But, once Michelle Obama meets Barack Obama, he hijacks her life…and her book. At this point, Becoming shows us how Michelle Obama views key events in her husband’s life: winning the Presidency, killing Osama Bin Ladin, being attacked by Fox News and Trump, etc. Michelle Obama admits to “yelling” when she’s angry. I also sensed she’s easily annoyed. And when Michelle Obama is annoyed, she makes things happen. There are several stories in Becoming where Michele Obama “intervened” when the Secret Service interfered with Sasha and Malia–and I suspect these stories are just the tip of the iceberg.
Michelle Obama is smart, funny, and passionate. But entire swatches of her life are missing. Michelle Obama has little to say about her time at Harvard Law School. She skips through the time when she and her husband are child-free. Maybe she’s saving these stories for another book. GRADE: B
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Preface ix
Becoming Me 1
Becoming Us 109
Becoming More 381
Epilogue 417
Acknowledgements 423
I read Obama’s book and found it quite interesting about his childhood and college. I won’t be reading Michelle’s.
Jeff, I enjoyed Michelle’s stories about Life in the White House. She really worked hard at raising her daughters despite all the stresses and distractions of a public life. But I came away from BECOMING thinking Michelle Obama is a High Maintenance person.
Yeah, I’ll run right out and buy it! Hahahahahaha!
Bob, I predict BECOMING will be the best selling book of 2018.
Good, then it won’t need my custom!