Becoming

I remember the first time I even remotely let myself believe that Barack and Michelle Obama could take residence in the White House. It was when I saw a photo of them flanked by Malia and Sasha in Ebony magazine. It was a beautiful photo wherein the first family were donning winter coats, their faces lit up with hopeful smiles. Could it happen? Would it happen? Do I dare let myself believe the unthinkable? I recollected being a child and seeing the walls plastered with the presidents of the United States—all white men. Who was this black man who had the audacity to believe he could become the leader of the most powerful nation in the world? Moreover, who was that beautiful black woman standing at his side and how did she get there? I, like many others, had never heard of Barack or Michelle. It seemed like a dream, like they had appeared out of nowhere. Who are these people? Well, it’s been a decade since I came across that photo in Ebony Magazine and that unfamiliar family as we all know became the first black First Family. Over the years I’ve learned a lot about these people, but it wasn’t until I read Michelle’s memoir BECOMING that I came to truly appreciate this family and all they’ve sacrificed to reach the heights that they have. Michelle, starting with the preface, pulled me right in, capturing my imagination with her eloquent narrative. When I came to the paragraph in the preface where she said she had heard about the swampy parts of the internet that questioned everything about her, right down to whether she’s a woman or a man, I knew this memoir was going to not just be a read, but an experience. I knew in that moment that Michelle had poured her heart and soul into this book and after reading all 429 pages I was right. BECOMING is a breathtaking, world wind, masterpiece. Michelle takes us back to the South Side of Chicago where she was raised by her devoted parents and protected by her older brother Craig. Michelle wasn’t born with a silver spoon in her mouth, but she was surrounded with immediate and extended family who loved and nurtured her and who stressed the importance of getting an education and who exposed Michelle to arts and culture. Michelle’s writing is so descriptive and intimate that you feel like you’re sitting across from her while she flawlessly reveals her life story. I laughed out loud and sobbed throughout the book. There are so many poignant and heartfelt moments. When Michelle described Craig’s teenage preventive phase which included him having their father lay on the floor so that he could practice hauling him out of the house in case there was a fire, I couldn’t help but laugh. No, if a fire were to have broken out, it wouldn’t have been a funny matter, but the way Michelle described the incredulous look on their father’s face, it provoked much laughter. Michelle’s father suffered with multiple sclerosis and it grew worst over time. She made me cry at her first recital when she became paralyzed at the sight of the perfect grand piano in front of her. She was used to playing on her Aunt Robbie’s upright with the broken keys. Aunt Robbie came to the rescue and placed Michelle’s finger on the middle C so that she could play. Michelle keeps you turning the pages as she takes us from her early years into her high school years and on to college, a journey that is fraught with challenges and insecurities. “Am I good enough?” Yes, that was a constant refrain. Like many of us, Michelle had doubts, but she kept forging ahead, even when the counselor at Princeton told her that she didn’t think Michelle was Princeton material. Michelle proved that counselor wrong when she graduated from Princeton and joined a top Chicago law firm where she became Barack’s mentor. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about their first encounter and subsequent courtship. It was comforting to read that Barack and Michelle weren’t the perfect couple I fantasized they were. And I applauded Michelle for revealing that they had gone to marital counseling where Michelle and Barack came to realize that it was not either of their responsibility to make the other person happy. I was also surprised to learn of their fertility challenges. The more I read, the more I realized that Michelle is so like many of us, with flaws, dreams, struggles and a whole lot of determination. I got so swept up in reading BECOMING I would read until the wee hours of the morning. Yes, it’s that good. She gives a bird’s-eye view of life in the White House and what a view it is. Being waited on hand and foot, living in opulence. But she also writes about the downsides—living in a bubble, restricted movement, guarded, the dark side of politics and meanspirited politicians, trying to raise and protect her children. Whew! You have to have the nerves of steel to be a first lady and Michelle did it with grace and style. I also loved how she outlined all of Barack and her accomplishments during their time in the White House. I knew the obvious, like The Affordable Care Act and Michelle’s fight against childhood obesity, but they did so much more. I can go on and on. So many memories and stories, woven together so well that it will inspire you to want to do more, to look outside of yourself, to want to make a difference, to want to make an impact on the world in a positive and tangible way. BECOMING should be required national reading. Thank you, Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama for being enough. For BECOMING!

