joemkl's Reviews (193)

Nadine is a curious listen. Everybody knows a Nadine in their life and it's curious to find literary fiction about such people. I enjoyed it enough though, think Bridget Jones's mother crossed with The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and you've got an indication of what this may be like.

My god, this is one of the saddest books I've ever read. We all hear about the plight of North Korea and the tyrannical abuses of the Kim regime, but only after hearing this first hand account did it really hit home just how awful it is. 

Dear Leader follows the story of Jang Jin-Sung, a former Pyongyang creative who has to flee North Korea after committing "treason". I won't spoil it by saying what the "treason" is, but I will say that perhaps unsurprisingly, it is something that nobody in the West would even dream of calling treason. I recall news stories of similar things in the UK, and the worst is a slapped wrist and a bit of publicity. 

But Jang must flee for his life, and this book is a tell-all account of the struggles that face political refugees. At every stage of his flight, he must trust strangers, and every evening comes the realisation that it may be his last night's sleep. 

I'll keep this one short and vague as it's very easy to spoil, but this is well worth reading and definitely one of the most powerful autobiographies/memoirs I have ever had the privilege of experiencing. 

A fantastic collection. Brontë is beautifully lyrical and I'd recommend at least dipping into this to anyone.

Becoming is Michelle Obama's autobiography, exploring her childhood, her teen years, and her journey into adulthood, with it ending whilst she is in the White House as First Lady to US President Barack Obama.

I actually listened to an audiobook of this; I got it on Audible (if there's a non Amazon version please do let me know) and it was narrated by Michelle Obama herself. Note that it's almost 24 hours long, so definitely isn't something to start without knowing that.

 The first thing you experience as you read Becoming is how humble that Michelle Obama's background is. Growing up on Euclid Avenue in Chicago's South Side (which you will hear her say about forty times), she didn't have the most fancy things, but she had people who cared about her and loved her, and that was enough.

 I was surprised to learn how many different jobs she had had before becoming First Lady; I knew she worked in law but I never realised that she also worked for local government and for the third sector, and I also never realised that Barack shared a similar background. She highlights this tastefully, saying that your values are as important as money.

 Something else I learned is that she and Barack were both assigned their Secret Service code names but the children were allowed to choose from a list of them - little things like that you'd never expect but it's a deeply humanising thing for a facet of security that we almost never even think about.

 It was a long audiobook, but I absolutely adored it. Near the end you hear her talk about meeting Nelson Mandela, and the energy and power she puts into her description is glorious. I feel a little cynical about political autobiographies normally but this was truly wonderful and is something I'd highly recommend.