In my former grad program and my current job, we devote a LOT of time to talking about access, both to education itself and the resources needed to get there. When you work in admissions and have a Master’s in Higher Education, it’s pretty relevant. What makes it particularly interesting now is that it seems to be more topical than ever, with a globally increased focus on this issue within education. Fitting, then, that I found The Other Wes Moore.
I was hooked from the moment I read the description. A man named Wes Moore- by all accounts, incredibly successful at present- found out that another man named Wes Moore had grown up in a similar setting but met a vastly different fate by the time the two connect. (As someone who is the only person who comes up when my name is Googled, maybe that was the most intriguing part.) The two men developed a friendship, which turned into this book.
The book is a beautiful account of an unlikely friendship and two different paths for two initially similar people. Each chapter was compelling and genuine, and- perhaps because it’s half autobiographical, half biographical- it was easy to connect to the characters. I found myself cringing at every poor decision and silently cheering at every positive outcome, and there were many of both for each individual. This fell within my ideal of non-fiction that reads like fiction.
Sometimes you get a little blindsided and a book ends when Kindle reads as 85-90%: the hazards of e-reading. I definitely could have read more of this book, though the last 15% or so were resources and other helpful information for those who needed it- noble and admirable, even if I was tricked a little into thinking I had more of the story to take in. This was definitely my favorite of the Puerto Rico speed read- worth a read, no matter who you are.
You’ll like this if: you like stories about the different ways people can grow up and evolve. Structurally (and only in that way), it reminds me of a book I read when I was much, much younger called Parallel Journeys, which told the story of the Holocaust simultaneously through the eyes of a Jewish girl and a Nazi boy. There are no overwhelmingly neat bows here, but that’s okay.
Happy reading!
carlyreads 
Reblogged this on Memoir Notes.