Michelle Obama said she struggled with an “overwhelming sense of hopelessness” after the 2020 presidential election brought on by the death and isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic, a summer of political and racial unrest, and the insurrection at the US Capitol. USA
“I was in a low place,” he said. Then she had an idea.
“Everyone was looking for some answers on how to cope. And for some reason they asked me: ‘What do you do for a living?’ I had to start thinking about that,” the former first lady said. People magazine in an interview related to the Tuesday release of his second book, ‘The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times.’ She’s set to open a six-city book tour in Washington that day.
In the book, the wife of former President Barack Obama, who is one of the most famous women in the world, tells how she calms down during these anxious times and how she works to overcome her fear of change and self-doubt.
“During the 58 years that I have lived, I can look back and I can say, this is how I deal with fear. These are the things I tell myself when I need to get up. This is how I stay visible in a world that doesn’t necessarily see a tall black woman,” she said. “This is how I stay armored when attacked. The book is that offering.”
“I think people learn not through edicts, but through stories,” he said. People posted a report on the interview on its website Thursday, and it will appear in the magazine’s Nov. 21 issue, available nationwide Friday.
Mrs. Obama, the mother of Sasha and Malia Obama, opens up in the book about everything from how awkward it is to make new friends to her experiences with racism, marriage, parenting and even menopause.
She also writes about leaning on a “kitchen table” of close friends, led by her 85-year-old mother, Marian Robinson. The group includes Kathleen Buhle, a hiking and yoga buddy who is the ex-wife of President Joe Biden’s son Hunter, and the mother of Maisy Biden, Sasha Obama’s best friend.
In 2018, Mrs. Obama published her best-selling memoir, “Becoming,” and embarked on a US and international book tour to promote it. The book has sold more than 17 million copies worldwide, surpassing the sales of any memoir by a previous first lady or modern president, including her husband.
In her new book, the former first lady describes looking in the mirror and only seeing her flaws, and how she practices being kind to herself.
She said she also makes do with what her husband calls “vulgar television.” “Whatever you want, I watch it,” she said, naming HGTV, anything on the Food Channel and dating shows like “Married at First Sight” among her viewing options.
The former first lady described herself as an informed citizen who reads the newspaper, gets briefings, sits with her husband every night and knows what’s going on in the world.
But she said that “when I’m alone, I need to be able to turn my head off and think about wallpaper.”