Despite my waning eyesight and the horrific pain that is part and parcel of living with a terminal illness, I couldn't put this book down. For 2 straight days, every moment I was awake was spent with Michelle Obama's written voice, reminding me of better times when I'd dared to feel emotions such as hope. The Obamas have only been retired for 2 years, but it feels like 20 lifetimes have passed. If there is anything even quasi-positive that can be said of the current, hideous presidency, it's that trump has managed to make whatever time I've got left feel excruciatingly longer. "Becoming" is a bittersweet read, but excellent nonetheless. After finishing it (I even read the acknowledgments!) I closed the book and cried for a bit, allowing myself to wonder for the first time how different my illness might have turned out if the GOP cared even 1/100th as much as the Obamas did and do about the wellbeing of ALL Americans. Put bluntly, had the Republicans not put an axe to Obamacare, I might have stood a chance. I might have lived long enough to welcome my first grandchild into the world or travel to all the places I've only dreamt of experiencing. At the very least, were it not for a vestige of slavery known as the electoral college I'd be able to afford medical care and medicinal relief from the all-consuming pain. Beyond how the book personally affected me, there is so much to be learned from it. From little bits of trivia (I had no idea the 1st family has to pay for their own food and highly doubt the current occupants do) to the Obamas relationship with Queen Elizabeth II, "Becoming" was utterly absorbing. It was heartwarming and at times heart-wrenching to watch President Obama's ascent through his wife's loving eyes. You could tell how much it affected the 1st Lady to see her husband grieve over the death of his mother, a doting mom who--had she been able to hold on just a couple months more--would have seen her son elected to the US Senate. And then to watch the very same thing happen all over again to his grandmother directly prior to being elected President of the United States... lets just say you really feel for all affected parties when reading the story through Mrs. Obama's eyes. What was especially refreshing was the candor with which the book was written. She didn't gloss over her personal imperfections in the hopes of coming across as saint-like nor did she whine about the unfairness of things Republicans and the media did to her even though it would be understandable if she had. (She's definitely a stronger woman than I am!) All in all, the beauty of the book was in the realization that Michelle Obama unfiltered is just as inspiring, hopeful, and dignified as the Michelle Obama who'd been constrained by the office of 1st Lady for 8 years. It's impossible to finish this book without remembering how truly lucky we were as a nation to live under the loving, devoted leadership of a man wholly dedicated to serving our country with every fiber of his being. He gave 110% of himself even to those who'd made up their minds to despise him. I have to say it broke my heart reading about all the Obamas did with and for the military when that same military all too often talks of him like something they stepped in. O'Neill, for instance, the Seal who happened to fire the kill shot at bin laden, frequently disparages President Obama on Twitter. (He also makes sickening references to the way he killed 1 of bin laden's sons.) O'Neill looooves trump of course--a treasonist, KGB loving coward--but disparages the very man who gave that Seal his opportunity to go from an unknown soldier to a recognized somebody. Unfortunately, O'Neill is neither the 1st nor last seal I've heard discuss President Obama in a negative light. That newly elected congressman with the eyepatch who got into it with SNL recently said on "New Day" that seal morale is high under trump, but was low under Obama. I don't know what the hell is being taught to the seals, but the vast majority of the ones I've heard speak have been blatant racists. What has trump done for them other than be white? He doesn't visit combat zones, he disparages gold star families, and he couldn't be further up Putin's ass if he tried to be, but morale is high? Ooookay. Despite 8 years of watching Michelle Obama be called everything from an ape to a "tranny" she still believes in going high when others go low. Pat Robertson was scandalized when she dared to wear sleeveless dresses, but claims melania trump's nude lesbian photos are "art." This alleged Christian man saw neither grace nor beauty in Michelle and her daughters, but insists that the KGB plant living in the white house (aka Svetlana "I Don't Really Care Do You?" trump) has both of those attributes. Umm... really?! The woman has had so much plastic surgery that she barely has eye sockets left. But melania is a white, racist, unapologetic birther so the "good" pastor apparently finds grace and beauty in her anyway. (Come to think of it, Pat Robertson is probably the seals' official spiritual advisor.) I don't give a damn what the racists say; Michelle and her daughters are gorgeous inside and out. Their beauty isn't bought in stores or under a plastic surgeon's scalpel. Their toned