mdedinsky's review against another edition
4.0
Reality enjoyed this book. Obama offers a lot of insight into the country and the role of women and people of color in this country from the extremely unique perspective of FLOTUS. How embedded her life is in the history of this nation inherently made for s very historical read. Also pondering the idea of what It means to tell a story and what your story is and how to unashamedly tell your authentic story, sharing all of who you are. What is my story? How do i tell my story? Obama tells her story in a way that is so approachable and empowering so that we are all left wondering why don’t we all tell our stories? Instead of the so often post-biography read of many famous people that I could never be like this person. I really enjoyed this book, the values that Obama leads her life with, and all the people she highlights in her life. She truly embodies leading a life with values at the forefront.
I would read this again, though maybe not for a while.
I would read this again, though maybe not for a while.
soupdumpling's review against another edition
3.0
I’m not sure what I expected when starting this audiobook. My coworkers and supervisor raved on and on about Michelle Obama’s humility, poise, and precise skill of oral storytelling. I work with all women / women of color (and I needed something to listen to on my commute) so I figured why not give this a shot if they loved it so much.
Up until Michelle and Barack got married -- I loved the entire story (this was maybe 30% of the book). To hear about a Black girl born and raised in an urban working/lower middle class family with so much insight about dynamics of class and race both learnt within her families and her own neighborhoods as well as in academic spaces, was really refreshing to hear. And to hear the love story that unfolded between her and Barack and the ways his grassroot/community organizing forced her to re-evaluate her ideals and ways she was compromising her ethics and morals by remaining in corporate/business law. To hear that she battled with herself and her loved ones, often having her own privilege slapped in her face as she tried to balance all the changes in the world with race, gender, technology and more. That Michelle had always grappled with complex and nuanced ideas of privilege and oppression was a nice welcoming of “intent v impact” -- though the impact of the actions she/her husband did were not always well received, there was underlying good intent and no ill-will of hurting others. If she stopped her book here, with the fairytale ending of marrying the love of her life -- maybe I would’ve given this book 5 stars.
But alas, there’s a reason fairytales are fiction and this book is an autobiography.
The entire discussion around Michelle’s desire to get married and have a child and the lengths she went to conceive made me extremely uncomfortable. Perhaps because I am a queer person and a product of divorced parents, this was extremely unrelatable for me. I loved her “womxn empowerment” and intersectional feminist approach to issues growing up and even as she began dating Barack… and yet all of that seemed to fly out the window when she discussed motherhood. Saying she had been born female to have a child as her dream can definitely come across as reinforcing cisheteronormativity. I don’t think there’s anything wrong in actively wanting a life of simultaneous motherhood and working life -- but it’s such a large amount of privilege to go through invitro fertilization and having doctors and loved ones support you all the way. Do queer couples get the same privilege? Do trans people get the same privilege? I doubt it. And also what of the people who don’t intend on having their own children? Are their values suddenly lesser because they don’t see kids as a part of their “American Dream”? And how are you going to address racism, classism, sexism, and more and discount the thousands of children who are currently in the foster care system and/or in need of adoption? It’s disheartening to see how in so many ways she still abided by “traditional American standards” of family and the NEED to have biological children.
LACK OF DIRECTLY NAMING RACISM / ANTI-BLACKNESS
She defended herself against the “angry black woman stereotype” and yet never directly said those words. Was she trying not to let them bother her? Was she trying not to create more news headlines with those phrases? Maybe, but at the same time ignoring those words and choosing to directly quote others only directly impacts those specific people who slandered her rather than calling out racism and sexism by name as a systemic problem that continually hurts Black women. In this way, she becomes complacent to the problem as a whole.
It frustrated me to no end that once Michelle dove into talking about Barack running for political office (and especially the section about his presidential campaign) it became somewhat of a white apology letter. To acknowledge that Barack needing secret service agents WAY before any other previous presidential candidate because he was Black as well as the fact that he could be shot at any moment because he was Black yet utter sentences along the lines of “I don’t know why conservatives and white people came after us when we were trying to unify all” is ASTONISHING to say the least.
There’s no doubt that Michelle has made strides as a woman, a Black 5’11 woman living in the United States. Also change is slow, but change usually means progress -- but as we know, progress at the federal level is usually snail-paced. Yet with power comes privilege and there was so much more she could have done, maybe if she only didn’t care about her image so much. Yes, she spent a great majority of the book debunking stereotypes (or “cliches” as she likes to call them ??? i get she’s trying to be polite to not feed back into the “angry black woman” racial slur and stereotype but why not name it what it is -- racism, anti-blackness, colorism, misogyny, the underlying truth that America was built on and still in most parts operated on white men) but she also did this already with her presence, so her actions could have possibly pushed a bit more progression.
