Michelle Obama’s new book Becoming tackles marriage, politics, and ambition

In Michelle Obama’s new book, Becoming, the former first lady reflects on her road to the White House, the 2016 election, and raising her daughters in the public eye. At times, she gets personal about her marriage, sharing that when her husband asked for her permission to run for president in the 2008 election, she had faith in him but “didn’t really think he could win,” because “Barack was a black man in America, after all.”

She also reveals that she had a miscarriage that left her feeling “failed” and “broken,” and used in vitro fertilization to conceive Sasha and Malia. And she discusses the complex expectations of race and gender that shaped her childhood, her identity, and her time as first lady.

Obama does not devote too much page space to President Donald Trump, but when she does mention him, she makes every word count, calling him “a bully, a man who among other things demeaned minorities and expressed contempt for prisoners of war, challenging the dignity of our country with practically his every utterance.” She also writes that she’ll “never forgive” the president for his role in promulgating the birtherism conspiracy theories that put her family at risk.