Perhaps you’ve seen the author, Wes Moore, on Oprah, or written about in an article. Maybe “The Other Wes Moore” has been on your list of books to read, or maybe this is your first time hearing about the book and its author. Share your initial thoughts here – your answers may surprise you after you’ve completed the book and return to the discussion.
- Why are you reading the book?
- What are you hoping to get out of it?
- What presumptions do you have going into the read?
- If you are reading the book as part of a group, what group is it and what do you think the group experience will be like?
I read this book in the spring when it was announced it would be the Fall 2011 One Book read. As a trained journalist, I was really interested in how a first-time author would handle telling the story of the two Wes Moores. I’ve always found memoirs fascinating because the author has to, in effect, interview him or herself. In this case, the author would be weaving in interviews with the other Wes Moore as well. I was impressed by the author’s ability to dive deep into both men’s pasts and piece together such a compelling and emotional story. I will save my thoughts on the content and lessons from the book for other discussion questions, but I wanted here to give my initial feedback as to the structure. It was a quick read, easy to get through, captured my attention right at the start, and includes strong storytelling techniques. It is clear the author writes from the heart.
As a participant in all One Book One Bakersfield One Kern community reads since One Book’s beginning in 2002, I found The Other Wes Moore to be refreshingly quick to read-only 180 pages- telling the double story of the growing up years of two young men in Baltimore, Maryland, and the decisive life decisions that took each of them in such different life directions. Reading and discussing this book and meeting the author in person on Nov. 8 at CSUB will give us a great opportunity to think about how we as individuals, parents, and community members, can help create the best outcomes possible for all our community youth in Bakersfield and Kern County.
I appreciate this book because it emphasizes the crucial nature of the support of family and mentors. Too often we think that character alone makes the difference between success and failure, and in doing so we overlook the need for breaks in life, and the need for us to provide some of those breaks. I hope this book will encourage many in our community to extend their support to enable young people to make the right choices and to realize their dreams.
I have started reading The Other Wes Moore, and look foward to journeying through the life of both the author and the other Wes Moore.
I think this read will bring the community together to focus on the need to help the youth of Bakersfield make positive decisions and display to them how a few bad decisions can change the course of their lives. Excited for a great read! Get your copy today!
I found The Other Wes Moore an easy read.
I enjoyed the telling of each Wes’s stories and seeing where their lives took different turns. The story is one that I hope todays youth value and see the potential in their own lives. We all make mistakes, but how you handle those mistakes and “bounce” back makes the difference. No on is EVER a lost cause.
I found the book an interesting read and had a hard time putting it down. I felt that it displayed the huge difference that parents (in this case especially mothers) make in their children’s lives, for better or worse. However, I couldn’t shake the feeling that the only similarities between the two Wes Moores situations were that they grew up in the “hood” without their fathers (but for VERY different reasons), they are both black, and there were drugs in their neighborhoods. I felt that the crucial difference between the two was that one’s parent and family cared (through discipline) and was willing to sacrifice for him, and the other parents didn’t and weren’t. This book to me was a cry out to parents to step it up, and a call to to the communities to help parents step it up.