Michelle Obama

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<b>Richly detailed and written with elan, a powerfully inspiring story: the first comprehensive account of the life and times of arguably the most unlikely first lady in the nation's history, an African American descended from slaves and of less-than-privileged background. </b>Born January 17, 1964—less than six months after Martin Luther King Jr.'s March on Washington—Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama was raised on the South Side of Chicago, where her father (who would later succumb to MS) was a city water-plant worker and her mother, a secretary for Spiegel catalog. Through dogged reporting and with a deft touch, Peter Slevin brilliantly traces Michelle's life: from the conventionalities and intricacies of her family to her high school years; from her graduation from Princeton University and Harvard Law School during the charged racial atmosphere of the late 1970s and early '80s engendered by affirmative action to her stint as a corporate lawyer at Sidley &amp; Austin in Chicago where she met Barack; from her attempts to balance life as a mother, wife, and professional woman to her grudging support of Barack's run for the presidency during which she played a crucial role in his election. Of course, the drama of the the two presidential campaigns and of the White House years are all here, even as Michelle carved out for herself a role as denouncer of inequalities, supporter of military families, fighter against obesity, and, yes, adviser to her beleaguered husband.