FATPHOBIA
She talked about Malia being diagnosed by a doctor for potentially being overweight and over the BMI. She said child obesity was on the rise. I get that this was included to explain her reasons for starting a healthy eating campaign while Barack was in office -- and yet the amount of racism and fatphobia she had to unlearn is very sad to me. She stated that African Americans have a higher rate of diabetes, high blood pressure, and other medical issues, yet failed to recognize how the American healthcare system was failing these exact people of color. Especially as a 5’11 Black woman, in theory she’s probably “off the charts” in the field of medicine as told by whtie practitioners. Since she is “Princeton and Harvard educated” with many “notable accomplishments”, I would’ve hoped she would’ve educated herself better to see that research standards indicate the BMI is a false indicator of health and more often than not, weight has no implications on how healthy someone is but a way to gatekeep medical resources from marginalized peoples who happen to have different sizes.
Though I hoped Michelle Obama would explicitly name that we always have and still are living under systems of oppression including racism, sexism, and classism (because she definitely would have this language considering her education especially with her thesis being about the experiences of African Americans on college campuses) I had to let go of holding my breath for it because at the end of the day she wouldn’t. She was a former political figure and now “celebrity” or “philanthropist” or “diversity initiative driver” -- she can’t just say “radical things” freely I suppose.
UPHOLDING THE MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
This is what made me the most upset and turned off by the entire book.
The amount of times Michelle talked about wanting to “help and understand military families” made my face twist in disgust -- how about interviewing and speaking with the veterans and their families who hated serving and realized it was a scam produced by the U.S. government? how about dismantling the idea that we NEEDED a “robust military force at all times” so these young people wouldn’t have to fight wars on behalf of political figureheads such as yourself and your husband? Michelle, how can you recognize violence against Black people yet fail to realize the need to uproot and dismantle the police and military systems of the United States?
I don’t know if her explicitly naming what specific military grade weapons the secret service use (or the exact number of armed personnel and vehicles follow her and/or her husband) is a subtle act of refusing these systems revolved around guns and violence -- but subtly only gets you so far and only puts you back into the category of complacency and ignorant bliss. Maybe it’s a small act of refusal or sneaky round about way of critiquing America’s lack of gun control, or maybe it’s just her trying to seem “relatable” to the “everyday American woman” that would be confused by this sudden “whirlwind” of security personnel and fancy lifestyle (but tbh she’s had all of this for a while but painted it in her book like it happened over night -- kudos to the nice marketing/publicity from her team lol).
TLDR;
listening to Michelle Obama’s voice during my daily one hour-long commutes (thumbs up)
listening to Michelle Obama justify the imperialist, military violence, and white-catering actions of herself and her husband (thumbs down)
*I also listened to this audiobook concurrently as I read Ocean Vuong’s fiction memoir “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous” -- maybe because I am queer, asian, raised by a single mother, and a poet, everything Ocean wrote touched my soul in ways Michelle never could or will.
Up until Michelle and Barack got married -- I loved the entire story (this was maybe 30% of the book). To hear about a Black girl born and raised in an urban working/lower middle class family with so much insight about dynamics of class and race both learnt within her families and her own neighborhoods as well as in academic spaces, was really refreshing to hear. And to hear the love story that unfolded between her and Barack and the ways his grassroot/community organizing forced her to re-evaluate her ideals and ways she was compromising her ethics and morals by remaining in corporate/business law. To hear that she battled with herself and her loved ones, often having her own privilege slapped in her face as she tried to balance all the changes in the world with race, gender, technology and more. That Michelle had always grappled with complex and nuanced ideas of privilege and oppression was a nice welcoming of “intent v impact” -- though the impact of the actions she/her husband did were not always well received, there was underlying good intent and no ill-will of hurting others. If she stopped her book here, with the fairytale ending of marrying the love of her life -- maybe I would’ve given this book 5 stars.
But alas, there’s a reason fairytales are fiction and this book is an autobiography.
