In his first book, Dreams From My Father, A Story of Race and Inheritance, Barack Obama takes his readers along on a beautifully crafted journey of self-discovery. First published over a decade ago and recently re-published by Random House, it is a compelling tale not only of race and cultural inheritance, but also of human nature, human experience, life lessons, and personal growth. Obama tells his own life story (which is a fantastic story in itself) in a thoughtful and reflective way. This is the story of a wisely examined life. The fact that readers, regardless of skin color, social background, or cultural heritage can find themselves in its pages reminds us that as human beings we all share plenty of similarities as well as differences.

A few short months ago, when the Republican presidential and vice presidential candidates stood on stages around the nation asking, "Who is Barack Obama?" they could have easilly answered that question by reading Dreams From My Father. If they had read it, then they would not only know plenty about the man who will serve his country as the 44th president of the United States, but they might also know a bit more about themselves.

--Earthly Happenings, discussing quality of life, social responsibility, equal rights, and environmental and economic sustainability.

"In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his father—a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man—has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odyssey—first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother's family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family, confronts the bitter truth of his father's life, and at last reconciles his divided [cultural] inheritance." 

“Provocative . . . Persuasively describes the phenomenon of belonging to two different worlds, and thus belonging to neither.” —New York Times Book Review

“Fluidly, calmly, insightfully, Obama guides us straight to the intersection of the most serious questions of identity, class, and race.” —Washington Post Book World

“Beautifully crafted . . . moving and candid . . . this book belongs on the shelf beside works like James McBride’s The Color of Water and Gregory Howard Williams’s Life on the Color Line as a tale of living astride America’s racial categories.” —Scott Turow

“Obama’s writing is incisive yet forgiving. This is a book worth savoring.” —Alex Kotlowitz, author of There Are No Children Here