physiques and radiant skin pay testament to lives lived healthy, happy, and well. Their regal features are striking in their elegance and beauty. And come on now, Michelle Obama's ever so slight overbite is downright adorable! Michelle Obama remains my 1st Lady just as President Obama remains my president. I genuinely admire their ability to go high, but I don't think I'm capable of becoming that person again. Every day I grow a little weaker, every day the pain becomes a little less tolerable, and every night I go to sleep knowing the odds of waking back up become less favorable each time. This book took me back to a better time and place, to the person I'd been the whole of my life prior to 2016. I thank Mrs. Obama for that parting gift. I'll sleep tonight feeling more at peace. *****UPDATE 9/24/19***** I’m happy to say I’m still ticking (knock on wood!) After almost dying in the hospital, I was able to get an in-state waiver which—long story short—allowed me to receive Medicaid. Medicaid doesn’t pay for as much as one would hope so I still struggle to get the care & meds I need, but at least I have some level of care and some meds now. A big thank you to those of you who reached out to me with your uplifting words filled with genuine kindness :)

Michelle is not just the wife of Barack! She is so much more than that. At the moment I am writing this review, I notice that there are 11,946 reviews of this book at Amazon. I am joining this lengthy list not because I want to convince people to buy and read this book. As an author, I earn royalties on each book I sell, but I didn’t write this one. So, I don’t get any money from its sales on Amazon. I just want to share some of the glimpses that I got into who this author is. What follows are some of the “Aha!” moments I experienced as I listened to Michelle tell me about her life and the things that really matter. Michelle is bold. She looked back on her experiences in second grade and called her teacher “incompetent.” Wow! That is quite an assertion. Was she? I don’t know. I was not there. As an educator for twenty years, I saw how students behaved in response to a lack of leadership, a lack of organization, lack of discipline and order. Chaos, and little/no learning. I get it. I have seen this first hand in nearby classrooms working with very poor minority children. Michelle was fortunate that she had a proactive mother who did something about it by bringing it to the attention of the administration. Michelle had an advocate as a parent, someone fighting for her. Cool! Michelle notices things. She told a story about visiting the Stewarts, friends who moved out to the suburbs, what her brother did (play sports all day), what she did (follow the older girl around), and what happened to their vehicle while it was parked outside (keyed with a sharp object by someone living nearby). What I noticed in this story, though, is that Michelle recognized the effects that being “light-skinned” could have on an individual. She didn’t get all preachy or angry or cynical, but merely wove a concept into a story and let the reader notice (or not notice). In noticed, and I have seen this in the real world. So, I wonder. How must a dark-skinned person feel, a black person whose skin is chocolate-brown, seeing how television shows and movies and advertisements showcase light-skinned black people as “beautiful” and “desirable” (and villains often as very dark-skinned actors). Hmmm. Something to think about in a world where white people dominate, and black people are valued and trusted if they are “light-skinned.” Michelle asks questions. She talks about having two white roommates in college, yet not spending much time with them. Did she hate them, envy them, or just not have a lot in common with them? I wonder. And when Michelle shares details of the parents and grandparents of a roommate, and how horrified they were that their white daughter/granddaughter was rooming with a black girl (Michelle), wow! This is real. Life. Being different, feeling different and uncomfortable. I can’t help but wonder what effect this had on Michelle’s roommate, and if she ever grew to feel more comfortable with being different and with different people. Have we moved past that? Do kids have to keep things secret from their racist and ignorant parents? And worse, are those kids feeling that distrust and angst toward people who have a different skin color or different experiences or are from a different part of the country? I wonder. Michelle endures. As she spoke about having to endure the frustrations that a structured and organized person does who lives with a slob (sorry, that’s my word), I saw parallels to my own life and roommates that I have had. You just have to deal with some things, accepting people as they are and not trying to change them into a clone/copy of you. Good advice, though I am still working on that. Michelle is perceptive. When she spoke about her friend that attended a predominately black university (Howard) while she attended one that was predominately white (Princeton), I understood her comment “she didn’t have to feel that everyday drain of being in a deep minority.” I am the majority almost everywhere I go (except when I donate plasma). I rarely feel