Author: Wes Moore
One-sentence summary: The true stories of two boys with the same name who travel very different paths in life based on their opportunities and choices.
B.A.D. Girls Book Rating: 7
Our favorite thing about it: We most enjoyed the insight into the life of a young black man in the late 80s / early 90s.
Our least favorite thing about it: We wish there had been more details of the conversations between the two young men, Wes and Wes. We would have found those conversations very interesting.
Main Topics of Discussion: Sacrifice, Choices, Redemption, Love, Revenge, Violence, Opportunity, Role Models
Our favorite quote: “I guess it’s hard sometimes to distinguish between second chances and last chances.”
Notes: We discussed the individual circumstances of each Wes as well as the things we saw as similar in their lives and how they might have impacted their course in life. We agreed that a combination of multiple caring family members as well as mentors outside his family allowed the author, Wes, to end up a Rhodes Scholar among his other accomplishments. While both men were deprived of their fathers, we saw those two things as the biggest difference between the two.
However, we also realized that this book seeks to do more than just try to figure out what made the difference in the author’s life versus the other Wes. It shows how perspective influences a young person’s mind as shown by Wes traveling to South Africa and living in the shanty town with a host family after apartheid. The successful and powerful black men that the author, Wes, encountered allowed him to see the possibilities in his life despite where he might have come from or the difficulties in his path. The decisions of each young man’s family as well as their own impacted their fates as well. We saw the imprisoned Wes’s fate change the day he took on the responsibility of a father when he impregnated his girlfriend. Even though he fought hard to get out of the drug trade, his responsibilities of paying for four children placed a heavy burden on him financially.
There were powerful tales of sacrifice on the part of the author, Wes’s mother and grandparents to send him to military school, which ultimately threw him into the company of other people outside his family that believed in him and genuinely cared for him. This seemed to make a great impact on his life.
The way the Wes and Wes viewed violence and revenge also seemed to have a great impact on their respective lives. The imprisoned Wes’s instinctive reaction to being wronged was to lash out, sometimes violently, against his enemy. The author, Wes, did not seem to share that ingrained view of revenge.
We realize that his book gave us a unique glimpse into the lives of two men that would otherwise be unknown to us and we enjoyed learning more about that perspective. One thing we agreed on is that the book was not personal to us. We did not identify emotionally with the characters. This may have been because their situations and backgrounds are so different from our own, or it may have been a result of the writing style…or a little of both. In any case, this brief tale of two young men did interest us and made us think about the relationship between opportunity, choices and how we influence each other’s lives.
Memorable Meeting Moments: Dara opened her birthday books and cards and we discussed two books – one that was not even an official book club choice, but that we had all read (Mockingjay); Chris cooked the delicious Greek feast for us
What We Ate: Basil Feta Cheese Spread, Greek Bruschetta, Greek Pasta Salad, Tabbouleh, Pork with Mustard Cream Sauce, Green Beans, Orange Cake with Chocolate Topping
One-sentence summary: The true stories of two boys with the same name who travel very different paths in life based on their opportunities and choices.
B.A.D. Girls Book Rating: 7
Our favorite thing about it: We most enjoyed the insight into the life of a young black man in the late 80s / early 90s.
Our least favorite thing about it: We wish there had been more details of the conversations between the two young men, Wes and Wes. We would have found those conversations very interesting.
Main Topics of Discussion: Sacrifice, Choices, Redemption, Love, Revenge, Violence, Opportunity, Role Models
Our favorite quote: “I guess it’s hard sometimes to distinguish between second chances and last chances.”
Notes: We discussed the individual circumstances of each Wes as well as the things we saw as similar in their lives and how they might have impacted their course in life. We agreed that a combination of multiple caring family members as well as mentors outside his family allowed the author, Wes, to end up a Rhodes Scholar among his other accomplishments. While both men were deprived of their fathers, we saw those two things as the biggest difference between the two.
However, we also realized that this book seeks to do more than just try to figure out what made the difference in the author’s life versus the other Wes. It shows how perspective influences a young person’s mind as shown by Wes traveling to South Africa and living in the shanty town with a host family after apartheid. The successful and powerful black men that the author, Wes, encountered allowed him to see the possibilities in his life despite where he might have come from or the difficulties in his path. The decisions of each young man’s family as well as their own impacted their fates as well. We saw the imprisoned Wes’s fate change the day he took on the responsibility of a father when he impregnated his girlfriend. Even though he fought hard to get out of the drug trade, his responsibilities of paying for four children placed a heavy burden on him financially.
There were powerful tales of sacrifice on the part of the author, Wes’s mother and grandparents to send him to military school, which ultimately threw him into the company of other people outside his family that believed in him and genuinely cared for him. This seemed to make a great impact on his life.
The way the Wes and Wes viewed violence and revenge also seemed to have a great impact on their respective lives. The imprisoned Wes’s instinctive reaction to being wronged was to lash out, sometimes violently, against his enemy. The author, Wes, did not seem to share that ingrained view of revenge.
We realize that his book gave us a unique glimpse into the lives of two men that would otherwise be unknown to us and we enjoyed learning more about that perspective. One thing we agreed on is that the book was not personal to us. We did not identify emotionally with the characters. This may have been because their situations and backgrounds are so different from our own, or it may have been a result of the writing style…or a little of both. In any case, this brief tale of two young men did interest us and made us think about the relationship between opportunity, choices and how we influence each other’s lives.
Memorable Meeting Moments: Dara opened her birthday books and cards and we discussed two books – one that was not even an official book club choice, but that we had all read (Mockingjay); Chris cooked the delicious Greek feast for us
What We Ate: Basil Feta Cheese Spread, Greek Bruschetta, Greek Pasta Salad, Tabbouleh, Pork with Mustard Cream Sauce, Green Beans, Orange Cake with Chocolate Topping
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