Becoming by Michelle Obama

"For me, becoming isn't about arriving somewhere or achieving a certain aim. I see it instead as forward motion, a means of evolving, a way to reach continuously toward a better self. The journey doesn't end. I became a mother, but I still have a lot to learn from and give to my children. I became a wife, but I continue to adapt to and be humbled by what it means to truly love and make a life with another person. I have become, by certain measures, a person of power, and yet there are moments still when I feel insecure or unheard. It's all a process, steps along a path. Becoming requires equal parts patience and rigor. Becoming is never giving up on the idea that there's more growing to be done."
                 -Michelle Obama, from the Epilogue

I have admired Michelle Obama since she came upon the national scene as her husband was campaigning for president. She impressed me then with her intelligence and poise and after becoming the First Lady of the United States, I liked her even more. It was only natural I would want to read her book.

After reading Becoming, I almost feel as if I know Mrs. Obama now, as a person, not just a celebrity. She did a wonderful job of sharing her life as a young girl growing up in a modest, but loving South Side Chicago home. She makes it clear that her parents, the Robinsons, instilled strong values in both her brother and her, along with working very hard and sacrificing much to help establish a bright future for their two children. She says her parents appreciated her feistiness.

As Michelle moved up in school, she experienced her minority status more dramatically. Even though she was an excellent student in high school, a counselor told her she wasn't "Princeton material." I think that made her more determined to attend there and succeed, which she did! She said the relatively few students of color at Princeton felt "like poppy seeds in a bowl of rice."

At Princeton she says, "Beneath my laid-back college-kid demeanor, I lived like a half-closeted CEO, quietly but unswervingly focused on achievement, bent on checking every box. My to-do list lived in my head and went with me everywhere. I assessed my goals, analyzed my outcomes, counted my wins. If there was a challenge to vault, I'd vault it. One proving ground only opened onto the next. Such is the life of a girl who can't stop wondering, 'Am I good enough?' and is still trying to show herself the answer." I was amazed she often questioned whether she was good enough.

After completing law school, she was working as an attorney in a respected law firm. She was asked to mentor a law student named Barack Obama and they slowly fell in love. This was surprising to me.
He earned his law degree and pretty quickly became involved in politics. It was clear that he was a rising star in that field. I didn't know Barack actually lost an election before he won a few. Michelle was reluctant about his running for president at first but then, I believe, realized the country needed him and he had much to give.

As First Lady, Michelle was not always treated well by some media and political foes and I felt bad about that. I really liked how she made her role as a mother a priority and her initiatives on children's health like "Let's Move." As a former teacher, I appreciated her efforts to encourage education for girls internationally.

I would imagine you want to read Becoming yourself, so I don't need to go on. Suffice it to say, it is an intimate look into the life of America's first black First Lady, a position with no job description, and she pulled it off with intelligence, grace and humor! My rating is 5.

A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult

"We're all entitled to our religious beliefs, right?...But we can't make policies based on religion when religion means different things to different people. Which leaves science. The science of reproduction is what it is. Conception is conception. You can decide the ethical value that has for you, based on your own relationship with God...but the policies around basic human rights with regard to reproduction shouldn't be up for interpretation."
      -Dr. Louie Ward, from the novel

I can't recall that I have ever read one of Picoult's novels that wasn't a page turner. This one was so much so I could hardly put it down! I will just go ahead and rate it a 5.

The story begins in an abortion center at 5 PM on a given day when a pro-life extremist has killed two people and is holding several hostages at gunpoint. Hugh McElroy, the police hostage negotiator, is doing his best to convince the gunman to release the hostages. The situation has become extremely compelling for Hugh after finding out his teenage daughter and aunt are two being held.

The narrative is unusual in its structure as it goes backward in time---all the way back to 8 AM---to gradually reveal what has happened up to that point and allow the reader to discover what brought each of these victims to this point. (This reminded me of Nineteen Minutes, another novel by this author which is just as compelling.) One is the doctor, another is a nurse who has come for an abortion and ends up helping the injured. Joy is a young woman who has just had an abortion, Olive is an older woman who needs consultation, and Janine has more than one secret which I will not tell. Aunt Bex has accompanied Hugh's daughter, Wren, but I'll let you find out the reason. Little by little, we learn the story of George Goddard, a domestic terrorist, the way I see it.

The book is fiction but it is obvious from the extensive bibliography and the Author's Note that
Ms. Picoult thoroughly researched the topic of abortion. She  interviewed women who had experienced the procedure and pro-life proponents. She shadowed a doctor and even observed three abortions. I believe the author worked hard to make the novel believable, to show both sides of a complicated issue and to tell a thought-provoking and engrossing story. I highly recommend it!

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