I really like the idea of this book. I liked the fact that the President reads 10 letters from real citizens every day as a way to stay in touch with regular citizens. I think this makes sense and is a very interesting concept. I enjoyed about 2/3 of the stories. The stories about the people and their lives and how it relates to the President's thought process were really intriguing and interesting. I gave it three stars because the stories could have been more about the people and less about the politics. I actually really enjoy politics but it just went on a bit too long and I lost interest toward the end of the explanation. I think the writing during the personal story narratives was great, but the writing quality dropped a bit when explaining the politics. To me it seemed like that level of detail wasn't necessary because the general population knows the basics of each of the topics.Overall this was a really cool book. My 12 year old daughter bought this for me for Christmas and I read it in two days. I was pretty disappointed by this book. It seemed, and I suppose I should have known, to be a campaigning book for Obama. Even the single chapter where the writer of the letter was criticising Obama turned out to be a warm fuzzy for him. I'll admit I was annoyed that each chapter left the reader hanging as to what happened in the lives of the letter-writers, but thankfully the author let everyone in on it, they just have to wait until the last chapter.
Reading for the selection committee for the Common Read next year...it's looking promising to me!
—Lindsayjoy4
A great way to understand the issues of America and how the people and the president interact.
—kathey_dan
If you like this american life, you'll love this.
—f_hasan99
Interesting insight into Obama.
—briholcey
Too overdramatic.
—bethmarcotte
