Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike

 Author: Phil Knight

Genre: Autobiography, Memoir, Sports

Rating: 2/5

Verdict: It was an interesting book, but gave me the "take the risk if you have rich parents backing you up" vibe, didn't get a feel for any real leadership lessons.

I've seen this book on many people's list of must read or read. One of my favorite genres in (auto)biograhies/memoirs of famous personalities because I look forward to drawing inspiration and learning all about hard work, dedication, passion, lessons from mistakes that I can apply in my own life to make it better. I read this with that hope. It is a good book about grit and passion but lacks any real leadership or life lessons. To be honest, the biggest outcome or revelation for me after reading this book is that I don't like Phil Knight very much!

The book follow's Phil Knight's life from his early 20's after graduating from Stanford into his life starting a business. Some of the incidents where he talks about how he persuasive he was when he went to Japan to initiate his business idea and further overcame the betrayal from the Tigers partnership demonstrates grit and courage. But that was it for me. The latter parts of the book was all about Phil bragging and proudly saying he never encouraged or supported his employees even during times of distress and it felt like he was watching out for his own fame and covering up his base all the time without giving his employees any credit. Nor did he spend any time with his sons and even goes to the extent of saying he was disappointed that they didnt turn out to be athletes like him. The part where he describes about his older son's death was very shallow and insincere which was shocking to me. He didn't even talk about his son in even as much about the famous sports personalities who called him with condolence messages.

Overall, I felt that much of Nike's success was more because of Bowerman and his innovation than Phil himself. In fact, I did love Nike's early employees so much more than Phil himself. This book does not have a lot to learn from, its probably best listened to in a concise version as a podcast.

The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times

Author: Michelle Obama 

Genre: Autobiography, Memoir

Rating: 4/5

Verdict: As always, Michelle has said it all beautifully! As always, this will be my pick-me-up for inspiration, hope and just plain warmth!

I cannot not read this book. It was only a matter of time before I set out to read this. 2023 has already started on a very busy schedule at home and work and I hardly find time to actually sit and read. So I listened to this as an audiobook during my morning workout and commuting to work.

All I can say is Wow! Just like with Becoming, Michelle Obama has written it all with grace and glory. She has always been an inspiration and a role model for me. Throughout the entire book, it made me feel like I was sitting with her and listening to her talk about her life and its episodes. It felt so personal to listen to her stories in her own voice. Many times during the book, I wanted to walk up to her and say - "Oh God, that's exactly how I thought about it too". I also found it so comforting that she is just like the rest of us with our own uncertainties, questions, doubts, fears and anxieties when it comes to parenting. How she dealt with it and waded through being a woman of color and many other biases in her life are life lessons for any of us trying to survive out there. There are some hilarious anecdotes and situations which made me chuckle, especially the one with her mother. By the end of it, I yearned to meet her mother some day as much as I yearn to meet her. 

This book is a collection of stories from Michelle's life put in a very refreshing way, there are strong messages at the end of every chapter. The chapters on partnering well and friendships stood out to me. Reading about her relationship with Barack Obama and their early days together in Hawaii made me go all "awwww", it felt like a warm blanket wrapped around me on a chilly day. The chapter on friendships was equally endearing - The way she thinks about it are exactly my thoughts too when it comes to maintaining relationships and rejuvenating in the company of good friends.

I can keep writing about this one, but I'll stop here. Oh, I almost forgot to mention - there is only very little mention about Barack Obama and his work which was very different from Becoming where she talked a lot about it and I think this is precisely what made it very refreshing!

Some of my favorite quotes from the book:

- "Great is the enemy of good"

- Read books by people whose perspective is different from yours, listen to voices you haven’t heard before, look for narratives that are new to you. In them and with them, you might end up finding more room for yourself.”

- Any time your circumstances start to feel all-consuming, I suggest you try going in the other direction - toward the small. Celebrate small victories.

It uplifts me, It gives me hope and reminds me how to live a life with its core values and integrity intact. 

Book Review: Becoming

Author: Michelle Obama
Genre: Autobiography, Memoir
Rating: 5/5
Verdict: One word - Wow! Buy it - It's a keeper.

Let me start by just saying that I'm pretty sure I'm going to be reading this book again and again for years to come. When I feel depressed, when I am in dire need of hope, something to cling on to, when I want to be uplifted, motivated and inspired. I've always loved, respected and admired Michelle Obama. Her intelligence, grace, class and commitment to her country, her husband and kids has been very inspiring. After reading this book, my respect and admiration for her has increased by leaps and bounds. 

Becoming is an honest, endearing and passionate memoir about Michelle's life right from her journey from Chicago to the White House. Michelle takes us back to her childhood days in the South Side of Chicago where she was raised by devoted parents, her father, a blue collar city worker and a mother who dedicated her life for Michelle and her older brother Craig. It was inspiring to see how her entire family (extended family too) stressed the importance of good education and exposed her to a variety of things from very early on - Something that I have always strongly believed in and extremely thankful for.

Michelle's writing is so intimate and powerful that makes you feel like you are sitting right across from her while she reveals her life story. She keeps you turning pages rapidly as she takes us through her early years in Chicago, through high school and college. I really enjoyed reading about Michelle and Barack Obama's first encounter, and their subsequent courtship period where she describes about Barack Obama's passion for reading and his core values that made her fall in love with him. What was more heart warming to read was that she was not at all uncomfortable to reveal that they worked really hard on their marriage, and that they even had gone to marital counseling when things got out of both their control sometimes. Revealing such personal details so honestly is not an easy task to do and Michelle has done it remarkably well.

The more I read, the more I realized that Michelle is so much like many of us, with dreams, doubts, the challenges with raising kids while having a husband who had to be away most of the time, the compromises, the everyday struggles of juggling school pick-ups, meal times, a full-time job and finally relenting to hiring a person to cook dinners at home. I love that the book has a bit of everything. Michelle's determination to succeed being a woman of color, her love for Barack and standing by him being his rock during ups and downs and the heart of their hearts - their girls - Sasha and Malia. I loved reading every bit about Barack as a father and their time together as a family. The book gives us a glimpse of their years in the White House and despite all the fame and frenzy, Michelle talks about how they were forced to live in a bubble always under constant scrutiny, security and surveillance and about how she and Barack struggled to give their daughters a "normal" life. I also loved how she worked towards issues that bothered her the most and her and Barack's accomplishments during their time at the White House. The photographs in the book are a treasure to see. 

I got so swept into reading this book that I read it until the wee hours of the morning and finished it. This book will go into my library collection as one of the best I have ever read. Thank you Michelle for sharing your life story with us and for BECOMING. 

Some of my favorite quotes from the book:

"You’ve got to be twice as good to get half as far."

"When they go low, we go high."

"Life was teaching me that progress and change happen slowly. Not in two years, four years, or even a lifetime. We were planting seeds of change, the fruit of which we might never see. We had to be patient."