Becoming by Michelle Obama

As graceful and amazing as she seems in interviews and in the coverage of her over her time as First Lady, that is how she writes. She tells her story from her time on the South Side of Chicago as a child to her time in The White House and a small glimpse into life since reentering civilian life with humor, feeling, dignity, and respect both for herself and those she encounters, even when they may not deserve it (for example a counselor at school who told her she wasn't Princeton Material). And of course she addresses Trump and his rise to the his current position. She doesn't go as hard on him as she could for what he has done to her family with his terrible feeding the birther movement. No mention of the awful people outside The White House waving confederate flags. She follows the creed she set forth, When They Go Low We Go High.


I cried at times both for the content and for what we have lost as a country when the outdated and in need of a change system of electing our president gave us Trump even as Clinton won 3million more votes.

The grace and dignity and reverence Michelle Obama lives makes her a role model for mothers, girls, and anyone who has a mother or girl in their life, so basically everyone. This isn't a snark fest or take down of those who could probably use it. Becoming is a treat for the sense, a balm in a time of emotional turmoil that is constant in this day of the 24 hour news cycle and a president who is incapable of speaking any truths or even any coherent thoughts. It's a reminder of a time when there was still a reason to respect the office of president even if you didn't vote for the holder of the office. It hardly seems like only 2 years ago.

All of that aside, we all know so much about her husband, but now we get to hear in her own words what her life was like, her family, how she was molded into the woman she is now. And the end feeling is that aside from her journey as the wife of a man who would become the nation's first Black president, she is a smart, capable, interesting, funny, and amazing person in her own right.

(Finished November 23, 2018)