November book: becoming by Michelle Obama

Becoming 

by Michelle Obama

Discussion led by JM




Some background links to get you started:

• Website for the book - includes a reading guide
• Review by Afua Hirsch in The Guardian
• 'Why Michelle Obama's memoir should have demanded more of us' by Yunyi Li in The Guardian
• Michelle Obama talks to Oprah about the book (Oprahmag.com)
• The video of Michelle Obama and Oprah interview (Oprah's facebook)
• Michelle Obama to follow up Becoming with a guided journal book (USA Today)
• Reading Michelle Obama's Becoming as a motherhood memoir by Emily Lordi in The New Yorker
• Review by Hannah Giorgis in The Atlantic

What we discussed about the book:

• Who listened to the audiobook, who read it old-school style? How did this affect the author's 'voice'?
• How would we describe the authorial voice? measured? controlled? 
• Is Michelle Obama an ordinary, everyday woman? 
• Is it unusual for a First Lady (or former First Lady) to be as open and honest as she appears to be?
• The belief that when you are genuinely 'of service' that the stars align to create good outcomes. Did she become less about herself personally and more about service as the book progressed? 
• What strengths did she offer Barack that helped him in his role? e.g. stability, sense of family?
• How does she compare with other First Ladies past and present?
• What does a President actually earn? And were we shocked by what expenses they had to cover personally?
• How much did we love Michelle's mum?
• Did reading this memoir change what we thought of Michelle Obama?
• JM presented a flowchart on 'How to become the American President' ⭐

And we were sidetracked into talking about:

• Celebrating TG's birthday and hearing about her stay at Gwinganna
• Border collies
• the Prince Andrew car crash TV interview
• Book: Factfulness by Hans Rosling (https://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/Factfulness)
• Podcast: A Podcast of One's Own by Julia Gillard (https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/a-podcast-of-ones-own-with-julia-gillard/id1466658814)

Ratings

Range: 7 to 9

Average: 7.9