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itsshortforgeneva 's review for:
A Promised Land
by Barack Obama
Best parts: anecdotes and quips of appearances from Michelle, Malia, and Sasha. Obama is good at writing about his family members and staff in a way, and with telling quotes, that allow us to feel like we really get to know them along the way even if we had never heard of them while he was actually in office. But Michelle and the girls were the highlight of any chapter, my favorite being the way he allows Malia's love of tigers to open the chapters focusing on his efforts to pass climate change legislation. I also loved anything having to do with Sasha - she really came through so vividly like the little 7 year old girl we met at his 2009 inauguration, making funny faces at the press while her more serious older sister "behaved."
Obama is at his best when he weaves the way his policy efforts are influenced by or affect the real people around him-- I cried like a baby at the letter he got, from the daughter of someone who had died in one of the Twin Towers on 9/11, after the raid that killed bin Laden. David Axelrod became a clearer figure when the ACA passed and we knew his daughter had been battling cancer. I cried again when Claire McCaskill explains why she voted for the DREAM Act, imperiling her political future to cast a vote she knew wouldn't help the bill pass. My heart broke for Tim Geitner (sp? I listened to the audiobook), the brilliant economic mind who fumbled in front of the press from nerves because audiences were not his thing, and worried he'd weakened their chances at passing the stimulus bill because of something that shouldn't have had to be in his wheelhouse. I started liking Rahm Emanuel from this book because of the colorful portrait Obama paints of him. And I loved his body man, Reggie, every time he is in the scene.
The worst: oh my God it was so LONG, and this ends after the Bin Laden raid! We still have six more years of his presidency to go! I appreciated that Obama dives into historical context for a lot of stuff, and I really do like hearing stories from the campaign trail, but I felt like his childhood, early career, and up through the Senate could have been one book, and the second could have STARTED with his first presidential campaign - somehow all of that felt rushed so that he could be as lengthy and wonky and wax prolific about policy and legislative efforts for his first 2.5 years in the Oval as he wanted for the rest of the book.
I learn best about history first from the micro then put into a macro context, and for some of the policy, Obama did okay with that. I understand more about the UN, and our more modern history and complicated tensions with Russia, China, and the Israeli/Palestinian conflict from getting Obama's perspective on conversations had with their leaders and our allies etc. And while it was funny to be reminded of the major political players and other more momentary conflicts ("...pirates?") that actually weren't that long ago but feel like way more than just 10-12 years, I didn't need to be reminded of Republican hypocrisy that Obama clearly needed to get off his chest after remaining classier about it in the media than most other politicians. Also, I kind of wanted more of a picture of his working relationship with Hillary, but since this book ends in the middle of the intervention in Benghazi, I'm assuming we'll see more of that in the next book.
Obama is at his best when he weaves the way his policy efforts are influenced by or affect the real people around him-- I cried like a baby at the letter he got, from the daughter of someone who had died in one of the Twin Towers on 9/11, after the raid that killed bin Laden. David Axelrod became a clearer figure when the ACA passed and we knew his daughter had been battling cancer. I cried again when Claire McCaskill explains why she voted for the DREAM Act, imperiling her political future to cast a vote she knew wouldn't help the bill pass. My heart broke for Tim Geitner (sp? I listened to the audiobook), the brilliant economic mind who fumbled in front of the press from nerves because audiences were not his thing, and worried he'd weakened their chances at passing the stimulus bill because of something that shouldn't have had to be in his wheelhouse. I started liking Rahm Emanuel from this book because of the colorful portrait Obama paints of him. And I loved his body man, Reggie, every time he is in the scene.
The worst: oh my God it was so LONG, and this ends after the Bin Laden raid! We still have six more years of his presidency to go! I appreciated that Obama dives into historical context for a lot of stuff, and I really do like hearing stories from the campaign trail, but I felt like his childhood, early career, and up through the Senate could have been one book, and the second could have STARTED with his first presidential campaign - somehow all of that felt rushed so that he could be as lengthy and wonky and wax prolific about policy and legislative efforts for his first 2.5 years in the Oval as he wanted for the rest of the book.
I learn best about history first from the micro then put into a macro context, and for some of the policy, Obama did okay with that. I understand more about the UN, and our more modern history and complicated tensions with Russia, China, and the Israeli/Palestinian conflict from getting Obama's perspective on conversations had with their leaders and our allies etc. And while it was funny to be reminded of the major political players and other more momentary conflicts ("...pirates?") that actually weren't that long ago but feel like way more than just 10-12 years, I didn't need to be reminded of Republican hypocrisy that Obama clearly needed to get off his chest after remaining classier about it in the media than most other politicians. Also, I kind of wanted more of a picture of his working relationship with Hillary, but since this book ends in the middle of the intervention in Benghazi, I'm assuming we'll see more of that in the next book.