i finished a book!!

[toastykitten]

It was Becoming by Michelle Obama. I used to read soo much, but between chores, work, kids waking me up at 5 or earlier every goddamn morning, I've been 1. going to sleep like an hour after the kids do, and 2. spending most of my free time playing Candy Crush because I don't want to concentrate too hard on anything else. This year, I'm trying to work my way back into reading. I also joined Litsy because I wanted to try non-Facebook/Google/Amazon social media. They are owned by the LibraryThing people. It's basically like Instagram for book nerds. A ton of random people followed me as soon as I posted. It doesn't seem to be that diverse but I could be wrong; people with their pics seemed to be mostly white women and there was one black woman who was running a Black History month hashtag. Anyway, you can find me there as toastykitten if you want random thoughts and quotes from the books I'm currently reading.

Anyway, Becoming seems to be your typical First Lady memoir, except that Michelle Obama grew up working class and black. I really liked the description of her relationship between her and Barack Obama, in which she describes him as this "free spirit" who was attracted to her and her family's steadiness. And, I don't know if this is an inappropriate comparison, but it also reminded me of the relationship between Anwanyu and Doro in the Octavia Butler in the Patternist series. Also, Michelle's writing is way more grounded than Barack's. I remember having a hard time reading through Barack's memoir, even though it was beautifully written.

Comments

[maeve66]

Damn, that Anwanyu and Doro analogy!!!! Wow. I think Barack Obama would be mad (though I agree with it, I think... and also agree that he is not very creative on how to address built in problems of gender and family equality, as you pointed out a few posts after this, versus AOC's flexibility, for instance). I haven't read Michelle Obama's book (though I actually did like Dreams from my Father despite my being a lifelong socialist)... she seems good except I am squicked by her anti-fat crusade.