Rating: 
Summary: Barack Obama for President
Review: If the election would be held today, Barack Obama would beat George Bush hands down.
Unfort., this country must wait for this great person named Barack Obama to move up.
This is a most inspiring story about a great man.
Rating:
Summary: Inspiring
Review: In Barack Obama's "Dreams from My Father" I discovered a fascinating brain and an accepting mind that came to terms with his dual inheritance. He provided us with an insight of the African-American experience, of the hopes and dreams of the people, of the realities they confronted and of their failures.
In his inspiring appearance at the Democratic convention, Obama emerges as a rising star in the American politically scene, a figure with a strong personality that is easy to relate to. The speech was very moving.
The fact that this book was written before Obama gained so much political popularity, is the reason why it is so authentic, unlike many of the autobiographies we read. And as a mulatto, this book reminded me of Disciples of Fortune. It is so amazing how the heroes in these books came to terms with their inheritances.Recommended: DISCIPLES OF FORTUNE, LE MIRADOR, COLLIN POWELL, MY LIFE,LONG WALK TO FREEDOM
Rating: 
Summary: Enjoy Reading
Review: Obama makes little mention of his white half -- although by his own account he was lovingly brought up by his white mother and her parents, and this might have provided further answers to the questions he raises about himself and where he belongs. Obama, whom I admire as a political leader in Chicago, is young; the book is hard to read. Obama seems to say that people of mixed backgrounds must choose only one of those backgrounds in which to make a spiritual home.
Rating:
Summary: Insight into an insightful human being
Review: One of the finest speakers of the 2004 political season was Barack Obama. His address during the Democratic National Convention was well worth the listen and I was imminently impressed by what I heard - rare for me because I would much prefer listening to music than politicians of either party espouse their own greatness anyday. If you also felt some intrigue about his life after that speech this book is a great way to begin to underestand his journey. He does not sugar-coat his experiences; he is eloquent and bi-racial and proud of both but his rise to intellectual accomplishment was not easy and his reflections through this book are poignant but not demeaning or militant.
Sen. Obama begins his book after his graduation from Harvard Law School an incredible accomplishment in itself but he was also the first black President of the Harvard Law Review an illustration of rare dignified leadership. I have a fascination with what drives people to become the successes they become and this book completely fulfilled my expectations. Enjoyable and if you're interested in reading some snippets of the life of a man who may well be challenged to run for President of the United States one day - this is the way to initiate yourself.
Rating:
Summary: Father to Son Stories Rule!
Review: This month must be the month for me to enjoy bi-racial/bi-ethnic authors month! I had purchased this book and after being told of another book, titled "The Bamboo Chest" by Frederick Graham, I thought perhaps I was getting two completely different books. Instead I had received two wonderful memoirs by two very insightful authors from two different cultures, an African-American who was raised in the US, and a Latin-American raised in Saigon and Singapore during the Vietnam War, both by multi-racial/multi-ethnic parents: Graham's mother is Ecuadorian, Obama's father Kenyan. To read both of them back to back was a truly wonderful experience! To read the trials, the conflicts, and how they're resolved is a lesson to everyone. I especially enjoyed reading the parts in each book that talked about the African-American experience in the 1960s: Graham's first-hand experience seeing a wounded African-American soldier with an amputated leg wheeled past him while Graham, himself a 7 year-old, getting his tonsils removed, wheeled by to surgery at the Saigon Army hospital, and Obama seeing the plight in the streets of America. Great challenges, good drama and worthwhile insights and ideas!
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