like I don’t belong there. I fit in. Being a black girl in a class/room full of whiteness? I don’t know how that feels. That was Michelle’s daily life. And the effects that it had on her, the changes that it made in who she was, how she felt, and how she interacted and reacted to others, is real. That she is able to see this and talk about it says something about her depth of intelligence and character. Michelle notices. When she talked about a lack of hope in the black community, with “a cynicism bred from a thousand small disappointments over time,” that woke me up. It’s some-thing that I haven’t had to deal with in my life. I can’t under-stand it, because I haven’t lived it. I haven’t been judged or critiqued or looked at or discriminated against again and again and again, so I don’t know what this means. I try, but it’s all cerebral. I lack real-world experience. Michelle is responsible. When she talked about the days when her father’s health literally crippled him, yet he lived by the mantra that he and Michelle’s mother had taught them, “handle your own business”, I marked that page so that I would remember it. Handle your own business, and let others handle theirs. That’s a good way to live life. Michelle connects. When she talked about the Mary Tyler Moore Show, and how she looked up to this white female character, I wondered who I followed and admired when I was young. Which characters were independent and funny to me? So many female characters have been portrayed as finding meaning and happiness as wives or mothers, instead of being individuals and entrepreneurs, explorers and adventurers. Supporting roles, roles no longer defining women or femaleness in the modern age. What effect does that have on people? I wonder how many young girls looked up to Mary Tyler Moore. Michelle is strong. When she admitted that she and Barack went to counseling, I thought that was smart. And when she set her own limits and expected Barack to meet the expectations, and moved on whether he did or didn’t, that was good parenting. I love that she didn’t teach her kids that “life began when the man of the house arrived home.” So, what shocked me? The cascade of vehicles and support staff that ride along with the President, her husband, whenever he leaves the White House was something I did not know (page 287). So many people and vehicles and just-in-case emergency response units. Wow! What made me laugh? “Yammering.” “Inexpert critiques.” “Loud and reckless innuendos.” Yep, she called out Donald Trump loud and clear, not mincing words. And, it is true. By the way, a funny thing that the news media noticed about the sales of her book were how in a week she had passed decades of the sales of Trump’s book. A week…decades. Ha! We all know who won that contest! One of the saddest parts of this book related to her husband. For the entire time that her husband was President, the opposition party (Republicans) spoke openly and loudly about keeping him from being successful. The successes that he achieved were successes for Americans, so Republican efforts to minimize and eradicate these successes hurt voters all across this great country. I am still sad at the intensity to destroy the steps forward that he took to make America a better and kinder country. It’s just sad! And when citizens whitewash and ignore all this vitriol and vote for candidates who proclaim that they are going to do even more to destroy Obama’s good work, it saddens me. Michelle is his wife, his partner, the person he talks to and listens to. It saddens me that she must endure this hate from the Right. Her husband was/is a good man. I hope that her kids avoided this negativity. Finally, I wonder if there is still hope for America. When I read about how Michelle (and her husband) consoled staff (and the nation) after the election in 2016, letting them know that hope is always alive when it is acted upon by people who want to make the world a better place, I believed her. One election cannot erase the eight years we just had. One person cannot ruin America or my life. I must have hope that the good people of America will elect a thoughtful and kind President again, one who stands up to injustice and who doesn’t tolerate hate and greediness in her/his administration. Yes, I just said that. Her. If you are interested in learning something about Michelle, then read the book. She wrote it (not a ghost-writer). Read her words, her story. You’ll find out how Michelle dealt with life’s challenges and uncertainties, and get to know a very good per-son.

Becoming by Michelle Obama is a powerful and deeply personal memoir that goes far beyond a typical life story. Her honesty and perspective make it easy to connect with, while her message about growth and “becoming” encourages meaningful self-reflection. What stood out most is her emphasis on empathy, resilience, and unity. Her approach to leadership feels especially impactful when contrasted with the more negative and divisive tone often seen in today’s political climate, offering a refreshing reminder of what thoughtful leadership can look like. Overall, this is an inspiring and relevant read that leaves a lasting impression—empowering without being overwhelming, and well worth picking up.

