The best I've read in a long time ...

Morning! ...

So I've finally finished Barack Obama's book, Dreams From My Father. What can I say? It's simply remarkable. Each page is written beautifully with a careful hand, each chapter touched with words of wisdom and hope.

You know when you read a good book because the words speak to your imagination and it's impossible not to visualize the act before you. During his trip to Kenya I remember one scene like I read it yesterday, Barack was visiting his family for the first time. The dimly lit streets of Kenya seemed so peaceful in the evening dusk as families sat outside their huts chatting, and splitting a cold can of Coca Cola. It felt like I was sitting next to them, as a spectator, listening in on their conversation, relaxing under the warm sky. Here's one of my favourite extracts from his trip to Kenya.

"For a span of weeks or months, you could experience the freedom that comes from not feeling watched, the freedom of believing that your hair grows as it's supposed to grow and that your rump sways the way a rump is supposed to sway"

Reflecting on his life Barack takes you with him, back to his years in education in Hawaii and Indonesia. During his working years in Chicago he attempts to suppress his ongoing battle with identity by helping others with their own struggles. But as a young man he seemed lost. For him to truly understand his past and that of his ancestors he finally made the trip to Kenya, the land of his dead father.

I was surprised to read about the early struggles of the worlds most powerful man. Beyond doubt, Barack is inquisitive with a high functioning imagination. His thirst for knowledge and drive to meet the high expectations set by his father rendered him socially inept during his school and college years. But what he'd discover upon his coming of age trip to Kenya would reveal more about his father than he could ever have imagined, and in some ways it would set him free from the shackles he'd been wearing for so many years.

A must read people, the President of the United States sure can bring your imagination alive. Simply terrific.