Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

First of all, I’m happy to report that I’m writing this review AFTER I read the book, and it’s not completely based on my past and present political views. With that being said, I didn’t completely love the book. I was expecting Michelle Obama to be a little less guarded in it, and go a little deeper into her personal thoughts and struggles; to be a little bit more candid. I also wanted to find out more about how life is in the White House. On all of those fronts, this book mostly doesn’t deliver. Mrs. Obama is an incredibly intelligent woman, and on top of that, she is a lawyer with an Ivy League education. That background has largely influenced this book, which feels like it’s been edited for any possibility of risky statements or disclosures. It feels too safe, too guarded to really be authentic. She focuses a lot on presenting a very clean version of her life (her family was perfect; it was loving and supportive, her mom was without any faults, her father was equally perfect and he handled his disability with pride and no complaints). Is that realistic…? While her family sure must’ve been quite amazing, and I’m sure she loved it very much, nothing and no one is really perfect. I just couldn’t buy it. For some reason she barely mentions Harvard. She goes into quite a bit of detail about being a black woman at Princeton, but she dedicates maybe a half of a page in the book to her time at Harvard mostly talking about how she didn’t have time to reflect on what she wanted to do in life during the intense studies to obtain her law degree. That’s it. It made me very curious about what happened at Harvard and why she or Harvard itself didn’t want that to be in the book. She is clear about not liking politics and not really wanting to be in politics, but provides very little insight into how she transformed from that stage to seeming to really enjoy being the First Lady (she was terrified Barack Obama wouldn’t be elected for the second term). She mentions very little about her marital struggles. She does say at some point they went to counseling, but again, it’s a brief mention, and ends at that. She seems to describe nothing but only marital bliss after that. I did appreciate that she mentioned having a miscarriage, having to go through IVF to conceive, failing her bar exam at the first try and getting into Harvard from a waiting list. But I did notice one thing about the tone of the book; Michelle Obama is determined not to focus on anything negative. She mentions her miscarriage very briefly and almost dismissingly by saying that they’re very common and happen to more women than we all think. That again, takes about a half a page to a full page. Her IVF is mentioned, but again quite briefly. She describes her life almost with a sense of distance at times. Focusing on events not feelings or emotions. There were few passages of the book that felt more personal, and I enjoyed them. The part where she says she skipped the final ball of the inauguration night (the one she was most looking forward too), because she was simply too exhausted to go. There is a part where she writes about Sasha thinking that nobody came to see Barack Obama’s acceptance speech the night of the first election because the streets were empty, and that in that moment she realized that they were emptied because now they were traveling with the President Elect. She describes how it felt like to see for the first time the heavy security surrounding her husband when he became the president with the massive helicopters, motorcade, snipers, secret agents, etc. That gave me goosebumps. I enjoyed reading about that tender moment when Malia got an ear infection on vacation in Hawaii, and when Barack Obama had to choose between leaving her and Michelle Obama alone to travel back home to cast a vote (an important one) in the senate or staying with his family (which did need him). I was disappointed that she didn’t write about how life has been after leaving the White House. Yes, there is that one toast she made, but other than that, it’s mostly undisclosed in the book. Do they miss it? Do they get to enjoy their lives now more? What’s next for them (other than creating a foundation in Chicago)? The book doesn’t talk about that. In summary, I do recommend the book. Michelle Obama is a good writer, and she is likable. She writes about race, and family life, and being a working mother, and friendships, and politics. It’s still an interesting read, if not a little bit too safe.