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."

Book Review: Take This Man

Author: Brando Skyhorse
Genre: Memoir
Rating: 5/5
Verdict: An unforgettable, poignant memoir. Full five stars from me! Read it right away.

Note: I received an Advanced Review Copy (ARC) of this book from Simon and Schuster through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I stumbled upon this book in one of the book blogs listed as one of the most anticipated reads of 2014 and I had marked it on my to-read list a while back. I usually read the synopsis before starting on any book, but for this one, I didn't and I am glad I didn't. After finishing the book, I went back and read the blurb. I don't think it would have made an impact on me as much because this book is so much more than what is contained in those few words that attempt to describe it.

"Dysfunctional" childhood doesn't even begin to explain what it means to be abandoned by your own father at a tender age of three and growing up with a tough grandmother, a delusional mother, and five stepfathers. That is just too bizarre to even comprehend it, but Brando Skyhorse has actually lived this life for real. A Mexican-American by birth, his mother Maria decides to reinvent herself and Brando as a Native American and renames herself as Running Deer Skyhorse. She lies to young Brando about his father's identity and heritage (he was told his father was an incarcerated Native activist named Paul Skyhorse). This marks the beginning of the pattern of Maria trying to find a suitable father figure and brings home one man after another who all just come and go at their own will. A man is brought home without room for any questions, Brando is made to accept him as a father and begins to get attached to him only to find the man leave without a trace. Each so-called-father's abandonment fills Brando's life with a void bigger than life that becomes irreplaceable and Brando is left questioning his own ability to be a father himself.

Maria is drowned is her own world of delusion and is emotionally abusive. She is a mess and takes it out all on Brando in ways cruel than you can even imagine. She runs her own phone-sex business and keeps moving from one man to another without batting an eye. Her justification for her actions - "At least it never gets boring" pretty much sums up her life. Her attitude towards Brando and his Vietnamese girlfriend was brutal and the mother in me wanted to choke her for all the cruelty. There just cannot be any justification to her actions, she was just a really sad person inside. It was distressing at times to read all about the suffering of Brando in the hands of his mother, yet he couldn't leave her because she was all he had. It was really heart wrenching and brought tears.

Maria's mother, June was a tough yet soft woman who took care of Brando through his early years when Maria was busy searching for a suitable surrogate father. When it came to Maria, I felt that she had a soft corner for her daughter, even after witnessing all the pain inflicted by Maria and when each man came by, they both got together to make sure he cannot find his ways around them and he plays by their rules in the house. Brando finally accepts himself as a Mexican and after both Maria and June eventually die, he goes in search of his biological father and begins to make peace with one of his stepfathers and the birth father.

With such a mother and stepfathers, it is amazing to think about how Brando Skyhorse survived and I was even more impressed when I found out he is a brilliant Stanford graduate. That is a true testament to how resilient he is and that was one thing I was most looking forward to reading towards the end of this book. During the closing chapters, Brando writes about how he tries to find closure, but all those childhood incidents and upbringing has left a lasting effect on his relationships. I doubt if he will find complete closure ever. The final few chapters were the strongest in my opinion and has impacted me very much.  Being a mother myself, I know the importance of a family and more importantly a functional one. I cannot imagine how one can stay sane and alive being raised in a totally dysfunctional family. Reading about it made me so grateful for my family and ideal childhood, and equally sad at someone not even knowing what a loving family is.  Brando has given us honest peek into the darkest secrets of his life and the harrowing experiences and trauma he has endured all through his life. I sincerely wish he finds peace with his inner-self and begins to live a normal life.

This is a fabulous book and held me captive right from page 1. I finished it in 5 hours straight and would recommend it to anyone without a second thought. You cannot miss this!

Book Review: The Good daughter - A memoir of my mother's hidden life

Author: Jasmin Darznik
Genre: Memoir
Rating: 3.5/5
Verdict: A wonderful memoir filled with strength and endurance and rich details about Iran. Read it!

I received this book from my Secret Santa during the holiday book exchange. I read it through the holiday season last year and the holiday mood definitely did cheer me up when some incidents detailed in the book were unbearable. When I read the title, the first thoughts that came to my mind was it was going to be a book detailing the relationship between Jasmin and her mother, their connection and their life experiences and such. I read the first few pages and realized I was totally wrong :)

The book opens with Jasmin discovering a photograph of her mother, Lili as a child-bride only that she doesn't recognize the man standing next to her in the photograph. When she confronts Lili about this, Lili doesn't want to speak about it. Later, Lili sends Jasmin a series of tapes in which she herself narrates her family and life in Iran. The first tape talks about Lili's grandmother and then moves on to her mother, Kobra and gradually goes on to detailing Lili's life in Iran. Married at 13 to an abusive husband and bearing a child at 14, the details from Lili's past are very painful and disturbing.
But Lili is a pretty srong and amazing who divorces her monster of a husband (but had to give up her child in this process) and goes to Germany for education and becomes a midwife, where she meets her husband-to-be. The book spans across three generations, and we can see the traditions gradually shifting from one generation to the next. Throughout the book, we get to see the endurance and strength of the women and their attempts to keep the family intact and its very moving. Towards the end of the book is when we learn about Sara, the good daughter who Lili had to give up who still lives in Iran. The good daughter reads so much like a intriguing fictional story, while its not. I had to remind myself many times that this was a true story. When I finished the book, I really wanted to meet Lili - the strong and ambitious woman with a lot of resilience.

This book is a must read - there is so much I didnt know about Iran until I read this. When I think about Iran, the first thing that comes to my mind is war and revolution, but Jasmin takes us through so many rich details about Iran - the women, food, culture, marriage customs and clothing that you finally get to see Iran in a totally different angle through her narration. One thing I would have loved to see and hear were pictures and the audio cassette tapes that Lili had sent to Jasmin. I would have also liked to read more about why exactly Sara is considered the good daughter while, Jasmin was not.

In short, A very moving memoir!