Michelle: A Biography | 
 enlarge | Author: Liza Mundy
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
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Rating:  31 reviews
Sales Rank: 4170
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st Simon & Schuster Hardcover Ed
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.3 x 0.8
ISBN: 1416599436
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.931092
EAN: 9781416599432
ASIN: 1416599436
Publication Date: October 7, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
She can be funny and sharp-tongued, warm and blunt, empathic and demanding. Who is the woman Barack Obama calls "the boss"? In Michelle, Washington Post writer Liza Mundy paints a revealing and intimate portrait, taking us inside the marriage of the most dynamic couple in politics today. She shows how well they complement each other: Michelle, the highly organized, sometimes intimidating, list-making pragmatist; Barack, the introspective political charmer who won't pick up his socks but shoots for the stars. Their relationship, like those of many couples with two careers and two children, has been so strained at times that he has had to persuade her to support his climb up the political ladder. And you can't blame her for occasionally regretting it: In this campaign, it is Michelle who has absorbed much of the skepticism from voters about Obama. One conservative magazine put her on the cover under the headline "Mrs. Grievance."Michelle's story carries with it all the extraordinary achievements and lingering pain of America in the post-civil rights era. She grew up on the south side of Chicago, the daughter of a city worker and a stay-at-home mom in a neighborhood rocked by white flight. She was admitted to Princeton amid an angry debate about affirmative action and went on to Harvard Law School, where she was more comfortable doing pro-bono work for the poor than gunning for awards with the rest of her peers. She became a corporate lawyer, then left to train community leaders. She is modern in her tastes but likes to watch reruns of The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Brady Bunch. In this carefully reported biography, drawing upon interviews with more than one hundred people, including one with Michelle herself, Mundy captures the complexity of this remarkable woman and the remarkable life she has lived.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 26 more reviews...
 Save your money! January 3, 2009
Liza Munday ought to be ashamed of herself. Instead of a biography, she has offered weak inerviews, innuendo, and miscellaneous opinion. I am especially disappointed at her inclusion of Debra Dickerson, a Michelle Obama critic, but the fact is that Munday had so little to go on that she had to pad the book with interviews from people who had scant knowledge of Michelle Obama. It's great that interest in Michelle Obama is so high, but it is extraordinarily exploitative for Munday to have offered us such a weak product in the name of biogrpahy. Don't waste your money on this book. Wait for the real deal from a real biographer.
Michelle-lite January 2, 2009
The book seems like an opinion piece on Michelle, set on pointing out as many contradictions that the author can drum up. Time after time, the author points out an opinion that Michelle holds, then "innocently" sets out to prove that it is not true. It's an opinion, so it's neither true or false but the author somehow manages to note that Michelle's opinions, perceptions, or point of views are off the mark. Like another reviewer, I am forcing myself through the last pages. I am really excited about a book that actually captures Michelle's childhood and her real drive on what got her to where she is today.
On a positive note, the author does manage to piece little bits of data into an easy read.
 Michelle is an impressive young woman as I discovered when reading this biography. January 1, 2009
I enjoy reading biographies and autobiographies, and this book did not let me down. I had not read many news articles about Michelle, and the book filled in many of the blanks for me. Before reading it I had no preconceptions of Michelle, and I think the author did an excellent job going after info about this young woman.
Certainly she is no shrinking violet; she is a class act; she is very bright; she has creative ideas; and has a wonderful ability to articulate her point of view. When I first bought and read this book I had no idea she would soon be living in the White House. How wonderful!
Many of the earlier reviewers wrote about the book in detail, so I will not duplicate their efforts. But a through reading of this biography might well explain why some folks seem intimidated by her. Don't be. She really is a bright, engaging young woman.
 Divas Read 2 Book Club December 30, 2008
Author, Liza Mundy chronicles the life of charismatic, candid and sometimes controversial Michelle Obama. Given that this biography was written during Barack Obama's 2008 bid for President of the United States, the campaign refused the author access to the Obama's and encouraged those close to the couple not to participate in this project. Clearly, the author attempts to paint a complete picture of this fascinating subject, but with input from sources on the peripheral of Ms. Obama's world, the work falls short. Michelle: A Biography relates an interesting history lesson about Chicago and its politics, and is filled with many well researched facts about her life. Yet, it fails to draw an emotional connection or capture the essence of Michelle Obama.
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Terrific insite into the 44th First Lady's background and talents. December 17, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
A can't put it down type of book. I greatly enjoyed it.
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