We read this book together on Audible, read by Michelle Obama herself. It took us a while (to Carrie's frustration... remember she's been reading >100 books per year lately! She is used to going fast...) because we primarily listen in the car. Without a big trip happening, our listening was confined mostly to the drive to/from work (~15-20 minutes per day) and to/from the grocery story (~30 min total each weekend). Michael also is not quite as good at listening to audiobooks as Carrie, who can go at 1.75x speed or even faster on her own. For this, Michael convinced Carrie to keep it at 1.5x speed, which was still a bit fast for him. The difference in speed preference aside, we do enjoy listening to audiobooks together and will probably be posting about some more in the future!
Keeping in mind that both of us are pretty liberal and fans of the Obama's, we really enjoyed the book, which told the story of Michelle's upbringing on the south side of Chicago through her time as First Lady of the United States and everything in between. There were a lot of things neither of us knew about both Obamas and things that occurred in the background of President Obama's Senate and Presidential campaigns. Overall it was an incredibly interesting read!
Michelle grew up in a working class family and attended a prestigious high school and college (Princeton). While her educational path does feel somewhat normal for someone of such social stature, her perspective is refreshing, as literally no one writing from her position as a former First Lady also understand first hand the struggles of middle and lower class families of color. The challenges she faced, both externally and internally, are something we all need to recognize (and attempt to empathize) more, particularly those of us coming from positions of more privilege... white people, and white men in particular.
A fascinating aspect of this book is that the reader gets to see Michelle Obama develop and grow as a person. Such a sense of growth can be difficult to achieve in a book about a person like this, but Michelle accomplishes the task with great success, in part probably because of her unique trajectory compared with many other prominent politicians and first ladies.
Around the middle of the book, after Michelle has become a successful lawyer and has just begun her relationship with President Obama, she faces an internal struggle to align her true interests with her career. This was a part that was particularly interesting to Michael who, similar to Michelle, always had a planed trajectory for his education and career path. In part because of the contrast with how President Obama planned (or didn't plan) his own career path, Michelle questions whether she is truly happy doing what she is doing. The fact that she was able to question this, and even decided to make a huge career shift, was really interesting to Michael, who often finds it difficult to really evaluate such things or even consider a deviation from "the plan". This is something that Michael is constantly trying to be better about and, while he is happy with his career as it is currently, the fact that people like Michelle Obama have had to face similar questions and overcome their own preconceived notions of success was really powerful to read about.
Another very interesting aspect to Michelle's story is her perspective on Barack's presidential campaigns. The reader gets a look at the role of a (potential) First Lady in the campaign process and the specific challenges Michelle faces because of her race. We often discuss how Barack faced specific challenges and different levels of scrutiny because he is black, but Michelle also faced the specter of racism and in a different way because she is also a women. The challenges and very real fears around raising black children as such a prominent family was also really interesting and not often discussed.
One challenge that Michael faced while reading was his own cynicism. Given that Michelle is involved in politics, though not running for any office herself, it is easy to assume that some things are written in order to develop particular optics for Barack, Michelle, and even the Democratic Party as a whole. While reading Michael often find himself questioning the authenticity of statements, or the motivation behind telling certain anecdotes. In the end, and even as he was thinking these things, Michael believes his cynicism was largely uncalled for, but good to be aware of. If the reader is not careful, such cynicism can ruin the possibility of getting anything out of Michelle's story, and there is a lot to get out of it!
Similar to Carrie and Michael, Michelle and President Obama's relationship seems to thrive in a balance between compromise and determination. We could relate in many ways to the strong willed choices and thoughtful choices made by the Obamas over the years. It was eye opening and quite enjoyable to be able to see the former president and his wife as relatable people, who lived a normal (aka not easy) life before walking through the doors of the White House.
This book gets a high recommendation from both of us. For learning more about different cultures. for American (recent) history, and for self reflection. The story of the Obama's journey is what so closely connects them to the American people. Life doesn't have to be easy to help you in Becoming something great.
