Becoming Deluxe Signed Edition Hardcover – January 1, 2019

I eagerly anticipated this book for two reasons that don’t fit well together. First, although I do not know the Obamas, I have several friends who are close personal friends of both Michelle and Barack (this results from my attending law school while Barack was teaching, and living in Chicago for some years thereafter). Second, I am not particularly a fan of their politics, although I obviously have nothing against them personally. Thus, I think I can offer an objective view of this book—and I found it both moving and worthwhile.What comes across most in this book is Michelle Obama’s lack of self-pity combined with clarity of vision. I suspect this was a difficult book to write—she knew that whatever she wrote, somebody, and maybe a lot of people, would criticize her for it. She therefore focuses quite a bit on what might be called practical insight and empowerment, rather than on settling political scores. That’s probably a wise choice—after all, her husband’s terms as President showed that very few people were interested in political settlements or compromise.The first third of the book covers her childhood (“Becoming Me”). Contrary to the stereotype of Democrats as the party of the elite, Obama’s childhood, at least, was working class. She grew up in the lower middle class South Shore neighborhood of Chicago; her father was a boiler operator. Obama grew up in a stable household where her parents made their high expectations clear, though family life had its challenges, especially her father’s falling ill with multiple sclerosis. Still, she managed to go to Princeton, then Harvard Law, and then to work at the ultra-prestigious Chicago law firm of Sidley & Austin, where she met Barack (and where my wife worked, a few years after that time). I started law school in 1991, when Barack had just returned to Chicago from Harvard; he was much talked about even before he began teaching at the University of Chicago, because a high-powered Harvard graduate did not often choose to return to community organizing, rather than working for a white-shoe firm like Sidley. In contrast, Michelle Obama makes clear in this book she’s the organized, path-following one, who shows up on time, unlike her husband, which is probably why law firm life suited her better.These initial years with Barack form the second third of the book (“Becoming Us”); one can tell that Obama struggled with her husband’s political ambition, because being a political spouse always imposes tremendous costs on the one not running for office (and she is explicit she has no interest in herself running for office). In fact, she talks at some length about the couples’ counseling they had to go through as a result, though it seems to have worked out for them! All of this is quite interesting, and much more readable than the massive biography of Barack that David Garrow wrote two years ago, “Rising Star,” which defeated my repeated attempts to read it, by having far too much irrelevant detail. Michelle Obama does not make that mistake here, for which the reader, or at least this reader, is grateful.Obama closes the last third of the book with what was probably the hardest part to write, “Becoming More.” She talks about the stress, but also the opportunity to offer her vision, that being in the spotlight meant, and she criticizes Barack’s successor in office in no uncertain, but in measured, terms. At the end, she remains optimistic, but one gets a little of the feeling that she isn’t certain her optimism is warranted.I have a lot of sympathy for Michelle Obama. Every person in power, whether that power is direct or indirect, is always ultimately frustrated, but it must gall her to see the contrast between her husband and Donald Trump. I think that she picked the right path of not making that the focus of the book, though. She’s a grounded pragmatist at heart, or at least so it seems from this book. And we could all use a lot more grounded pragmatism, so her contribution to public discourse with this book is (unlike many political autobiographies) both illuminating and valuable.

Slow and boring and self boasting.

The last thing I wanted to read was a shallow minded patting on the back. I thought with the education, the time would be well spent. I was wrong.

Worst piece of crap ever

I believe I always loved Michelle Obama. Her grace and dignity always seemed to come as a gift from above. Her spirit is so incredibly deep and strong. The stories from her childhood, her brother, her neighborhood, her family, inform us in a brilliant voice about what it was like in the place and time she grew up.Michelle Obama has the empathy and the depth of character so missing in her media portrayal. I always felt worried that we were suffocating her. But there is a Michelle Obama who is bigger than the words on a page. She knows our pains, and she understands our lives. And we know her in this book. In this most private book, we know her in a way we could not have otherwise. Interesting that nothing here surprises me, it only affirms what I felt like I know: Michelle Obama is a person like us. She worked and suffered and overcame.Her storytelling skills are exquisite. It left me a little breathless to hear her voice, unfettered and real.I love the photographs.

