Book Review: Becoming by Michelle Obama

“If you don’t get out there and define yourself, you’ll be quickly and inaccurately defined by others” 

The best selling book of 2018. A million and one people, including myself, made their way through this book over the holidays. A memoir of the former First Lady, Michelle tells us her story in 3 parts – her childhood, meeting and “becoming us” with Barrack and her time in the White House.

If you read our “Best of” post, you will recall that this was one of my favorite books of 2018. The #1 thing a memoir requires is openness and honesty and Michelle gave us that. You could tell that Michelle has been holding back and being PC because she sure had a lot to say. Every stage of her life was laid out in great detail in a way that lets the reader into her mind and understand what made her the way she is today.

I generally am inspired by women of substance and I don’t know if anyone exemplifies substance more than Michelle. This book was like a little self help/guide book to me and reminded me a lot of “Year of Yes” (which I gave 5 stars). I love how intentional Michelle was with a lot of things in her life and I identified strongly with her need to plan.

While I do think she lucked out with Barrack, I think she played a part in that “luck” because she had a strong sense of self and was ready for him in her life. It was so awesome to see how full of a life she had independently, before being Barrack’s wife. I am still in awe of how these two came to cross paths but the part where she set aside her fear and reluctance to be in the public eye and give Barrack the blessing to go into politics because she knew she couldn’t be the one to hold him back from his greatness was so admirable to me.

“It hurts to live after someone has died. It just does. It can hurt to walk down a hallway or open the fridge. It hurts to put on a pair of socks, to brush your teeth. Food tastes like nothing. Colors go flat. Music hurts, and so do memories. You look at something you’d otherwise find beautiful—a purple sky at sunset or a playground full of kids—and it only somehow deepens the loss. Grief is so lonely this way.” 

The quote above is another facet in her life that Michelle shared with us when she lost people in her life. Susan’s story was a big life lesson for me. I liked that Michelle wrote this book through the lens of being a black woman. Gabrielle Union did the same thing and honestly I think it is quite impossible as a black person/woman to not view life through the lens of your color and gender.

Things I didn’t care for. The childhood part. It’s not a Michelle thing, I just generally find childhood stories in memoirs boring. I couldn’t wait to get to the future part. The most talked about things during the book promotions – her lust for Barrack and immediately spending nights at his apartment and how she would never forgive Trump were just that. As in, just those lines. We didn’t get any expanded or salacious stories.

I don’t know how Michelle was able to find the balance of being open and yet still not stepping on any toes but this worked on so many levels. Like with any memoir, I think it should be consumed audio style. She reads it herself by the way. I came away from this book just thinking of how amazing a woman she is. This is a strong recommend from me.

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