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Becoming by Michelle Obama

Kim Kingston — Fri, 11 Jan 2019 04:13:41 +0000

Did you know the president of the USA and his family aren’t ever allowed to open the windows in the White House residence to get a breath of fresh air, for security reasons? Michelle Obama’s autobiography is worth a read for so many reasons – that’s just one.

Usually when I’m writing a review I refer to the author by their last name, but I find that the word ‘Obama’ instantly conjures up an image in my mind of Barak, as President. This is a tiny illustration of what it must mean to be Michelle; always and ever The Wife Of Barak Obama. Becoming highlights the fact that she was always her own person before, during and after she was First Lady, and a very impressive person at that.

Coming from a loving blue collar family crammed into a small apartment in Chicago, Michelle’s parents expected her to do her best at everything she attempted, and she did, in spades. She was a control freak from a young age; the kind of little girl who didn’t like to invite friends over to play with her barbie dolls in case they messed them up. And after she’d excelled at school and university and in her legal career, she fell in love with a man who was always late for everything and left his clothes in piles on the floor. He did have a bit of vision, though.

I like that, in this book, Michelle doesn’t hide her utter lack of enthusiasm for politics or her irritation about her husband’s political career constantly taking him away from their family. She notes Baracks’s acknowledgment that he spent only six days at home during the first six months of his elder daughter’s life. These sound like tough years for Michelle; trying to do meaningful work and be present for their children while also questioning the value of what Barack was doing. In the end, though, she supported his run for President because she genuinely believed he was the best person for the job.

Once in the White House, it sounds as if the family saw more of Barack than before as they were, as she notes, ‘living above the shop’. While acknowledging the many privileges of their position, she recounts how she struggled with the constant scrutiny and security that was part of their lives and fretted about the effect it was having on their daughters. In response, she tried to use her influence to do some good.

Barack’s two term students as President ended just as their elder daughter was finishing high school, when he would finally have time to spend with her. The poignancy of this was not lost on Michelle.

I would have liked to hear more about Michelle’s views on the President who came after Obama and what that says about America. She writes of her shock and horror at the results of the 2016 election, but states she “is not a political person, so I’m not going to attempt an analysis of the results.” She is however an intelligent person, and that sounds to me like a cop out. She notes she ‘stopped even trying to smile’ during Trump’s inauguration, but I’d like to know what it was like showing Trump and his wife around the private parts of the White House, as she records the Bush family doing for the Obamas. What would a personal interaction between Trump and Michelle be like, after she had so publicly condemned him for his bullying and misogyny? Interesting, that’s what it would be. But it’s not in here.

Still, as an autobiography, this is excellent. It starts off a little slow but stick with it because by the end it’s a real page turner.

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Exit Wounds by John Cantwell

Kim Kingston — Tue, 25 Sep 2018 03:21:51 +0000

This is a fascinating book. Cantwell was a Major General in the Australian army. His experiences of the War on Terror in Iraq and Afghanistan left him a psychological mess. For someone so senior in the Australian Army to be so honest and open about his psychological wounds is extraordinary, and it makes compelling reading. Amongst other things, Cantwell states that any gains made in Afghanistan were not worth the lives of the soldiers we lost there. I have yet to hear a political leader admit that. Cantwell is exactly the kind of soldier we should be proud of.

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Bridge Burning and Other Hobbies by Kitty Flanagan

Kim Kingston — Tue, 25 Sep 2018 03:06:51 +0000

Flanagan, a comedian, seems like the kind of woman you would want to sit down and have a glass of prosseco with. She’s fun, she tells a fine story and she doesn’t talk about her sex life or her vagina (pause here to silently contrast with Amy Schumer’s book, The Girl With The Lower Back Tattoo, while frowning in a very middle aged manner). Well ok Flanagan does talk about her sex life once in passing, to explain why she stayed in a relationship with a nearly mute but well muscled gravedigger longer than strictly necessary. But she doesn’t bang on about it.

Flanagan comes from a fairly normal family she is very close to and she seems very well adjusted for a comedian (though she does has a thing about germs in spas and on plumbers). Her stories are not laugh out loud funny, but they’re good value. Her take on being single and childless when most people aren’t is very cool and just confirms her status as someone I’d like to have a drink with. This book won’t blow you away but it’s quite a lovely, light read. Go Flanagan.

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When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

Kim Kingston — Tue, 04 Sep 2018 04:16:21 +0000

Paul Kalanithi was thirty six years old when he was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. How ridiculously unfair that someone who had worked so hard to become a neurosurgeon and could have helped so many people was destined to die so young. But he doesn’t whine about it: instead he writes this beautiful, sparse book which is all the more powerful for not being full of uplifting quotes. The loss of such a humane and intelligent man is brutal and unfathomable; the book he left behind underscores that but it is also, profoundly, about life. Just read it. Please.

