I picked this up on a whim, okay, I feel the need to apologize, not sure to whom, for taking so long to read this book- Mild spoilers, maybe. Dunno what your definition of "spoiler" is...but a warning's nice anyway, no?



This is an eloquent, often moving, and I hope inspiring book for those who feel they don't have the capacity to improve themselves. The book is in three parts, a childhood and youth in Chicago, marriage and maturity with Barack, and in the third, the experience of being the 'First Lady' of the USA. The first part is the strongest and most interesting, setting an important background in the 'just coping' end of Black Chicago with a very strong family infrastructure and two parents who were always firm but gave Michelle and her brother the space in which to grow on their own terms. Her career at Princeton and as a lawyer in Chicago gives the reader a strong sense of her belief in social justice, while her courtship with her husband has some delightful moments. So strongly woven is the first and to a lesser extent the second phase, I felt the third and last was a bit rushed and mostly concerned with the difficulties of raising two children in the White House.

There is little gossip about Washington politics, some recollections of meeting Mandela and Queen Elizabeth but few other politicians make it into the book, the one exception being some negative comment on the man who succeeded her husband to occupy the White House.

A good read and recommended.