Barack Obama

Dreams from My Father: Library Edition

Before Barack Obama became a politician he was, among other things, a writer. Dreams from My Father is his masterpiece: a refreshing, revealing portrait of a young man asking the big questions about identity and belonging. The son of a black African father and a white American mother, Obama recounts an emotional odyssey. He retraces the migration of his mother’s family from Kansas to Hawaii, then to his childhood home in Indonesia. Finally he travels to Kenya, where he confronts the bitter truth of his father’s life and at last reconciles his divided inheritance.

A Story of Race and Inheritance

Dreams From My Father

Gavin

Way, way less bland than you'd expect from a campaigning suit.

Alexandra Sklar

I wish I had read this years ago, rather than after his presidency. I realize I was young when he was elected and there is so much I didn't know about him. And, he is a wonderful writer.

linda

Dreams from My Father offered a fascinating perspective on Obama's early life - as a student at Punahou, an expatriate in Indonesia, and as a community organizer. The cultural heritage is very rich; there was lots of interesting commentary on economic equality in America, the assimilation of immigrants, running away from and reclaiming his racial identity, etc. The stories took me to places I had never been before - to Hawaii, the south side of Chicago, and to Kenya. I was blown away by Obama's humility and unique experiences. He is not perfect, but his strong values, grit, and hope more than made up for it.

Kyle McCormick

Rating may seem harsh since his story is unique, interesting, and inspiring. However, I found his writing to not live up to expectations. As a speech writer and orator, he is unquestionably one of the best; not quite so in this book.

Steven Ovadia

I read this for work and I'm shocked how much I enjoyed it. Obama isn't a fantastic writer, but his story is very interesting and he's just a very smart, insightful person. Discussions of race and identity are by no means inherently interesting or readable, but in this book, they are. Obama manages to frame complex issues without dumbing them down.

This book made me proud to be an American, which I rarely say without sarcasm.

An international bestseller which has sold over a million copies in the UK, Dreams From My Father is a refreshing, revealing portrait of a young man asking big questions about identity and belonging. The son of a black African father and a white American mother, President Obama recounts an emotional odyssey. He retraces the migration of his mother's family from Kansas to Hawaii, then to his childhood home in Indonesia. Finally he travels to Kenya, where he confronts the bitter truth of his father's life and at last reconciles his divided inheritance.

Dreams from My Father

Jade Flynn

Before the world knew the man who would become not only a candidate for state legislature but a candidate to become President of the United States, Barack penned Dreams From My Father. Putting aside the now famous name and judging the memoir without the bias of if you like the man or not, it is sagacious, it is judicious and it is sensitive, written with grace and unambiguousness. It is a meditation on race, which focuses on the search for a racial identity in modern America. If you are interested in Obama's life before he became a household name all around the world, read it. If you want your eyes opened about racial divisions in America and miscegenation, read it. If you have an interest in the experience of black people in both Kenya and the US, read it. It is refreshing to come across a memoir written by a political powerhouse before he really had any aspirations to become involved with the politics of Washington, which I think is a great strength. The memoir is divided into three sections 'Origins', 'Chicago' and 'Kenya', I did knock off a star because I thought the middle section faulted slightly compared to the first and third parts. Highly recommend. Will definitely be reading The Audacity of Hope this year.

a story of race and inheritance

Dreams from my father

Vigga

I personally don’t like biographies but I read it and it didn’t change my mind but if it’s a Genre you like then maybe giv it a go ig or not

Jeni Enjaian

I found this book a lot more fascinating than I thought I would. I appreciated the fact that the audiobook was narrated by the author. It gave the work authenticity that an outside narrator would not have been able to give. I enjoyed learning more about the life of the man who became our first black president especially since this book was written over a decade before Obama held any national office. (It was republished around the time of Obama's first campaign for national office.) I also learned a lot about Obama's beliefs and political views though this book had very little to do with politics. I did keep in mind that this is a memoir, not an attempt at an objective work of historical biography. Though many of my conservative acquaintances may not understand or agree with me, I do highly recommend this book. I would much rather understand a man and what makes him tick before I form an opinion about him and ascribe views and actions to him that may or may not be his.

Julie Berman

I didn't love this book while I was reading it (the middle section was especially slow for me), but I found it fascinating and would definitely recommend it. Reading it from the today's perspective (knowing that Obama is our president) completely changes how you read it. His life experience and world perspective are so different from any of his predecessors and I liked getting his first-hand account.

This book provided some interesting insight into Barack Obama. I am a supporter based on his policy and ideals, but I didn't know much about his personal history until I read this book. I'm glad I read it.

Kwame Annor

Hannah Palombaro

Stanley Wood

Andrew John Kinney

The Rabid Geek

Astor Reinhardt

Alexandra Vo

Stella Tran

Siddharth Ramakrishnan

Raphael Farasat

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • ONE OF ESSENCE’S 50 MOST IMPACTFUL BLACK BOOKS OF THE PAST 50 YEARS In this iconic memoir of his early days, Barack Obama “guides us straight to the intersection of the most serious questions of identity, class, and race” (The Washington Post Book World). “Quite extraordinary.”—Toni Morrison In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his father—a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man—has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odyssey—first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother’s family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family, confronts the bitter truth of his father’s life, and at last reconciles his divided inheritance. Praise for Dreams from My Father “Beautifully crafted . . . moving and candid . . . This book belongs on the shelf beside works like James McBride’s The Color of Water and Gregory Howard Williams’s Life on the Color Line as a tale of living astride America’s racial categories.”—Scott Turow “Provocative . . . Persuasively describes the phenomenon of belonging to two different worlds, and thus belonging to neither.”—The New York Times Book Review “Obama’s writing is incisive yet forgiving. This is a book worth savoring.”—Alex Kotlowitz, author of There Are No Children Here “One of the most powerful books of self-discovery I’ve ever read, all the more so for its illuminating insights into the problems not only of race, class, and color, but of culture and ethnicity. It is also beautifully written, skillfully layered, and paced like a good novel.”—Charlayne Hunter-Gault, author of In My Place “Dreams from My Father is an exquisite, sensitive study of this wonderful young author’s journey into adulthood, his search for community and his place in it, his quest for an understanding of his roots, and his discovery of the poetry of human life. Perceptive and wise, this book will tell you something about yourself whether you are black or white.”—Marian Wright Edelman

Dreams from My Father: Library Edition

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