Spoiler
PERPETUATING CISHETEROSEXISM + IDEA THAT BIO-FAMILY IS EVERYTHINGThe entire discussion around Michelle’s desire to get married and have a child and the lengths she went to conceive made me extremely uncomfortable. Perhaps because I am a queer person and a product of divorced parents, this was extremely unrelatable for me. I loved her “womxn empowerment” and intersectional feminist approach to issues growing up and even as she began dating Barack… and yet all of that seemed to fly out the window when she discussed motherhood. Saying she had been born female to have a child as her dream can definitely come across as reinforcing cisheteronormativity. I don’t think there’s anything wrong in actively wanting a life of simultaneous motherhood and working life -- but it’s such a large amount of privilege to go through invitro fertilization and having doctors and loved ones support you all the way. Do queer couples get the same privilege? Do trans people get the same privilege? I doubt it. And also what of the people who don’t intend on having their own children? Are their values suddenly lesser because they don’t see kids as a part of their “American Dream”? And how are you going to address racism, classism, sexism, and more and discount the thousands of children who are currently in the foster care system and/or in need of adoption? It’s disheartening to see how in so many ways she still abided by “traditional American standards” of family and the NEED to have biological children.
LACK OF DIRECTLY NAMING RACISM / ANTI-BLACKNESS
She defended herself against the “angry black woman stereotype” and yet never directly said those words. Was she trying not to let them bother her? Was she trying not to create more news headlines with those phrases? Maybe, but at the same time ignoring those words and choosing to directly quote others only directly impacts those specific people who slandered her rather than calling out racism and sexism by name as a systemic problem that continually hurts Black women. In this way, she becomes complacent to the problem as a whole.
It frustrated me to no end that once Michelle dove into talking about Barack running for political office (and especially the section about his presidential campaign) it became somewhat of a white apology letter. To acknowledge that Barack needing secret service agents WAY before any other previous presidential candidate because he was Black as well as the fact that he could be shot at any moment because he was Black yet utter sentences along the lines of “I don’t know why conservatives and white people came after us when we were trying to unify all” is ASTONISHING to say the least.
There’s no doubt that Michelle has made strides as a woman, a Black 5’11 woman living in the United States. Also change is slow, but change usually means progress -- but as we know, progress at the federal level is usually snail-paced. Yet with power comes privilege and there was so much more she could have done, maybe if she only didn’t care about her image so much. Yes, she spent a great majority of the book debunking stereotypes (or “cliches” as she likes to call them ??? i get she’s trying to be polite to not feed back into the “angry black woman” racial slur and stereotype but why not name it what it is -- racism, anti-blackness, colorism, misogyny, the underlying truth that America was built on and still in most parts operated on white men) but she also did this already with her presence, so her actions could have possibly pushed a bit more progression.
FATPHOBIA
She talked about Malia being diagnosed by a doctor for potentially being overweight and over the BMI. She said child obesity was on the rise. I get that this was included to explain her reasons for starting a healthy eating campaign while Barack was in office -- and yet the amount of racism and fatphobia she had to unlearn is very sad to me. She stated that African Americans have a higher rate of diabetes, high blood pressure, and other medical issues, yet failed to recognize how the American healthcare system was failing these exact people of color. Especially as a 5’11 Black woman, in theory she’s probably “off the charts” in the field of medicine as told by whtie practitioners. Since she is “Princeton and Harvard educated” with many “notable accomplishments”, I would’ve hoped she would’ve educated herself better to see that research standards indicate the BMI is a false indicator of health and more often than not, weight has no implications on how healthy someone is but a way to gatekeep medical resources from marginalized peoples who happen to have different sizes.
Though I hoped Michelle Obama would explicitly name that we always have and still are living under systems of oppression including racism, sexism, and classism (because she definitely would have this language considering her education especially with her thesis being about the experiences of African Americans on college campuses) I had to let go of holding my breath for it because at the end of the day she wouldn’t. She was a former political figure and now “celebrity” or “philanthropist” or “diversity initiative driver” -- she can’t just say “radical things” freely I suppose.
UPHOLDING THE MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
This is what made me the most upset and turned off by the entire book.
The amount of times Michelle talked about wanting to “help and understand military families” made my face twist in disgust -- how about interviewing and speaking with the veterans and their families who hated serving and realized it was a scam produced by the U.S. government? how about dismantling the idea that we NEEDED a “robust military force at all times” so these young people wouldn’t have to fight wars on behalf of political figureheads such as yourself and your husband? Michelle, how can you recognize violence against Black people yet fail to realize the need to uproot and dismantle the police and military systems of the United States?
