By Michael P Coleman
Despite being all about all things Obama, I somehow missed the "ground-breaking podcast" on which this 2021 book was based.
I was gifted the tome a couple of Christmases ago, and I finally got around to it recently, as I work on mindful television viewing.
If I'm not really engaged in what I'm watching (as I found myself, for instance, during Obama's two successors' train wreck of a televised debate the other night), I turn the TV off and grab a good book. Almost across the board, it's been a great use of my time.
"Renegades: Born In The USA" is a great example of that. It's comprised of very digestible chapters culled from conversations between President Barack Obama and rock superstar Bruce Springsteen.
With chapters like "Our Unlikely Friendship," "The American Story," "Amazing Grace," "American Skin," and "Wrestling With Ghosts," Obama and Springsteen give readers and fans an opportunity to stick a glass up to a wall and listen in on profoundly deep and personal conversations between two men who, on the surface, present as strange bedfellows.
"Renegades" is also a fantastic, sturdy coffee table book, including never-before-seen speeches, archival material, and original lyrics to some of Springsteen's most beloved hits. It gave me peek inside of the mind of a music legend that had evaded me as completely as the pair's podcast had. Other than his "Born In The USA" album and his contribution to USA For Africa's "We Are The World" single, I really didn't know much about Springsteen before diving in.
That changed right after I finished the book, thanks to Apple Music. Springsteen's "Born To Run?" Wow.
And if you're an Obama fan, like me, you'll find "Renegades" to be much more accessible than any of the former president's memoirs.
Pick up "Renegades: Born In The USA" wherever you buy your books.
And if you don't buy books, turn off your screen of choice and give that a shot.
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