She let us in. Decade by decade, she lays it out. She’s just like all of us. You will get to know her better than you know even your closest friends. It’s captivating and enlightening. Her childhood in Chicago and young adult life at Princeton and Harvard were filled with family, friendship, loss, love, community, dignity, ambition, laughter, and great memories for us all to enjoy. She painted the pictures so well. I loved her stories about Barack Obama and her mother. I learned quite a bit about POTUS. What a well-written, first-class memoir! Going doing in history as the best FLOTUS ever, mainly because she had a full 8 years to engineer so many initiatives and touch so many lives and also because she is still young and motivated. She has many more years of impact, including her initiatives—Let’s Move!, Reach Higher, Let Girls Learn, and Joining Forces. The day she and President Obama left the White House, forty-five million kids were eating healthier breakfasts and lunches; eleven million students were getting sixty minutes of physical activity every day through our Let’s Move! Active Schools program. Through Joining Forces, they’d helped persuade businesses to hire or train more than 1.5 million veterans and military spouses. On education, she and Barack had leveraged billions of dollars to help girls around the world get the schooling they deserve. More than twenty-eight hundred Peace Corps volunteers were now trained to implement programs for girls internationally. And in the United States, she had helped more young people sign up for federal student aid, supported school counselors, and elevated College Signing Day to a national level. All this and they managed two terms in office without a major scandal. They held themselves and the people who worked with them to the highest standards of ethics and decency. I must add that I was a tad set back regarding her comments regarding her speech stating ‘she was proud of her country for the first time as an adult’ and of comments about Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Obama seems to not take accountability for this statement, seemingly backpedaling and blaming the media. I was hoping she would own up to it. When your great-grandparents come to America greeted with ease, new opportunities and wealth creation, you are very proud of America. However, when your great-grandparents come to America greeted with chattel slavery, family separation, and murder, well, the proudness is a "stretch goal". This should be understandable for all those who know true American history. It adds context of the shameful history of black people in this country. Juxtapose this with the Rev. Wright headlines and it's like crying foul on one move and chastising someone else (Rev. Wright) for a similar move. She wrote that, “Barack and I were dismayed to see this, a reflection of the worst and most paranoid parts of the man who’d married us…”. Obama's extreme judgment on Rev Wright's "spitfire" preaching, and "narrow-mindedness" seamed very dismissive. She recognizes that this is the mindset of those who'd come of age in a time of segregation, yet used language such as "absurd" and vitriol" to him. When her senior thesis was discovered as to be a black power manifesto, however, she called it "small-minded" and "ludicrous" of the media. She said she was young and naïve. They listened to scores of his sermons throughout the 1990s, yet it's not until 2008 that they are appalled. They distanced themselves for political reasons in 2008 from the man and continue the same narrative and direction. This was, as I believe, to pave the path for their standards of decency. I concluded that her perspective has evolved at a level that none of us will fully understand. She’s sat in kitchens of Iowans, had adorable conversations with the Queen of England and has heard stories of tens of thousands of everyday people. I put this all in perspective...no doubt, and love her like a big sister nonetheless. Her experiences at 54 are incredibly rich, like none other, and we should all be wholly inspired by this memoir.

First of all, I’m happy to report that I’m writing this review AFTER I read the book, and it’s not completely based on my past and present political views. With that being said, I didn’t completely love the book. I was expecting Michelle Obama to be a little less guarded in it, and go a little deeper into her personal thoughts and struggles; to be a little bit more candid. I also wanted to find out more about how life is in the White House. On all of those fronts, this book mostly doesn’t deliver. Mrs. Obama is an incredibly intelligent woman, and on top of that, she is a lawyer with an Ivy League education. That background has largely influenced this book, which feels like it’s been edited for any possibility of risky statements or disclosures. It feels too safe, too guarded to really be authentic. She focuses a lot on presenting a very clean version of her life (her family was perfect; it was loving and supportive, her mom was without any faults, her father was equally perfect and he handled his disability with pride and no complaints). Is that realistic…? While her family sure must’ve been quite amazing, and I’m sure she loved it very much, nothing and no one is really perfect. I just couldn’t buy it. For some reason she barely mentions Harvard. She goes into quite a bit of detail about being a black woman at Princeton, but she dedicates maybe a half of a page in the book to her time at Harvard mostly talking about how she didn’t have time to reflect on what she wanted to do in life during the intense studies to obtain her law degree. That’s it. It made me very curious about what happened at Harvard and why she or Harvard itself didn’t want that to be in the book. She is clear about not liking politics and not really wanting to be in politics, but provides very little insight into how she transformed from that stage to seeming to really enjoy being the First Lady (she was terrified Barack Obama wouldn’t be elected for the second term). She mentions very little about her marital struggles. She does say at some point they went to counseling, but again, it’s a brief mention, and ends at that. She seems to describe nothing but only marital bliss after that. I did appreciate that she mentioned having a miscarriage, having to go through IVF to conceive, failing her bar exam at the first try and getting into Harvard from a waiting list. But I did notice one thing about the tone of the book; Michelle Obama is determined not to focus on anything negative. She mentions her miscarriage very briefly and almost dismissingly by saying that they’re very common and happen to more women than we all think. That again, takes about a half a page to a full page. Her IVF is mentioned, but again quite briefly. She describes her life almost with a sense of distance at times. Focusing on events not feelings or emotions. There were few passages of the book that felt more personal, and I enjoyed them. The part where she says she skipped the final ball of the inauguration night (the one she was most looking forward too), because she was simply too exhausted to go. There is a part where she writes about Sasha thinking that nobody came to see Barack Obama’s acceptance speech the night of the first election because the streets were empty, and that in that moment she realized that they were emptied because now they were traveling with the President Elect. She describes how it felt like to see for the first time the heavy security surrounding her husband when he became the president with the massive helicopters, motorcade, snipers, secret agents, etc. That gave me goosebumps. I enjoyed reading about that tender moment when Malia got an ear infection on vacation in Hawaii, and when Barack Obama had to choose between leaving her and Michelle Obama alone to travel back home to cast a vote (an important one) in the senate or staying with his family (which did need him). I was disappointed that she didn’t write about how life has been after leaving the White House. Yes, there is that one toast she made, but other than that, it’s mostly undisclosed in the book. Do they miss it? Do they get to enjoy their lives now more? What’s next for them (other than creating a foundation in Chicago)? The book doesn’t talk about that. In summary, I do recommend the book. Michelle Obama is a good writer, and she is likable. She writes about race, and family life, and being a working mother, and friendships, and politics. It’s still an interesting read, if not a little bit too safe.

