‘Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance’ by Barack Obama

An interesting and unsentimental portrait of a man who was the first black president of the United States. I think we all remember the hope we felt at that time, now somewhat dampened by recent events. It was fascinating to learn about his childhood and what made him as a man and prepared him for leadership. He is a gifted speaker and this book shows that he is a reflective and highly esteemed writer as well. The book is enlivened by a narrative structure with dialogue and conversation.

A devoted father, husband and family man, even though his father was largely absent in his life, Obama received nurture and love from his mother, his grandparents and his Kenyan relatives. His community work in Chicago introduced him to many important issues and caused him to be fair-minded in his approach to politics. I ‘read’ the audio book version which is narrated by Obama himself! He even does fun accents for his Kenyan cousins. Audio books have never been my favourite for fiction because if I miss something it’s hard to stop and go back, but I realized that listening to non-fiction is really quite nice!