Dreams From My Father

Told in a self-deprecating and fiercely intelligent voice, this book goes some way to humanising the Last Son of Krypton (Superman), a comparison Barack Obama the current American president is only too aware of. Detailing his journey to Kenya to dig into the past, to see his father's history and juxtaposing polemic about political hope and racial harmony with charming and poignant family anecdotes, Obama is an engaging writer, filled with wide-eyed optimism, struggling to reconcile his identity (being the son of a black father and a white mother) amidst the backdrop of American racial politics. Of course, no one could have predicted what would happen to Obama a few years after writing this thoughtful memoir but there is so much humility in the writing that you can't help but place the same hope and trust in him as the rest of the world.