Becoming - Book Review
Book Author: Michelle Obama; Book Review by Bixuan Cheng
Summary
In Becoming, Michelle Obama invites us into her life and covers her
whole life story. It starts from when she was a little girl, sharing
an upstairs' room with her parents and her brother in the south side
of Chicago. She soon gained her footing in the world with solid
supports from her family and faith in education. Her story
moves onto her studies at Princeton and Harvard Law school, and soon enough with her dedication and commitment, she became a high-powered corporate lawyer. However, once she’d
checked off these big boxes on her life’s to-do list, she finds that
she is not as fulfilled in life through the study and work of law as
she expected she would be.
One summer morning, a law student named Barack Obama appeared
in her office and upended all her carefully made life plans. They fell
in love, got married and started their own family. After Barack Obama
became President of the United States and Michelle the First Lady of
America, they moved into the White House where they spent 8 years of
their lives watching their two daughters grow up. Throughout their
marriage, Michelle had experienced a miscarriage, struggles on work
life balance, and there were also times when she would find it
difficult to deal with the absence of her husband. However, none of
these made her give up on any of her roles in life; instead, she found
ways to resolve all these issues and now she is blessed with two
daughters and a happy, admirable family.
- Michelle Obama is a working professional, a daughter, a mother of two children, a wife, and was the First Lady of America. It is amazing how she manages to balance her life with these many roles without losing herself. The struggles that she talked about in Becoming are too real and relatable, to a point that any working mums or anyone taking on too much in their lives would experience.
- As a lady, an African-American lady, racism and racial segregation is something that Michelle Obama has faced throughout her life. She was often one of, or the only African American women in her classrooms and lecture halls back in school; even after she became the First Lady she was once called an “angry black woman”. She joked saying: “I don’t know which part of this I should be mad at, is it the ‘angry’, the ‘black’ or the ‘woman’”. Despite all this, she became one of the most empowered and successful women in modern times. Her belief of not settling for the world as it is, but to work for the world as it should be helped her accomplish her achievements and forged her persona.
Liked it because:
3 Top Quotes from the book
- The writing style of this book is rather direct; it almost feels like I am having a conversation with Michelle. She is honest and open with everything she experienced and learnt which is what I like the most about this book.
- I really enjoyed the first half of the book where she focused on her life before Barack Obama became president. I personally find the second half not as interesting since things start to get more political and less magical (to me).
- The book is more on the pricier side (approx £25 in the UK) but its audio book is available online and it is voiced by Michele Obama. I imagine it would be amazing to listen to someone telling their own life stories.
"Do we settle for the world as it is, or do we work for the world as it should be?"
"If you don’t get out there and define yourself, you will quickly be defined by others."
"Everyone on Earth, they'd tell us, was carrying around an unseen history, and that alone deserved some tolerance."
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