If you are an insomniac this book will definitely help that. A real snoozer.

Poorly written, silly comments in bad taste, this is not a good book for a lady to read

Michelle Obama is my voice, a voice that may never be heard with thoughts, feelings and experiences similar to mine yet they don’t matter until now. Thank you Mrs. Obama! For being the voice of this African American woman❤️ Everyone should buy this book!

I thought I couldn't love this family more, but after reading this beautiful, moving story, I know that I and millions of others were so right to have faith in these genuinely good people. I am glad that Michelle gets to have her Barack back again, but oh, how very much they are missed - especially in contrast to what came after...

Michelle and her husband accomplished and overcame a lot, even before they became the First Family. I think Obama's 2008 candidacy had a lot of energy and purpose. However, after he was in office, a lot of that energy dissipated and he failed to sufficiently differentiate himself from policies left down by his predecessors in many areas. What is good about Michelle's book is most of it does not focus on each and every cranny of every year in the Presidency. Most of it is her earlier life and events. The big events in the Presidency occupy very little space. I give this book one star because of the ending. Michelle clearly is very devoted and defensive of her husband and his achievements.As much as we may not like it or agree with it, political office holders normally pave the way for their successors (whether they intend to or not). Obama's choices paved the way for Trump to campaign and to win the Presidency, much like G W Bush's choices paved the way for Obama. Michelle is content to not interpret the results, but bash some of the electorate for not voting for a woman and for voting for someone she describes in insults. For a family that is normally revered for deep analysis of complicated issues, Michelle's writing style and choice of words on this was very disappointing and in my opinion, narrow-minded. Michelle comes across as believing America was best and meaningful when her husband was it's President. She has a hard time seeming to come to terms with the fact that people might make different choices or that she and her husband will have to leave behind the mantle of being responsible for the nation, in their respective areas.It was a disappointing and short handed book in my mind. Fans of the Obama's will find much to enjoy, I am sure. But those who enjoy deep analysis of history, will be disappointed. I hope that Barrack's book will be more insightful and deeper (The Case for the Defense - Part 2).

