What’s That Book? The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore

Title:  The Other Wes Moore – One Name, Two Fates

Author:  Wes Moore

Genre:  Memoir/Biography

Rating:  4 stars

What’s it about?  An in-depth look at the lives of two young men with the same name, who grew up on the same streets in Baltimore, Maryland. One is serving a life sentence for murder, the other (the author of this book) graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Johns Hopkins University, is a Rhodes Scholar, earned a Master’s at Oxford, was a White House Fellow under Secretary Condoleezza Rice and is a combat veteran.

The author learned about the other Wes Moore after a series of articles in the Baltimore Sun about a jewelry robbery that went bad. The store’s security guard was killed and the other Wes Moore was one of the men convicted of murder.

The author was haunted by this story and determined to make sense of how two people who had very similar childhoods could go in such different directions. He writes, “The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine. The tragedy is that my story could have been his.” He wrote to the other Wes in prison and the two men began a years-long correspondence. This book is the result of their unusual relationship.

How did you hear about it?  One of my kids read it for his summer reading assignment about eight years ago. It looked interesting to me so I also read it.

Coincidently, we were at another son’s college graduation last week and the speaker was Wes Moore. Moore is now the CEO of Robin Hood, one of the largest anti-poverty forces in the nation. After hearing him speak about his experiences and listening to his simple and down-to-earth advice to the class, I knew I wanted to talk about the book.

Closing comments: I was glad to be reminded of this book and hear Moore speak. I recommend The Other Wes Moore to readers of all ages. You can read more about Wes Moore and Robin Hood here.

Contributor:  Ginette 😉

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