[NFBV-Potomac-Announce] Feburary 2025 Book Club Meeting

[John Halverson]

Hello friends and colleagues,

The February book club meeting will take place by Zoom at 7:00 PM, Tuesday February 11.

We have changed the date from  the first Wednesday in the month because of the Washington Seminar. February 11 is the first evening where our Zoom is available.

Zoom credentials are at the bottom of  this email.

John

The February book is The Other Wes Moore
By Wes Moore
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the governor of Maryland, the "compassionate" (People), "startling" (Baltimore Sun), "moving" (Chicago Tribune) true story of two kids with the same name: One went on to be a Rhodes Scholar, decorated combat veteran, White House Fellow, and business leader. The other is serving a life sentence in prison.
The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine. The tragedy is that my story could have been his.

In December 2000, the Baltimore Sun ran a small piece about Wes Moore, a local student who had just received a Rhodes Scholarship. The same paper also ran a series of articles about four young men who had allegedly killed a police officer in a spectacularly botched armed robbery. The police were still hunting for two of the suspects who had gone on the lam, a pair of brothers. One was named Wes Moore.

Wes just couldn't shake off the unsettling coincidence, or the inkling that the two shared much more than space in the same newspaper. After following the story of the robbery, the manhunt, and the trial to its conclusion, he wrote a letter to the other Wes, now a convicted murderer serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. His letter tentatively asked the questions that had been haunting him: Who are you? How did this happen?

That letter led to a correspondence and relationship that have lasted for several years. Over dozens of letters and prison visits, Wes discovered that the other Wes had had a life not unlike his own: Both had had difficult childhoods, both were fatherless; they'd hung out on similar corners with similar crews, and both had run into trouble with the police. At each stage of their young lives they had come across similar moments of decision, yet their choices would lead them to astonishingly different destinies.

Told in alternating dramatic narratives that take readers from heart-wrenching losses to moments of surprising redemption, The Other Wes Moore tells the story of a generation of boys trying to find their way in a hostile world.

Leroy

We need to pick books for April, May, and June. Be thinking of a good time for this meeting. Leroy has another book suggestion I have placed below the description of our March book.

March 5

The Great Divide: a novel, by Cristina Henriquez
The building of the Panama Canal is the backbone of this book. For Francisco, a local fisherman who resents the foreign powers clamoring for a slice of his country, nothing is more upsetting than the decision of his son, Omar, to work as a digger in the excavation zone. But for Omar, whose upbringing was quiet and lonely, this job offers a chance to finally find connection. Ada Bunting is a bold sixteen-year-old from Barbados who arrives in Panama as a stowaway alongside thousands of other West Indians seeking work. John Oswald has dedicated his life to scientific research and has journeyed to Panama in single-minded pursuit of one goal: eliminating malaria. But now, his wife, Marian, has fallen ill.

Sandy

Here is Leroy's other book.

Couldn't Keep It to Myself: Wally Lamb and the Women of York Correctional Institution.


n a stunning work of insight and hope, New York Times bestselling author Wally Lamb once again reveals his unmatched talent for finding humanity in the lost and lonely and celebrates the transforming power of the written word.

For several years, Lamb has taught writing to a group of women prisoners at York Correctional Institution in Connecticut. In this unforgettable collection, the women of York describe in their own words how they were imprisoned by abuse, rejection, and their own self-destructive impulses long before they entered the criminal justice system. Yet these are powerful stories of hope and healing, told by writers who have left victimhood behind.
In his moving introduction, Lamb describes the incredible journey of expression and self-awareness the women took through their writing and shares how they challenged him as a teacher and as
a fellow author. Couldn't Keep It to Myself is a true testament to the process of finding oneself and working toward a better day.

Zoom


Join Zoom Meeting
https://nfb-org.zoom.us/j/8297256345?pwd=IxBkHB29q0XT0lucFjOe3vrA9ViSOU.1&omn=98155870236

Meeting ID: 829 725 6345
Passcode: 20201940

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