For me, as for many others, the Obamas embodied kindness, decency, and -above all – intelligence, in sharp contrast to the (cough, cough) circus that followed them in the White House.I am neither American, nor of color, nor (God forbid) will I ever be involved in any political activities. Yet, like all my friends who have read “Becoming”, I am completely charmed by it, and by Michelle Obama. A lot has been said about the book and its appeal. You just cannot finish this book and just forget it; her story will probably stay with you for life. I would like to add my own little inputs below (in no particular order) as to why this book was one of the most wonderful books that I read this year (or any year), and why, like millions of people around the world, I find Michelle Obama’s story so powerful and uplifting.“Your story is what you have…It is something to own”A book can be beautifully written, but I don’t really care for it if it doesn’t touch my heart. And Becoming was a very, very emotional read. Here we have a lady who has lived in the White House for eight years, and who speaks with such pride and love about her working class parents, the cramped little apartment she spent her happy childhood in, in the poorer section of Chicago, about her relatives, all blue-collared, like her parents. This is who I am, she says, this my story. “I had nothing or I had everything. It depends on which way you want to tell it”. We can think of many women in her position who would perhaps underplay their background, hide some of the facts, but not a strong, direct, honest woman like her. It is this humility, the pride and the self-respect with which she shares her background with the rest of the world, which will touch you to the core. “…they (my friends in South Chicago), like me, were descended from slaves”Like Michelle points out, repeatedly, let us not forget for a minute her roots – that not too long ago, her forefathers were working as slaves in a country they were forcefully brought to, loaded like animals onto ships from Africa. “I was the great-great-granddaughter of a slave named Jim Robinson, who was probably buried in an unmarked grave somewhere on a South Carolina plantation”.America might have got its first black President, but – a century and a half after the Civil War of 1865, and more than half a century after the Civil Rights Act of 1961 - racial discrimination is still alive and kicking in that country.“I carried a history with me, and it wasn’t that of presidents of First Ladies…The struggles of Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King were more familiar to me than that of Eleanor Roosevelt or Mamie Eisenhower”. Yes, I had to Google Rosa Parks, and Coretta King, and if the names are not familiar to you, I suggest you do so as well, to understand what a long journey the Obamas have undertaken, and what she refers to as the “push and pull” of history.Her description of her Uncle Terry, who had once been a Pullman porter, is particularly poignant, and will go straight to your heart “Years after retirement, Terry still lived in a state of numbed formality – impeccably dressed, remotely servile, never asserting himself in any way…It was as if he’d surrendered a part of himself as a way of coping”. I didn’t know what a Pullman porter was, and I again had to Google it. What I read had me in tears. It was too late for Uncle Terry, but not for the next generation of African-Americans, and not for his brave, intelligent, hardworking niece and nephew.The power of education, or “I will show you “Michelle reached where she did through sheer hard work and intelligence, and an enormous desire to make something of herself in life. This is perhaps the only right way to “become” what you want to be. “Education had been the primary instrument of change in my own life, my lever upward in the world”. “Strive” is an important word in Ms. Obama’s dictionary – perhaps the most important.Every schoolgirl (or boy) should be encouraged to read this book, because the lessons it impart are invaluable. It is also a book for parents to read, for the way in which Michelle and her brother were brought up by their parents is inspirational. Their parents treated them like adults, encouraged them to take their own decisions, and constantly reiterated that – “you belong. You matter. I think highly of you.”A yin-and-yang duoIn Becoming, we gain a whole new perspective of Barack Obama; not the president, but the boyfriend, husband, father and son. We meet a man who is least interested in the rat race, or in any material trappings. What excites him, and what he is passionate about are books and ideas, especially ideas to make the world a better place - “Do we settle for the world as it is, or do we work for the world as it should be?”. Unlike Michelle, he is “hardwired for optimism”, and while she is a detail person, a box-checker, Barack is quite at home with “the unruliness of the world”. It was clear early on their relationship that “We were built differently”. Yet their relationship thrived, and when Barack’s aspirations became clear, she supported him, not because she thought he would win (“Barack was a black man in America…. I really didn’t think he could win”), but because she loved him. The rest is, of course, history.The end of Obama’s term, and the next occupantWhen she walks out (almost with relief, it seems) of the “most famous address” in the world, she begins a fresh journey – all over again. And that, perhaps, is what awes you and touches you most about her – that she doesn’t let her years as the FLOTUS define her, or restrict her in any way. While being a loving, supportive wife and mother, she could never be JUST Mrs. Obama, the wife of arguably the most powerful man in the world. She was, and will always be, a person in her own right. A person who has strived all her life, and will continue to strive, to be the best she can be - constantly evolving, constantly reinventing herself.The White House was definitely not the end of the road for her – “you are left in many ways to find yourself again”. As is her nature, she makes no bones about the current occupant of the White House, expressing her opinion in a direct, upfront manner. “..we were up against a bully, a man who among other things demeaned minorities and expressed contempt for POWs, challenging the dignity of our country with practically every utterance”.Becoming“Becoming” is about Michelle’s childhood, her Ivy league education, her career, her abiding love for her husband and children and her country, her years at the White house, but above all, it is about a woman who steadfastly holds on to her identity in spite of being married to the most powerful man in the world. She was never a “missus defined by her mister”, “At 54, I am still in progress, and I hope that I always will be”.It’s people like the Obamas who make America great. Not the bullies who are currently in power – they take America back to the dark ages. That, at least is my view; your views may be different – but hey, it’s a free world, isn’t it?Please hit the like button if you liked my review. It feels so good to know that there are people who are reading my reviews, and who believe in a better and fairer world. Thank you.

This product does not work at all. Got it for my mum for Christmas. She has read 90% and still looks nothing like Michelle Obama. Waste of money

Of course, many people want to know about Michelle Obama. However, I was disappointed by this book. She writes so much about her ambition, she really got on my nerves with that. All the details where and with whom she worked on what, it was really tedious, I must say. There are many interesting bits about her private life, too. I loved reading about her childhood.But it's not my favourite book. When I had finished it I was glad to get rid of it and pass it on to a friend.