Review: The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times by Michelle Obama

About the Book:

Blurb from Penguin Random House SA

The powerful, insightful follow-up to the critically acclaimed, multi-million #1 bestselling memoir Becoming

In her inspiring follow-up to Becoming, former First Lady Michelle Obama shares practical wisdom and powerful strategies for staying hopeful and balanced in today’s highly uncertain world.

In The Light We Carry,  she opens a frank and honest dialogue with readers, considering the questions many of us wrestle with: How do we build enduring and honest relationships? How can we discover strength and community inside our differences? What do we do when it all starts to feel like too much? Michelle Obama believes that we can all lean on a set of tools to help us better navigate change and remain steady within flux.

The Light We Carry  offers readers a series of fresh stories and insightful reflections on change, challenge, and power, including her belief that when we light up for others, we can illuminate the richness and potential of the world around us, discovering deeper truths and new pathways for progress. Drawing from her experiences as a mother, daughter, spouse, friend, and First Lady, she shares the habits and principles she has developed to successfully overcome various obstacles — the earned wisdom that helps her continue to “become.”

With trademark humour, candour, and compassion, she also explores issues connected to race, gender, and visibility, encouraging readers to work through fear, find strength in community, and live with boldness. A rewarding blend of powerful stories and profound advice, The Light We Carry will inspire readers to examine their own lives, identify their sources of gladness, and connect meaningfully in a turbulent world.

My thoughts:

Let me start off by saying that I loved Michelle Obama’s first book, “Becoming”.  So, did “The Light We Carry” live up to the hype and anticipation?

Michelle’s writing matches her real-life persona exactly.  Graceful, calm, elegant and honest.  Like “Becoming”, this book is beautifully written, engaging, humorous and filled with hope and wisdom.  Whilst the previous book was more more of a memoir, “The Light We Carry” has got a more “self-help” feel to it though.  The author does state numerous times in the book that she does not try to prescribe to her readers exactly how to handle tough situations, or how to overcome challenging times, but rather to share the tools she uses and share insights, stories and nuggets of wisdom she found useful in her life.

“If you don’t get out there and define yourself, you’ll be quickly and inaccurately defined by others.”

The book basically starts off where “Becoming” finished, and talks about the pandemic and how the Obamas dealt with that challenging and unknown period that impacted all of us world-wide.  What I simply loved is how she discovered how knitting kept her sane and focused!

“The only love story I know, is the one I happen to live inside everyday. Your path towards certainty, if that’s even what you’re after, will look different from mine. Just as your conception of home and who belongs there with you, will always be unique to you. Only slowly do most of us figure out what we need in intimate relationships and what we’re able to give to them. We practice, we learn, we mess up. We sometimes acquire tools that don’t actually serve us. …we obsess, overthink and misplace our energy…we retreat when hurt, we armor up when scared, we might attack when provoked, or yield when ashamed.”

And just like a cozy, handknitted sweater, this book is a warm embrace.  My favourite chapters were the ones sharing her views and experiences on friendship, wisdom from her mother, and even parenting advice (which may seem strange, seeing that I don’t have kids).

“I lean on each individual at different times and in different ways. Which is another thing worth recognizing about friendship. No one person, no one relationship will fulfill your every need. Not every friend can offer you safety or support on every day. Not every one can or will show up precisely when or how you need them to. And this is why it’s good to continue always making room at your table, to keep yourself open to gathering more friends. You will never not need them, and you will never stop learning from them.”

She awakens what we all know within, and simply need reminding and acknowledgement of. It is a different book from “Becoming”, but I still throughly enjoyed it, and read every sentence with Michelle’s voice in my head.

“I’ve progressed only slowly to where I am today. If you are a young person reading this, please remember to be patient with yourself. You are at the beginning of a long and interesting journey, one that will not always be comfortable. You will spend years gathering data about who you are and how you operate and only slowly will you find your way towards more certainty and a stronger sense of self. Only gradually will you begin to discover and use your light!”

“The Light We Carry” is inspiring, hopeful and reflective.   Thank you Mrs Obama, you motivate me to “Go High!”

“Going high is about learning to keep the poison out and the power in. It means that you have to be judicious with your energy and clear in your convictions. You push ahead in some instances and pull back in others, giving yourself opportunities to rest and restore. It helps to recognize that you are operating on a budget, as all of us are. When it comes to our attention, our time, our credibility, our goodwill toward and from others, we work with a limited but renewable set of resources.”

With thanks to Penguin Random House SA for the opportunity to read this book.

RRR (Roelia Reads Rating) 4/5

The Details

ISBN 9780241621240

Format Hardback

Recommended Price R499.00

Published November 2022

Read an extract: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.co.za/penguinbooksblog/extract-light-we-carry-michelle-obama 

Available from all major booksellers

About the Author

https://michelleobamabooks.com/

Check out the “The Light We Carry” reading guide

Also read “Becoming“