The Other Wes Moore to If I Stay

I am now finished reading The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore. The book ends with a lack of closure. The successful Wes goes to South Africa to learn what it means to truly be a man, while the other Wes remains in jail. The successful Wes becomes quite a big deal, he speaks exactly 45 years after MLK Jr. and hours before Barack Obama accepted the nomination for president, while the other Wes remains in jail. The successful Wes gets married and lives happily with his wife, while the other Wes remains in jail. The other Wes Moore rarely got to see his children and family. Their fates were nearly exact opposites. When Wes got a second chance, the messed up again, killing another person. The author, Wes, didn't need a first chance like Wes, he decided that he was going to be successful at the being of his life.

Overall it was a pretty good book. I would only rate it about a 3 and a half though because I didn't see much purpose to writing the book. I personally enjoy books that have a motive or purpose. Such as If I Stay, which I plan to be reading next.

I am very interested in reading If I Stay because I think it has a very interesting and unique plot. I hope the author uses good imagery and craft to really develop the scene of the car accident which I have seen so many times in the commercials for the movie. I hope all that I know about the movie already only makes it better, because a lot of movies aren't as good as the book. I can't wait to find out how it ends/ what happens in the next books and get hooked on the relationship of the main characters (who's names I don't know yet!).

The Other Wes Moore

I just recently started reading the book The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore himself. Well, one of them at least. According to what I have read so far, there are two men named Wes Moore that both lived in the same town, about a couple streets away from each other. One is very successful, and the other is in jail. Wayyyyy different fates. The successful Moore found out about the criminal Moore's situation and decided to write him a letter, expecting no reply from the assumingly stressed and rude jail goer. He was taken by surprise when our criminal friend replied kindly and quickly. The business man Moore isn't sure what propelled him to write to the criminal in the first place. After all, they had never met.

As I read on, I am hoping that the motives of the first letter will become more clear. I am interested to see how they actually are related, why the have the same name and never met, and if they know some of the same people. I am also interested in the authors purpose in writing this book. The book was given to me along with tons of other stuff my sister didn't want to take with her to college.

If I had to guess what may happen next, I would go with something about how the successful man helped to prove the bad guy innocent or get him out of jail somehow. But since this is a true story and not just realistic fiction, I am not sure the happy ending I expect will actually happen.