Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance was actually kind of disappointing. I really wanted to love this book as I admire Barack Obama and lots of the things he stands for so much.

I listened to the memoir and I really enjoyed listening to Barack Obama's voice as he recounted his childhood, his teenager years, his experience with his family and his experience with race. The book is split into 6 chapters which made this book drag a little as each chapter felt a little bit long with each chapter being nearly an hour long each.

I enjoyed the moments that Barack spoke about his family and Kenyan heritage, how he visited Kenya and the experience and welcoming he had there. I enjoyed Barack talking about how when he was younger, he never initially applied himself at school despite his potential. It clearly demonstrated great growth in his personality as he moved to eventually becoming engaged with politics and the President. I liked his discussions about his youth in Hawaii and his time in Indonesia with his stepfather.

I think Barack touched on a lot of interesting points about his heritage, his upbringing, his racial identity. However, I found nothing really stuck with me. I will 100% read more of Barack's work and I know he's working on a book to follow his presidency. I think perhaps I felt no or little connection with this Barack of 1995, compared to the Barack we see in the media today. I will say his thoughts were well articulated and insightful. I think Barack is a very self-assured writer and I like that confidence and ease with which he talks.

I loved that the ending was a full speech from one of his campaign trails as he spoke about what it means to be American, how your racial identity does not matter because you are all American. He spoke about a collective identity and a collective history and it was such a powerful statement to end on. I will always admire Barack Obama and all the great work he does, and everything he stands for. However, I think for me, this book just wasn't the one.