This is a wonderful book and every American should know all they can about First Ladies. They are an inspirational force in our nation. Each unique, each contributing, each challenged and each to be applauded for her effort. Read about their challenges and be grateful for their service to our country.

I learned a lot, reading Michelle Obama's Becoming. I learned, first--being neither of these two myself--something about being a woman and being black. Ms. Obama--I can't bring myself to call her by her first name, which would feel presumptuous; nor by her last alone, which would feel cold--is unsparingly honest and deeply personal in exploring both these fundamental aspects of her life. I learned, too, something about growing up in modest circumstances on the South Side of Chicago, at a time, to be sure, preceding the tragic, daily gun violence we hear about today, but a time when even middle class black status meant lesser educational opportunity and greater social insecurity. (Curiously--and I thought about this often as I read--I visited the South Side during her early teenage years as I worked on a research project into the life and work of the African American artist Charles White, who was brought up in that area in the 1920s). As Ms. Obama describes it in eloquent and compelling detail, it required the loving, often exacting support of a close family and community, as well as an abundance of grit and determination on her own part, to emerge from that circumstance as she did--an enormously self-confident, accomplished, and compassionate human being. As for being a woman and being black, she is honest--though without self-pity--about the obstacles she had to face as she navigated her way through her undergraduate days at Princeton and later Harvard Law School, and landed a job at a prestigious Chicago law firm where she first met... well, you know who. The "becoming" in this part of her story is the transition from girl to woman, from the security of a protective African American community to a world where the privileges of white and male most often went unquestioned, where she confronted herself constantly with the question: Am I good enough? She invites us to accompany her through a daunting series of "firsts"--first woman to, first black woman to...--as she works through sometimes agonizing doubts and critical self-appraisal with unfailing and disarming honesty. We feel her inner struggle even as we admire her brilliant success. As honest with herself as she is with her reader, Ms. Obama leads us through the early stages of a relationship and marriage which are extraordinary only because of the outsize character of its two protagonists. They experience the same illusions and disappointments as the rest of us, the same moments of shared bliss and the same nasty marital disputes. Together, like so many couples in America today, they struggle with their desire for children and the refusal of nature to collaborate without medical intervention. With the eventual joy of motherhood, she confronts the dilemma of so many women who are constrained to make the choice between family and professional prospects. With the growing realization of her husband's political aspirations, she has to find within herself the willingness to make huge sacrifices--career, privacy, family life--in order to accommodate the potential that she sees in him. We find her torn between personal happiness and supporting her husband in the fulfillment of his goals. And finally, once this man has stepped, against all odds, into the highest office to which any politician could aspire, once he moves into the Oval Office and his family into the White House, she invites us to accompany her as she learns to become something else again, adjusting her first obligation as the mother of two growing girls to those of the--first black!--First Lady of the United States. Through her eyes, we catch riveting glimpses into what it means to live in the presidential bubble, surrounded constantly by men with guns and the eyes of the curious, and required to accept both adulation and vilification with equal grace. "Becoming" is an eminently readable book by a wholly admirable woman. While its background is of necessity the grand canopy of world history, it remains an intensely personal account of a remarkable journey--a journey that starts in modest origins and ends, provisionally at least, at the peak of fame and power. She leaves the reader wishing her well, and confident that she still has much to contribute to the country that, no matter the personal sacrifice, she has served so well.