Michelle LaVaughn Robinson es madre de dos hijas, abogada y, también, el personaje político más popular de los Estados Unidos, por delante incluso de su marido, el actual presidente norteamericano, Barack Obama. Michelle Obama es, además de espontánea, inteligente y familiar, mejor comunicadora que su marido y uno de sus pilares más importantes de cara a la reelección, y ha sabido ganarse el cariño y respeto de sus compatriotas desde su papel de primera dama. Después de analizar en «El secreto de Obama» (LID Editorial) las habilidades comunicativas del presidente estadounidense, Mónica Pérez de las Heras quedó fascinada por la figura de su esposa. Fruto de esa admiración nació un trabajo de investigación sobre su persona, llena de carisma y poder de atracción. Este retrato de Michelle está elaborado a partir de sus propias palabras en discursos, mítines y entrevistas, y muestra a una mujer rebelde que se enfrenta a estereotipos, convencionalismos y a todo aquello con lo que no está de acuerdo.
¿Sabes cuántas personas han muerto en el mundo por hablar en público? Si crees que la respuesta es «ninguna», te equivocas. William Henry Harrison, noveno presidente de Estados Unidos (1773-1841), falleció después de dar su discurso de investidura. Los hechos sucedieron así: cuentan que pronunció su alocución del 4 de marzo sin estar lo suficientemente abrigado, por lo que murió un mes después... de neumonía. Hoy en día para casi el 90% de las profesiones se necesita hablar en público. Si eres emprendedor, es imprescindible que sepas hacer una efectiva y breve presentación para explicar cómo es tu empresa y venderte a posibles clientes (es lo que se viene llamando conversación del ascensor o elevator pitch). Si eres un profesional que pronuncia conferencias, conocer cómo se hace un Pecha Kucha es básico para aprender a sintetizar y controlar los tiempos. Si eres periodista tu oportunidad está en saber escribir discursos con Programación Neurolingu ̈ística (PNL), un trabajo de presente y futuro. Si diseñas presentaciones visuales para ti o para otros tienes que estar a la última en cuanto a tendencias de comunicación. Y, si no empleas la oratoria en tu vida profesional, en la personal también encontrarás oportunidades para utilizarla: en un brindis en una boda, al defender tu punto de vista ante la comunidad de vecinos o hacer una pregunta en un debate.
What's your journey of becoming? Based on Michelle Obama's bestselling memoir, this gorgeous journal features an intimate and inspiring introduction by the former First Lady and thought-provoking questions and prompts to help you discover-and rediscover-your story. 'It's not about being perfect. It's not about where you get yourself in the end. There's power in allowing yourself to be known and heard, in owning your unique story, in using your authentic voice. And there's grace in being willing to know and hear others. This, for me, is how we become.' - Michelle Obama In publishing Becoming, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama shared her own extraordinary journey to help create space for others to tell their stories, to give people the courage to discover the power of their own voice, and to widen the pathway for who belongs and why. This guided journal presents inspiring questions and quotes from the book to help you reflect on your personal and family history, your goals, challenges, and dreams, what moves you and brings you hope, and what future you imagine for yourself and your community. Above all, these pages help you capture your own voice and journey so you can nurture your sense of belonging.