I don’t know if her explicitly naming what specific military grade weapons the secret service use (or the exact number of armed personnel and vehicles follow her and/or her husband) is a subtle act of refusing these systems revolved around guns and violence -- but subtly only gets you so far and only puts you back into the category of complacency and ignorant bliss. Maybe it’s a small act of refusal or sneaky round about way of critiquing America’s lack of gun control, or maybe it’s just her trying to seem “relatable” to the “everyday American woman” that would be confused by this sudden “whirlwind” of security personnel and fancy lifestyle (but tbh she’s had all of this for a while but painted it in her book like it happened over night -- kudos to the nice marketing/publicity from her team lol).
TLDR;
listening to Michelle Obama’s voice during my daily one hour-long commutes (thumbs up)
listening to Michelle Obama justify the imperialist, military violence, and white-catering actions of herself and her husband (thumbs down)
*I also listened to this audiobook concurrently as I read Ocean Vuong’s fiction memoir “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous” -- maybe because I am queer, asian, raised by a single mother, and a poet, everything Ocean wrote touched my soul in ways Michelle never could or will.
sarahleffel95's review against another edition
5.0
"Becoming requires equal parts patience and rigor. Becoming is never giving up on the idea that there's more growing to be done." -Michelle Obama
Loved: the atmosphere this book created-- feeling like I was both sitting with her on the couch and also watching her speak at a podium. It kept me captive the whole time // the depth at which she shared about her experiences and emotions the good, bad, and ugly // her racing out of the White House to see the rainbow lights on the White House. This made me happy. :)
disLiked: there were a couple of times when I felt like she was sharing things, not so much because they were necessary to the story but because she wanted to justify herself (not saying that's what she was doing, that's just how it felt to me)
Learned: WOAH where to even begin, and this is why I took my rating from a 4 star to a 5 star, she taught me so much-- Let's Move! // Alma Thomas // advice on marriage and relationships // Reverend Desmond Tutu // Let Girls Learn // good questions to ask people. Ah, thank you Michelle. Her quick mentioning of things, got me very interested in other topics.
Lingering questions: If she could only give one word to her eight years in the presidency, what would it be? How does she start the journey of processing? What was the most rewarding thing of this journey to get her memoir down?
5 Stars= I absolutely loved it, felt very moved. Extraordinary. I rarely give this rating.
3 Stars= I enjoyed it but wasn't wowed. My most common rating
1 Star= I intensely disliked this book.
Loved: the atmosphere this book created-- feeling like I was both sitting with her on the couch and also watching her speak at a podium. It kept me captive the whole time // the depth at which she shared about her experiences and emotions the good, bad, and ugly // her racing out of the White House to see the rainbow lights on the White House. This made me happy. :)
disLiked: there were a couple of times when I felt like she was sharing things, not so much because they were necessary to the story but because she wanted to justify herself (not saying that's what she was doing, that's just how it felt to me)
Learned: WOAH where to even begin, and this is why I took my rating from a 4 star to a 5 star, she taught me so much-- Let's Move! // Alma Thomas // advice on marriage and relationships // Reverend Desmond Tutu // Let Girls Learn // good questions to ask people. Ah, thank you Michelle. Her quick mentioning of things, got me very interested in other topics.
Lingering questions: If she could only give one word to her eight years in the presidency, what would it be? How does she start the journey of processing? What was the most rewarding thing of this journey to get her memoir down?
5 Stars= I absolutely loved it, felt very moved. Extraordinary. I rarely give this rating.
3 Stars= I enjoyed it but wasn't wowed. My most common rating
1 Star= I intensely disliked this book.
readingismykindofthing's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
inspiring
slow-paced
5.0
carleymcbing's review against another edition
5.0
Blew through this book in a few days. A great and compelling look into the life of a very cool human being; the inspiring and strong Michelle Obama. Just what I needed to cure the drudgery of the holidays and my own feelings of self-doubt. Refrain: Am I enough. YES, I am.
court_leigh24's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
4.5
I ultimately wanted a calming voice to listen to at work. Hoping to be inspired and learn something as well. This book, specifically audio book, is all of that.
Learned a little. Inspired a little. I love her voice and this was definitely a calming listen while I worked and cleaned around the house. Everything I needed from this memoir.
What I did not expect is Michelle not holding back about her feelings about Trump. WE LOVE MICHELLE!!
Learned a little. Inspired a little. I love her voice and this was definitely a calming listen while I worked and cleaned around the house. Everything I needed from this memoir.
What I did not expect is Michelle not holding back about her feelings about Trump. WE LOVE MICHELLE!!