Michelle Obama—beloved and, in many ways, enigmatic—will open herself up to public scrutiny this November.
The Chicago-born former lawyer and US first lady announced yesterday (Feb. 25) that she will release her memoir, Becoming, on Nov. 13 this year. She and her husband, former president Barack Obama, sold two memoirs together in a publisher bidding war that was rumored to have gone as high as $60 million. Michelle’s book will be published by Crown, an imprint of Penguin Random House, and will be available upon release in 24 languages. She announced the publication date on Twitter:
Readers are clearly eager to gain a more intimate look at Obama. Within a day of its release-date announcement, Becoming has shot straight to number four on Amazon’s hourly overall bestselling books list.
Michelle Obama has a squeaky clean image as a fashion icon and healthy eating advocate. Toward the end of her husband’s two terms, she had a very strong public approval rating, at the time higher than Barack, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, or Democrats generally, according to an October 2016 poll from the Wall Street Journal and NBC.
Obama is perceived as calm, direct, and authentic, but she has also carefully guarded her public image, relegating her appearances to feel-good venues like Carpool Karaoke with James Corden and The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Her previous book, American Grown, was about the White House kitchen garden.