Becoming is a twenty-four chapter memoir of former US first lady Michelle Obama. It broke the record by selling more copies in 15 days than any other book in the US. The book is all about her deeply personal experience. She has described her life in the White House, her roots, how she found her voice, campaign moments and her role as a mum. The book is published by Crown which was released with more than twenty-four languages. The book is reported to have been published in November 2018.
When She was four years old Michelle Obama started learning her piano lessons with her aunt. The book captures her memories as a teenager with her friend Jesse. The best moments perhaps the book captures is with her alliance with her husband Barrack Obama. The relationship first does not seems to develop first since they are opposing forces. How the relationship started is something you can read again and again and smile to yourself. Michelle does think they fit and Obama is full of anxiety.
Their manners make the relationship develop and they now seem to match. Michelle now sees him as a unicorn and they have their first date. She described the moment of the events of their first date just like it was yesterday and how she dressed. During their courtship, Obama Writes letters While she insists on making phone calls. After getting married, Obama starts committing in politics which keeps him busy most of the time which makes her a bit more comfortable but she tries to adapt.
After a campaign, Obama wins and the power installs them as Potus and Flotus with their Secret Service code names Renegade and Renaissance. She does not like the heaviness the presidency comes with including heavy security, a limo equipped with many safety weapons and security measures which can help it withstand chemical attacks. Sometimes she ignores the protocol and gives the queen a hug when they meet for the first time, she does her dance moves, do some rapping with Jay Pharoah and have Karaoke with James Corden. She dint have direct power like Obama but she practiced soft powers. Unlike Hillary Clinton who didn’t stay at home, Michelle spent some more time in the garden and the house.
When you read the book you will feel how she treasures her young daughters and their presidential pet. Sometimes it turns emotional when you read about her father’s death from multiple sclerosis and sometimes it is fun when she describes how she is adapting to her new Washington home which creates a scene that makes you feel like you are there.
When I opened the first page of the book and start reading the book, you can feel the presence of the former first lady at the moment. When reading you can hear her voice back in your mind. You can reflect and get into her world through her mesmerizing storytelling technique. You walk with her from her childhood in the southern side of Chicago. You get to learn how she was trying to balance motherhood and her career. She narrates her disappointments and triumphs both in private and in public with kind honesty. She does tell her full life story without in the best interesting way I have never experienced.
She has done a couple of many interviews trying to explain how she came with the title becoming. On one interview with Oprah Winfrey, they discuss the book she explains why that, the word “becoming” summirizes, her evolving life. When you read the book from her young age to being the first lady and a mother you truly get to see how her life is evolving.