Michelle Obama went to a Salt Lake City bookstore on a ‘secret mission’

Besides her publicized appearance as a speaker at the Qualtrics X4 summit last week, former first lady and author Michelle Obama had another item on her agenda: her “secret mission.”

She made her way to the quintessential Salt Lake City establishment, The King’s English Bookshop , to promote her latest book “The Light We Carry.” This part self-help, part memoir suggests strategies for dealing with uncertain times.

Obama, speaking straight into the camera, in a reel posted on her Instagram , says, “So, we’re in Salt Lake City now, we decided we’re going to do another secret mission.” The former first lady is wearing an oversized bomber jacket, leggings, sneakers, a pair of shades and a baseball hat — all black — with a neon green T-shirt.

“I’m going to go check out some books, leave some secret signings, and hopefully no one recognizes me, because I have my trusty dusty disguise,” Obama says. “So, let’s see how this goes.”

The bookstore’s co-owner, Anne Holman, was the only one who knew of the first lady’s plans ahead of time. She told the Deseret News she was in communication with the Secret Service on logistical details weeks in advance.

Before Obama walked through the back door, Alexis Powell, a bookseller, said she was confused to see men in suits with earpieces and felt slightly alarmed. She didn’t register what was going on until almost running into the first lady.

“My jaw fell to the floor,” Powell said. “She was very, very sweet and very kind to everybody that she interacted with ... Don’t meet your heroes but meeting her was just as cracked up as it should have been. It was quite stunning.”

In the video, Obama spots a picture of her husband, former President Barack Obama, hanging on the wall.

“What is he doing here?” she jokes.

Holman said the picture was from when Betsy Burton, the former owner of the local bookstore, visited Washington, D.C., and presented Obama with a collection of titles on behalf of the American Booksellers Association in 2011.

The store wasn’t too crowded when Obama arrived. “The thing that I loved about it though is a lot of the customers were young women,” as were most of the booksellers, Holman said. She said she has read Obama’s 2018 title, “Becoming,” a self-help book that finds value in sparking empowerment, according to a New York Times review .

Holman had set up a large display of Obama’s latest book. Bookmarks, which served as the identifiers for the booksellers’ recommendations, stuck out from her books. “We call that a porcupine,” Holman said.

During her 15-ish minute visit, Obama checked out robes, signed some copies of her latest book, said hello to some customers, who were fans, got recommendations from one of the booksellers and browsed through the fiction section before making a handful of purchases.

“Got some great reading for my upcoming trips, a beautiful robe. Consider that a very successful adventure,” Obama said. “See you next time.”

The copies with her freshly-inked signature sold out quickly. But customers are still calling the bookstore hoping to get their hands on a signed edition, said Holman.

The first lady met the bookstore owner outside, on the back porch, where the two briefly chatted and hugged before Obama was back on the road.

She was in town to give a talk on leadership and overcoming fear with Ashley Smith, co-founder of Smith Entertainment Group, at the Salt Palace Convention Center. She was scheduled to headline in 2020 , but because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was postponed.

Although her talk on May 2 was off the record, Thomas Chase Hagood, the dean of undergraduate studies at the University of Utah, in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, expressed his gratitude for Obama’s works “on the importance of community, teams, and your kitchen table,” and applauded her “experiences and leadership philosophy.”