Michelle Obama ─ A Life

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.

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 & 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.

PETER SLEVIN is a veteran national and international reporter who spent a decade onThe Washington Post's national staff before joining Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism in 2010 as an associate professor. Based in Chicago starting in 2004, he produced deadline work and deeply reported stories from more than two dozen states, focusing particularly on politics and the home front of the Iraq and Afghan wars. He has written extensively about Barack Obama's trajectory, as well as political campaigns and policy debates from one end of the country to the other. He pursued a particular interest on the home front during the Iraq and Afghan wars, producing pieces about soldiers and their preparations for war, their return home, and the impact of war on their families, communities, and public opinion. Slevin has an undergraduate degree from Princeton and an M.Phil. in international relations from Oxford.