After waiting 6 months to read this book on Libby, I was finally able to. Becoming is a beautifully written narrative of Michelle Obamas life before during and after the Presidency. From her being born to hard-working parents on the South Side of Chicago, to being a Princeton-bound teenager with high hopes and a rigid ideal of what her future should be like ---family, motherhood, and a successful law career---, to her falling in love with Barack and his principles and standing, no ACTIVELY being involved with him in their vision for making their country better for the next generation, Becoming highlights the lows and highs of Michelle's self-discovery, and the pain, love, and sacrifice that she made as a wife and mother.

I thought this was a well written book. The first half is gripping as she recounts how despite growing up without much, she was loved by her parents and encouraged to shoot for the stars. She overcame many obstacles, including a neglectful school system and the 'white flight era' where white people--and white dollars--- were leaving their neighborhoods, thus slowly leaving her now majority-black town underfunded and underappreciated.

She talked about the many characters in her life that molded her to who she is today---her rule-abiding great-Aunt , compassionate mother, hardheaded but doting father, and many more future colleagues and workers to come that would help her navigate the interesting thing called Life.

I found a lot of things about her life interesting, that I regretted my former assumptions about her because I never really understood her as an individual, only an extension of Barack. Reading this book helped me understand more of who she was and her purpose.

Perhaps what I found most interesting about the book were her and Barack's days before his run for President. He'd always been an ambitious leader, but not intially drawn to politics. He helped convince her to quit her high paying but low rewarding job as a lawyer at Sidley to make direct impact and inspire people. She felt alive doing social justice work and working on grassroots campaigns to empower their communities to take action and use their voting and buying power to make change, even as she was still living on the second floor of her great-Aunts old apartment while Barack drove a beat up yellow car with a hole in the car floor. Sure they were both Harvard-educated but the fact that they were happier doing grassroots organizing and helping the people rather than making six figures at a law firm really solidified my respect for her.

Admittedly after the middle half the book hits a snag for me, maybe because it isn't as emotionally in depth about her life in the White House and the majority of her struggles thereafter mirror every former First Lady. But her stories about trying to give her kids a normal life while juggling normalcy in her own private life were insightful. Funny tidbits here and there about her visits with Nelson Mandela, the Queen of England, James Corden from the late late show were all heartwarming. But I understand that she was careful not to say anything too revealing about anyone or anything in the last 100 or so pages which is why I have to give it 4 instead of 5 stars.


Would recommend this book. Im sure it'll be very inspiring to many people, even if you disagree with her husband's politics. This book in my eyes only helped highlight all the ways in which Michelle and her family have become a respected and admired part of American history, our history. I hope she continues the work she advocated for in the many years to come.