BARACK OBAMA Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance ****

I was hugely impressed by this book.

What makes it really interesting is that it was written before he entered mainstream politics. This means you don't feel you're reading part of the man's campaign literature or something to make his presidential legacy look good. On top of that, the man can write beautifully.

The subtitle says it all. It's about a young man coming to terms with his mixed-race, cross-national background. His reflections on what it means to be black in a white-dominated world are fascinating and authoritative. Do you stand up and say, 'We won't play by your rules' and probably achieve nothing? Or do you forget your background, become, effectively, an honorary white man and seek to change things from the inside? Well, he obviously chose the latter course, but the internal debate is compelling.

His extended visit to Kenya to meet his father's side of the family I found particularly interesting, having been to the country three times in as many years.

The political issue the book confronts is: OK, so you're downtrodden (whether you're a working class black person in Chicago, or a Kenyan in a Western-dominated world) what are you going to do to climb back up?

Inspiring stuff.