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Michelle Obama’s worldwide bestselling memoir, Becoming, is now adapted for young readers. Michelle Robinson was born on the South Side of Chicago. From her modest beginnings, she would become Michelle Obama, the inspiring and powerful First Lady of the United States, when her husband, Barack Obama, was elected the forty-fourth president. They would be the first Black First Family in the White House and serve the country for two terms. Growing up, Michelle and her older brother, Craig, shared a bedroom in their family’s upstairs apartment in her great-aunt’s house. Her parents, Fraser and Marian, poured their love and energy into their children. Michelle’s beloved dad taught his kids to work hard, keep their word, and remember to laugh. Her mom showed them how to think for themselves, use their voice, and be unafraid. But life soon took her far from home. With determination, carefully made plans, and the desire to achieve, Michelle was eager to expand the sphere of her life from her schooling in Chicago. She went to Princeton University, where she learned what it felt like to be the only Black woman in the room. She then went to Harvard Law School, and after graduating returned to Chicago and became a high-powered lawyer. Her plans changed, however, when she met and fell in love with Barack Obama. From her early years of marriage, and the struggle to balance being a working woman, a wife, and the mom of two daughters, Michelle Obama details the shift she made to political life and what her family endured as a result of her husband’s fast-moving political career and campaign for the presidency. She shares the glamour of ball gowns and world travel, and the difficulties of comforting families after tragedies. She managed to be there for her daughters’ swim competitions and attend plays at their schools without catching the spotlight, while defining and championing numerous initiatives, especially those geared toward kids, during her time as First Lady. Most important, this volume for young people is an honest and fascinating account of Michelle Obama’s life led by example. She shares her views on how all young people can help themselves as well as help others, no matter their status in life. She asks readers to realize that no one is perfect, and that the process of becoming is what matters, as finding yourself is ever evolving. In telling her story with boldness, she asks young readers: Who are you, and what do you want to become?
The #1 New York Times bestseller From Vice President Kamala Harris, one of America's most inspiring political leaders, comes a book about the core truths that unite us and how best to act upon them. "A life story that genuinely entrances." —Los Angeles Times “An engaging read that provides insights into the influences of [Harris’s] life...Revealing and even endearing.” —San Francisco Chronicle The daughter of immigrants and civil rights activists, Vice President Kamala Harris was raised in an Oakland, California, community that cared deeply about social justice. As she rose to prominence as one of the political leaders of our time, her experiences would become her guiding light as she grappled with an array of complex issues and learned to bring a voice to the voiceless. In The Truths We Hold, she reckons with the big challenges we face together. Drawing on the hard-won wisdom and insight from her own career and the work of those who have most inspired her, she communicates a vision of shared struggle, shared purpose, and shared values as we confront the great work of our day.
Magic, sexual tension, high comedy, and intense drama move through an enchanted yet harsh autobiography, in the story of a young girl who leaves rural Puerto Rico for New York's tenements and a chance for success.
Award-winning reporter Jodi Kantor takes readers deep inside the White House in an "insightful and evocative" portrait of Barack and Michelle Obama (Chicago Tribune) that will surprise even readers who thought they knew the two icons. When Barack Obama won the 2008 presidential election, he also won a long-running debate with his wife Michelle. Contrary to her fears, politics now seemed like a worthwhile, even noble pursuit. Together they planned a White House life that would be as normal and sane as possible. Then they moved in. In the Obamas, Jodi Kantor takes us deep inside the White House as they try to grapple with their new roles, change the country, raise children, maintain friendships, and figure out what it means to be the first black President and First Lady. The Obamas is filled with riveting detail and insight into their partnership, emotions and personalities, and written with a keen eye for the ironies of public life.
GOOD MORNING AMERICA BUZZ PICK • The Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright and co-writer of In the Heights tells her lyrical story of coming of age against the backdrop of an ailing Philadelphia barrio, with her sprawling Puerto Rican family as a collective muse. LONGLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: NPR, New York Public Library, BookPage, and BookRiot • “Quiara Alegría Hudes is in her own league. Her sentences will take your breath away. How lucky we are to have her telling our stories.”—Lin-Manuel Miranda, award-winning creator of Hamilton and In the Heights Quiara Alegría Hudes was the sharp-eyed girl on the stairs while her family danced their defiance in a tight North Philly kitchen. She was awed by her mother and aunts and cousins, but haunted by the unspoken, untold stories of the barrio—even as she tried to find her own voice in the sea of language around her, written and spoken, English and Spanish, bodies and books, Western art and sacred altars. Her family became her private pantheon, a gathering circle of powerful orisha-like women with tragic real-world wounds, and she vowed to tell their stories—but first she’d have to get off the stairs and join the dance. She’d have to find her language. Weaving together Hudes’s love of music with the songs of her family, the lessons of North Philly with those of Yale, this is a multimythic dive into home, memory, and belonging—narrated by an obsessed girl who fought to become an artist so she could capture the world she loved in all its wild and delicate beauty.
