The Essential Barack Obama: Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope [Audio CD]

Barack Obama (Author, Narrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2006

This compilation contains both Grammy award winning readings of the rising political star, Barack Obama's two most notable works, read by the author

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Random House Audio (2006)
• ASIN: B00161BFEC
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,042,731 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars no unabridged available!!!!!, December 23, 2008

By 

Howard Schulman (Providence, RI) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Essential Barack Obama: Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope (Audio CD)

I am so disappointed that no unabridged audiobook version is available. I started listening to the abridged version and every little section I wish I heard the full details. The most amazing thing about the audiobook is that Obama himself reads the book and that even more impressive is that he wrote this book at the end of law school in 1994, before, well, you know the story....I love getting books and lectures in while I commute, but I'm afriad I'm going to have to read this one, though it seems like a good fast read!

Anyway, the audio books go really fast, and despite the fact that the abridged versions are missing content, this deficit is more than made up by the fact that Barack Obama reads them himself! In "Dreams from My Father", it is a whole lot of fun to hear Barack imitating the characters he writes about, either his irreverent colleague Rafiq or his sister or aunt from Kenya, when he goes to visit and where he finally finds out about his past inheritance, what he had been looking for and what inspired the book.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Essential Barack Obama..., June 22, 2009

By 

Olivia Newman (Nashville, TN USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Essential Barack Obama: Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope (Audio CD)

Since i have read the books i wanted them on cd for a very dear fiend who cannot see well.
i loved the books and she loved to listen to his voice.

4.0 out of 5 stars What an amazing person., December 2, 2009

By 

David "davidbarbero" (Saint Louis, Macau) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Essential Barack Obama: Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope (Audio CD)

Disclaimer: I like Barrack Obama a lot.

When I finished listening to the audiobook of Dreams from My Father, I felt uplifted, just as the author had intended me to feel. Following Obama's progress from childhood to adulthood, discovering the key moments of his youth in Indonesia and adolescence in Hawaii, observing his college years in L.A. and New York, learning about his life as a community organizer in Chicago, and, finally, hearing his account of his father's and grandfather's lives in Kenya, I became enamored with the man, who had won me over previously with rousing campaign speeches, erudite performances during the debates, and, in my opinion, a commendable execution of the duties of President. Several times, after listening to this audiobook in the car, I came home and eagerly shared with my wife some fascinating revelation about Obama's life that I had not know or had not imagined.

While it is important to remember that Obama had far more contact with mother's family - his white mother, who holds a graduate degree, and his white grandparents "Gramps" and "Toot," who had moved to Hawaii from Kansas - who raised him and provided for him on an everyday basis, the most fascinating parts of Obama's story take place away from his white family: his boyhood in Indonesia, where he played games with the Third World children he befriend and explored the wild, exotic landscape; his college years at Occidental and Columbia, where he discussed heady philosophical and political issues with other young African-American intellectuals; and, his early career with the Developing Communities Project in Chicago, where he worked with ordinary, working class folks to build a strong community and to provide for the basic needs of the poor.

The book records two main accomplishments for Obama in his personal life. First, it explains how he came to terms with his identity as a black American, which requires him to seek knowledge from many sources, learn from any fellow African-American who will teach him, and adopt many postures and poses, until the day he attends services at Reverend Wright's Trinity Church, where he recognizes not only the struggle of black people in America but also their enduring, resilient, and often counterintuitive hopefulness (i.e., "the audacity of hope"). This religious experience allows him to feel that he can participate fully in the black cultural heritage in which he had not felt truly welcome. Second, the book explains how he finally gained an understanding of the nature of and circumstances surrounding his absent father's life, which had previously been mysterious to him or even misrepresented to him. To really know his father, he had to travel to Kenya and meet that larger Obama Family that had shaped the man; but, more importantly, he had to speak to his Granny (actually, his step-grandmother) and listen to her recall his grandfather's biography. As is often the case in both fiction and real life, the actions, events, and attitudes of one man's life shapes the lives of men in subsequent generations. In fact, my biggest criticism of Dreams from My Father is that it imagines the influence of a father on his son as stronger than it really is. This error stems from Obama's estrangement from his father, of course. Yet, perhaps if his father had maintained a constant presence in his early life, Obama would not have worked to hone the characteristics that have made him a great person.

4.5 of 5 stars.