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The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

Kim Kingston — Tue, 04 Sep 2018 03:59:42 +0000

How much of Anne’s diary resonates with you will probably depend on how old you were when you first read it. I was 13, the same age Anne is when she begins to write in her diary. It was the first time I had heard anything substantial about the Holocaust, and it cut deep. I’ve not re-read it since and maybe it wouldn’t have the same power if I did, but it’s in my top five because it demonstrates the possibility of books – they can reveal a whole new world to a reader. And despite the horrors of what happened to Anne and her family and millions of others, this book ultimately reminds us of our common humanity.

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Wild by Cheryl Strayed

Kim Kingston — Tue, 04 Sep 2018 03:43:01 +0000

Strayed’s memoir about a long hike undertaken after completely messing up her life following the death of her mother resonates with many of us, especially perhaps those of us who have lost mothers. It is partly about carrying a huge stinking bucket of grief around with you wherever you go, and not knowing quite how to to set it down. It is also about the vulnerability of women, as there are few places a lone woman is more vulnerable that in a tent in the dead of night in the middle of the wilderness. She has to assess every male she meets, decide whether they are an ally or a predator. But as she says,”Fear, to a great extent, is born of a story we tell ourselves, and so I chose to tell myself a different story from the one women are told.”

Strayed has the kind of gutsiness that comes from knowing you don’t have everything under control but giving it a go anyway. She posts herself boxes that she opens at scheduled intervals along the trail; she has put cash in these boxes so she can get a hotel room and have a shower occasionally, or treat herself to a bought meal, but it’s never quite enough and the lack of money stings. But she comes from a long line of people who’ve never let a lack of money get in the way of the choices that matter to them. Her mother had a beautiful horse she couldn’t quite afford and she is her inspiration. So Strayed just gets on with it, and in doing so she tells a story worth listening to. Beautiful.

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A Mother’s Reckoning by Sue Klebold

Kim Kingston — Sat, 01 Sep 2018 03:09:15 +0000

We sometimes speak about the murder of a child as ‘every parent’s worst nightmare’, but how much worse would it be if your child was the murderer, and then killed himself? Sue Klebold knows. Her son Dylan was one of the perpetrators of the original high school shooting, Columbine, in 1999, and in this blazingly honest autobiography she details the shame and horror and guilt he left behind. By all accounts she was a good parent, and she never saw it coming. How to go on after such a tragedy? How to ever walk in the world again? Klebold’s account is such a worthwhile read and a reminder that evil acts can stem from seemingly ordinary boys, and families.

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The Principles of Uncertainty by Maira Kalman

Kim Kingston — Thu, 12 Jul 2018 05:29:33 +0000

This is not so much a book as a trip around Kalman’s mind, and what a beautiful place to be that is. Maira Kalman is an American artist but she’s anything but pretentious. She’s more like the eccentric great aunt you see at someone’s funeral and wish you knew better, ‘cause she seems like a lot of fun. She takes photos of the backs of strangers in the streets and always buys a ball of string when she goes on a trip. She is curious about humanity, everyone from philosophers to the woman who bakes the bread in her hotel. She likes to paint fruit platters and sofas discarded on the street. She knows she doesn’t have all the answers but is willing to speculate, and her speculations never fail to fascinate. I keep a copy of this book beside my bed and dive into it now and then when in need of solace and sustenance. Beautiful, original and exceptional.

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Reckoning by Magda Szubanski

Kim Kingston — Thu, 05 Apr 2018 04:23:57 +0000

Reckoning actually deserves all the awards it has been given, but don’t go expecting many laughs. Magda explores her father’s past as a second world war assassin in Poland, and the way his drive and perfectionism affected her as a child. She writes rivetingly about her fatness and how she holds it around her like a security blanket: she lost weight then gained it again, deliberately, because the weight loss left her feeling too visible. She’s the remarkable daughter of interesting parents and she shares her story so well. Respect.

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The Bright Hour by Nina Riggs

Kim Kingston — Mon, 26 Mar 2018 22:53:34 +0000

How do you deal with the fact that you’re 38 years old and have terminal cancer, and will shortly leave behind a much loved husband and two young sons? If you’re Nina Riggs, you deal with it by comforting yourself with the words of poets and philosophers and trying to love even the crappy and pain filled days. Her beautiful, sustained focus on what really matters may make the rest of us feel inadequate but she’s honest enough for us to love her anyway. You just want to go have a drink and a good belly laugh with this girl, but it’s too darn late. Read it and weep.

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