A review by bookswithsoumi
A Promised Land by Barack Obama

challenging hopeful informative inspiring slow-paced

5.0

For a man who needs no introduction, I can tell you that his behemoth of a book (700+ pages!) is truly inspirational to hopeful millennials like myself. Obama’s words took me on a journey from his tropical childhood in Hawaii to the suspenseful months leading up to the 2008 election to the major events of his first term, ending at the killing of bin Laden. 

I would HIGHLY recommend listening to the audiobook, clocking in at 29 hours and 10 minutes. Not only will you get through the book faster, but also you will vicariously experience Obama’s ups and downs. His occasional f-bomb was gratifying to my soul weary from 2020.

My highlights include: 
🔎Travelling with Obama on his state visits to China, Russia, and India and international summits in London and Copenhagen.
🔎Simplified explanations for the lay people like me on issues such as wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Great Recession.
🔎Overall just learning how a president can effect change in society.

The best quotes:
💫”And then there was the unsettling fact that, despite whatever my mother might claim, the bullies, cheats, and self-promoters seemed to be doing quite well, while those she considered good and decent people seemed to get screwed an awful lot.”
💫“But you don’t choose the time. The time chooses you. Either you seize what may turn out to be the only chance you have, or you decide you’re willing to live with the knowledge that the chance has passed you by.”

And the funniest quotes:
🤣“I’d met my share of highly credentialed, high-IQ morons”
🤣“Two hundred and thirty-two years and they wait until the country’s falling apart before they turn it over to the brother!”

Time to read: 56 days (with audiobook listening in between)

Who should read this book: people who want to try memoirs for the first time!
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