Customer Reviews

Michelle Obama: First Lady of Hope

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

In the 16 page Preface, and following 10 page Introduction, we learn quickly that Lightfoot was given two months to write the book, and a few days to update it after the general election. We also learn she never interviewed Michelle, and begin to hear her suppositions as to how the Obama family compares to her own. Surprisingly, the Preface and Introduction prove to be better than the following Chapters 1-10 (169 pages of medium sized font, wide spaced print) which are followed by 3 pages of Acknowledgements and another 26 pages of Notes referencing the sources she used to write the book. Anyone who was half paying attention to news broadcasts throughout the election season has already heard everything contained within. Lightfoot shares little we don't already know about Michelle. She often and quickly digresses at length onto other persons and situations in the campaign, and repeats these details again and again in chapter after chapter, all the time giving her opinion and irrelevant thoughts regarding situations. I admit to having stopped reading after Chapter 8 out of sheer boredom and frustration. The book lacks proper editing; at times she speaks to our new President Elect; at other times, it appears she is writing as if the general election decision has not been made yet. Lightfoot quotes and relies on opinions of a British journalist friend, as well as a couple of Michelle's classmates (located in a yearbook) who had little or no interaction with Michelle. It appears throughout that she is struggling to fill the pages in any way she can. I recommend skipping this book entirely. Lightfoot and others should make another attempt only after more of Michelle is revealed to us in her early years as First Lady, or through direct interviews with Michelle and her family.

I am so excited to read this biography of Michelle Obama. She is smart, beautiful, hard-working, and a dedicated mother. For people who say you can't do it all, Michelle is the proof that you can! And she does it with grace and elegance, all from the heart, with sincerity that many other political figures don't show. My only regret with this Kindle edition is that I can't share it with my daughter!

UPDATE: Now that I've finished the book, I have to say I'm very disappointed. I am a BIG fan of Michelle Obama, but the author wrote this book without ever speaking with, or even having a personal e-mail from, Michelle. She basically Googled Michelle Obama and wrote about whatever she found on the internet. The author pretty quickly exhausts her info about Obama and then spends a lot of the book talking about her own uninteresting suburban life. What a bummer!

I was so looking forward to a book which would provide some in-depth and substantive information about this remarkable woman who will soon become our First Lady. However, I found that this book fell short of achieving that goal. It was apparent that the author had a short time to write the material in order to fulfill her editor's request and it showed. The inadequacies were underscored when the author revealed that she had not spoken to the subject of this book. How can you write an informed piece about a living person without speaking to her?

Some of her material illustrated that the author was not an authority on politics. Her analyses of some of the political situations that occurred during the race for the White House are shallow and off point.

I am looking forward to finding an excellent biography of Michelle Obama who, I believe, has a great story to tell. Truly, she is an inspiration for many and could be even more so if there is a true biography written about her life.

I am so glad a friend loaned me this: kept me from wasting money buying it.

Frankly, I didn't get round to really reading it. On a quick glance it was clear that there is much more padding than substance. I just couldn't settle down to read it thoroughly, so I gave up. The very worst thing a biographer can do is write a really bad book about a really great, interesting person. When a good biography of Michelle Obama comes along it needs to get more than 5 stars. This one is worth less than one star, but there's no "no stars" option, so I have to give it a star it really does not deserve.

thoughtful and well-written. an interesting if somewhat unconventional delivery--the author combines michelle's story with a bit of her own, often suggesting an allegory between mrs. obama's humble roots and the happenings within her own respective life. this does occasionally detract from the main focus, but it also provides some interesting subtext that makes an at-times detached presidential spouse seem all the more familiar. overall, 'grace and intelligence' provides us with the rare biography that not only conveys the subject's life from an outward perspective but also draws us closer to a woman with whom we all, whether we realize it or not, can relate.

I felt like this book was more about the campaign rather than about Michelle Obama. The first couple of chapters gave a little background information about the First Lady, but then went off topic to speak more about the campaign and Barack Obama. At times, I felt the author really strayed from topic to include little pieces of information that had no relevance or were a stretch to fit with book's topic. I really had wanted a book that told more about Michelle Obama's life prior to becoming to First Lady.

My six year old daughter picked out this book for me all on her own for my birthday. It was a wonderful gift and I was very excited to read it. Well, until I actually started reading it. To find out the author had never interviewed the First Lady was unbelievable. This book is just a research paper with the author comparing her own life with Michelle Obama's life. The only first hand information was about the author herself which is not why anyone would buy a book unless of course it was an autobiography, which this clearly is not. I also stopped reading this book after just a few chapters realizing it was not going to get any better. It was very poorly written. I only made it that far because it was a very thoughtful gift from my beautiful daughter. I intend to buy the book Michelle Obama, Our First Lady by Michelle Obama. I believe this is more along the lines of my daughter's intention.

I was so disappointed with this that I read half way through it and threw it in the garbage, I don't care about the authors life and how it relates, This is just a rehash of online information, do a Google search for Michelle Obama and you will find out more and save a few dollars or check out the other books especially the one by Liza Mundy it is well written and is interesting. 5th rate authors need to stop relating their life to a figure like Michelle Obama, just to fill pages. If the author had such a short time to develop the book then she shouldn't had done it. There is nothing here that is interesting so DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY!!!!!!

I thought that this book was going to be a wonderful book about Michelle Obama but instead I found that the author included facts about her own family that ruined the whole book for me. I only read the first chapter because I could not read another fact about the authors family. If I wanted to know about Elizabeth Lightfoot I would have bought a biography about her. The discription of the biography is very misleading and I would never read anything by this author again because I believe she is misimforming her readers. I will discourage everyone I know from reading this book. This author needs to keep her personal life out of her professional life.

This book was highly disappointing. The author wrote more about herself, her family and friends than about Michelle Obama. What little she did write about her subject was lifted straight from other sources. The author kept patting herself on the back whenever she could.
This piece was a dishonor to the subject, did not new shed light and should be pulled from the marketplace.
I could go and on but it's best to bow out gracefully when I can.