Reviews

A Promised Land by Barack Obama

jeremybotter's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.5

I’ve read a slew of presidential memoirs. This is the best of them. Politics aside, Obama is a rigorous, captivating writer who can turn the minutiae of policy-making and geopolitics into a story that is easy to read, often thrilling and yet remains instructive. I eagerly await the second volume.

jcoryv's review against another edition

5.0

Listened to this on Audible... actually finished 01/03/21, but 80+% was in 2020, so filing here.

So refreshing. Here we had a President who understood and exemplified leadership.

Even if you didn’t support his policies, he was a true leader. He has a well-formed set of values based on life experiences and associated empathy. He fought hard for what he believed in and took the blame when his team failed (even when it was due to someone else’s errors).

Obama’s frankness about his weaknesses and frustrations with politics is sobering. And his self awareness... when he was notified that he had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize less than a year into his Presidency, he replied, “for what?”. He realized immediately he hadn’t earned it yet. It was more a proclamation of his worldview and what he hoped to accomplish.

How America went from this man to Trump, I will never understand (I mean I understand, but ugh). It would be nearly impossible to find two individuals who had less in common.

edgehannah's review against another edition

5.0

A Promised Land proved to be an intriguing and humanizing recounting of how former President Barack Obama worked through the many challenges faced throughout the course of his campaign. Though lengthy (and only part 1!), this novel thoroughly outlines much of the work Obama accomplished, while providing an alternative perspective on the series of events from what he felt obligated to show as president.

I would not highly recommend this to my peers, but it is still worth a read. There are some slow sections and repetitive story telling.

julianna_schock's review against another edition

challenging hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

5.0

acmarinho3's review against another edition

4.0

Considero o Barack Obama uma figura admirável e, durante a leitura, esta admiração foi crescendo. Não sei se é correto dizer que é melhor do que outros presidentes, mas a verdade é que foi o representante da América por quem eu senti mais empatia. Este livro está tão bem escrito que 90% do tempo senti que o Obama estava a conversar comigo de maneira casual, como se contasse a sua experiência a um amigo. É muito terra-a-terra, humilde e realista. Ser presidente mudou a dinâmica familiar, mas ao mesmo tempo, senti que foi benéfico para a sua família. É interessante perceber a pressão da função, a importância do poder de decisão e a responsabilidade do mesmo. Ao mesmo tempo adorei conhecer o interior da Casa Branca e descobrir os recantos mais especiais do Obama. Um livro longo, mas extremamente enriquecedor.

lagden02's review against another edition

informative slow-paced

3.75

ajlweb93's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective relaxing sad slow-paced

5.0

aps_007's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

5.0

taramarion's review

4.0

I would have preferred less history and more memoir, but I did enjoy this book. I miss Obama and look forward to the return of character and decency to the White House with Joe Biden.

emmabeckman's review against another edition

4.0

Listened to the audiobook, which was a great time since he reads it himself. I was really interested to read this book because I’m old enough to remember Obama becoming president (we watched the inauguration live in my 7th grade classroom) but I’m not old enough to remember a lot of the circumstances surrounding his first term especially well. And I’ll be honest, a lot of this book centers around the financial crisis, and I found it to be fairly boring, hence my rating of 4 stars instead of 5 (I know it was a really important time but as he acknowledges in the book, it was primarily regular people being punished for risks the elite were taking and really what is more American than that). While I find it admirable that Obama does not falter in his belief that America can be great, I also cannot agree with his sentiment. Just two days ago in this “great America” the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, allowing the right to abortion to be taken away from millions of people, and threatening our rights to contraceptives, same sex relationships and marriage, and interracial marriage. They also made it so that cops do NOT have to read you the Miranda rights AND overturned a concealed carry law in New York, at a time when guns should be MORE controlled, not less. Congress and the President had 50 years to codify Roe v. Wade into actual law—Obama was in power for 8 of those!—and yet here we are. So while I’m happy I read it overall and I will pick up volume 2, I am not disillusioned that Obama was our ideal president and always worked in our best interests and was the epitome of excellence in politics. That doesn’t exist.