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A review by lectrixnoctis
A Promised Land by Barack Obama
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
"A Promised Land" is the first volume by former USA president Barack Obama's highly anticipated presidential memoirs. In this volume, he defused in detail his early political rise, 2008 campaign to become the next president and how his administration was and what it has accomplished in the first 2.5 years in office. We follow him along through all the obstacles he had to succeed, like the 2008 financial crisis and the healthcare bill, Deep Horizon and the wars in the Middle East, of course.
For those interested in listening to the audiobook: It is read by Obama himself, and it en chances his voice by his steady voice. Nonetheless, it is an easily written and compelling account of the rise of Barack Obama, even if you're only reading this book.
It is mainly focused on Obama coming to terms with his ambitions and potion to make a real impact on the USA and its people. Considering his Prologue, he is still very concerned about racial injustice and social inequality. However, his administration did not focus on that topics immensely. Sometimes you will get a feeling of him being frustrated, but he does see it with a clear eye that some of his vision is too far in the eyes of the broad American public. It was eye-opting to get more information about how people in America think and view political issues. For Europeans like myself, some things he talked about were not publicly spoken in Europe because some of the mentioned issues only impacted the USA. However, I have to say that I was 6 to 10 years old when his first president all term was, and I was not invested in politics at the time.
My favourite part of this book was reading and listening to another part of "Becoming" by Michelle Obama. It goes hand in and with it, but it has a theme, mainly the political situations of his early years in the presidency. But I would recommend reading "Becoming" first if you would like to read both memoirs.
I enjoyed reading this 700 pages beast. Still, sometimes I did find it a tiny bit confusing since, in the beginning, Barack Obama sprung through time like to his childhood and then into the 2008 campaign, which was sometimes a lot to handle as a reader getting into this. However, the charm and its wit made that only a tiny flaw.
For those interested in listening to the audiobook: It is read by Obama himself, and it en chances his voice by his steady voice. Nonetheless, it is an easily written and compelling account of the rise of Barack Obama, even if you're only reading this book.
It is mainly focused on Obama coming to terms with his ambitions and potion to make a real impact on the USA and its people. Considering his Prologue, he is still very concerned about racial injustice and social inequality. However, his administration did not focus on that topics immensely. Sometimes you will get a feeling of him being frustrated, but he does see it with a clear eye that some of his vision is too far in the eyes of the broad American public. It was eye-opting to get more information about how people in America think and view political issues. For Europeans like myself, some things he talked about were not publicly spoken in Europe because some of the mentioned issues only impacted the USA. However, I have to say that I was 6 to 10 years old when his first president all term was, and I was not invested in politics at the time.
My favourite part of this book was reading and listening to another part of "Becoming" by Michelle Obama. It goes hand in and with it, but it has a theme, mainly the political situations of his early years in the presidency. But I would recommend reading "Becoming" first if you would like to read both memoirs.
I enjoyed reading this 700 pages beast. Still, sometimes I did find it a tiny bit confusing since, in the beginning, Barack Obama sprung through time like to his childhood and then into the 2008 campaign, which was sometimes a lot to handle as a reader getting into this. However, the charm and its wit made that only a tiny flaw.
Content Warnings
Graphic: War
Moderate: Racism