Michelle Obama offers readers a series of fresh stories and insightful reflections on change, challenge, and power, including her belief that when we light up for others, we can illuminate the richness and potential of the world around us, discovering deeper truths and new pathways for progress.
Obama’s road map for uncertain times resonates in ways that other self-help books do not ... I want to hear from Michelle Obama, who doesn’t always like the way she looks, who felt like an outsider after becoming the ultimate insider; the one who easily becomes lonely ... Through her stories, experiences and thoughts, we’re finding the light with her. Lucky us ... Relatable ... We are perfectly aware of how carefully she chooses her words and the stories she tells. But she reveals herself, subtly and endearingly, in a dozen different ways ... Her thoughts are nuanced and never prescriptive.
It should be easy to write off The Light We Carry, by former First Lady Michelle Obama — with its toolbox framework, motivational one-liners and inspirational quotes from Toni Morrison, John Lewis and Maya Angelou — as a clichéd self-help manual, an easy holiday-season layup after putting in the hard work on her mega-bestselling memoir, Becoming. Among the reasons it’s not so easy to dismiss are the indefatigable humility of its author and, perhaps more importantly, the resolute necessity of a book like this right now ... Both personal and practical ... It’s her simultaneously set and blooming self-awareness that appeals — here and throughout the book ... We’re all in this together, Obama is saying. Which again may sound a bit cliché, but I for one am very happy to be reminded of this fact, especially if it comes with some choice anecdotes.
Although reaffirming, the advice isn’t groundbreaking. What makes the book special is that it builds on parts of Becoming, and Obama serves as mentor and guide, using pivotal moments in her life to demonstrate when she had to rely on boldness, pluck and grit ... The book’s more surprising and dynamic passages unfold on the political front ... Anyone who has read Becoming or any number of books in the memoir/self-help sphere will recognize the insights.
