Becoming Michelle Obama

  • written by Michelle Obama (pub. 2018), 415 pp.

Becoming Michelle Obama

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What I learned from this book

Actually, I was shocked at how much of the book was apolitical.  I thought going in it would be much more concentrated on White House events, but, much to my relief, there were many more life experiences in the overall mix.  My expectations were for 80% politics and 20% personal.  In fact, it was more like 90% personal!  It is much less a book about living in America’s equivalent of a “Royal Palace,” and much more about one woman’s “journey in its totality.”  It is about identity, the struggle, self-doubts and the dream.  It is about perseverance.  It is also about letting go when you need to let go. But, most of all, it is about family, good friends and, most importantly, always standing firmly alongside the ones you love the most – warts and all!!

What I liked about this book

I’ve read hundreds (if not thousands) of books in my lifetime.  However, rarely have I run across an autobiography that is this honest and forthright.  Seriously, one would think that autobiographies are meant to be the most candid, but, for the most part, most fall dreadfully short of this goal.  I know it sounds cliché, but Michelle Obama really knows how to “put the reader in her shoes.” She understands how to make the reader feel the way she felt in a specific moment, to hurt in her personal moments of real pain, and to feel joy when she was uplifted in one of her finer moments.  She is a real person, a “one-of-a-kind” – and that is a rare find!  (And I’m a poet and didn’t know it!)

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What I found most amazing about this book

This book is pertinent because it highlights a segment of the financial world that seems to have a great propensity to make money regardless of consequences.  Just the concept of spending the time and investment to install a “super speedy” stock trading line from (Point A to Point B) Chicago to New Jersey is amazing.

What I DIDN’T like about this book

It’s not something I didn’t like about the book, but rather the unlikeable tendency we humans have.  That is – the built-in greed button to “WIN at all costs” and the extent to which we can risk everything we have in order to satisfy that urge to make a buck.  It ends up costing ourselves and others (who entrust us with their investment capital).

Whom would I recommend to read this book

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in working in any capacity in the stock trade.  It is both eye-opening and a great discourse (as always in Michael Lewis books), on the “game within the game.”  It is both any exciting read and makes the reader twice about what might be going on in his or her trusted trader’s investment strategy…

Any thoughts?

-A.N.

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