The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times
Michelle Obama
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times
Michelle Obama
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
Obama’s road map for uncertain times resonates in ways that other self-help books do not.
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.
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.
This book grew out of the great personal response to Becoming...who recognised their own lives in that of their former first lady. They will find more to recognise here, where the mundane is given equal billing with the entirely exceptional in what amounts to a carefully worked out manifesto for surviving, and hopefully thriving, in the world.
Obama offers advice on building self-confidence, calming anxiety and parenting. But it’s grounded in reality.
Her voice is warm and knowing, full of sisterly disclosures that veer into platitude.
Exceptional.