Grayson
Lynne Cox, 2006
Knopf Doubleday
160 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780156034678


Summary
Grayson is Lynne Cox's first book since Swimming to Antarctica ("Riveting"- Sports Illustrated; "Pitch-perfect" - Outside). In it she tells the story of a miraculous ocean encounter that happened to her when she was seventeen and in training for a big swim (she had already swum the English Channel, twice, and the Catalina Channel).

It was the dark of early morning; Lynne was in 55-degree water as smooth as black ice, two hundred yards offshore, outside the wave break. She was swimming her last half-mile back to the pier before heading home for breakfast when she became aware that something was swimming with her. The ocean was charged with energy as if a squall was moving in; thousands of baby anchovy darted through the water like lit sparklers, trying to evade something larger. Whatever it was, it felt large enough to be a white shark coursing beneath her body.

It wasn't a shark. It became clear that it was a baby gray whale-following alongside Lynne for a mile or so. Lynne had been swimming for more than an hour; she needed to get out of the water to rest, but she realized that if she did, the young calf would follow her onto shore and die from collapsed lungs.

The baby whale-eighteen feet long!-was migrating on a three-month trek to its feeding grounds in the Bering Sea, an eight-thousand-mile journey. It would have to be carried on its mother's back for much of that distance, and was dependent on its mother's milk for food-baby whales drink up to fifty gallons of milk a day. If Lynne didn't find the mother whale, the baby would suffer from dehydration and starve to death.

Something so enormous-the mother whale was fifty feet long-suddenly seemed very small in the vast Pacific Ocean. How could Lynne possibly find her?

This is the story-part mystery, part magical tale-of what happened. (From the publisher.)

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Author Biography
• Birth—1957
• Where—Manchester, New Hampshire, USA
• Reared—from 12 years on in Los Alamitos, California
• Education—N/A
• Awards—Alex Award.
• Currently—lives in Los Alamitos, California

Lynne Cox has set records all over the world for open-water swimming. She was named a Los Angeles Times Woman of the Year, inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame, and honored with a lifetime achievement award from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is the author of Swimming to Antarctica, which won an Alex Award. She lives in Los Alamitos, California. (From the publisher.)

More
Lynne Cox is an American long-distance open-water swimmer and writer. In 1971 she and her teammates were the first group of teenagers to complete the crossing of the Catalina Island Channel in California. Ironically she was always the slowest swimmer in her swim classes. She has twice held the record for the fastest crossing (men or women) of the English Channel (1972 in a time of 9h 57 mins and 1973 in a time of 9h 36 mins). In 1975, Cox became the first woman to swim the 10°C (50°F), 16 km (10 mi) Cook Strait in New Zealand. In 1976, she was the first person to swim the Straits of Magellan in Chile, and the first to swim around the Cape Point in South Africa, where she had to contend with the risk of meeting sharks, jellyfish, and sea snakes.

Cox is perhaps best known for swimming the Bering Strait from the island of Little Diomede in Alaska to Big Diomede, then part of the Soviet Union, where the water temperature averaged around 4°C (40°F). At the time, in 1987, people living on the Diomede Islands, only 3 km (two miles) apart, were not permitted to see each other, although many people had close family members living on the other island. Even more remarkably, her accomplishment eased Cold War tensions as Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev both praised her success.

Cox's most remarkable accomplishment was swimming more than a mile in the freezing waters of Antarctica. Although hypothermia would set in most humans inside of five minutes, Cox was in the water for 25 minutes swimming 1.06 miles. Her first book, Swimming to Antarctica, was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 2004.

Her second book, Grayson, the true account of her encounter with a lost baby gray whale during an early morning workout off the coast of California, was published in 2006.

Extras
• In August 2006 she swam across the Ohio River in Cincinnati from the Serpentine Wall to Newport, Kentucky to bring attention to plans to decrease the water quality standards for the Ohio River.

• The asteroid 37588 Lynnecox was named in her honor.

• Cox swam in the Nile River after she had broken the record of the English Channel. She had to be pulled out of the water during the race because she was suffering from dysentery she had gotten while in Egypt. (From Wikipedia.)

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Book Reviews
On a clear California morning when Cox (Swimming to Antarctica) was 17 years old, she had an unusual experience that stayed with her for 30 years, creating a spiritual foundation for her personal and professional success. In this slim and crisp memoir, Cox details a morning swim off the coast of California that took an unexpected turn: returning to shore, she discovered that she was being followed by a baby gray whale that had been separated from its mother. As Cox developed a rapport with the whale, she took on the responsibility of keeping it at sea until it was reunited with its mother. Cox expertly weaves fine details together, from the whale's mushroom-like skin to how other fish react to such a large creature. At times Cox's prose is uneven, alternating from emotional to factual, but her pure joy at connecting with Grayson (her name for the baby whale) overrides any technical inconsistencies. The combination of retelling her once-in-a-lifetime experience with her observations on life ( "If I try, if I believe, if I work toward something... the impossible isn't impossible at all") will have timeless appeal for all ages.
Publishers Weekly

(Adult/High School) In a simple but suspenseful narrative, the author recounts her mystical encounter with a baby whale and his mother on a March morning 30 years ago. Then 17 years old, Cox was just completing her swim off Seal Beach, CA, and heading toward shore when the ocean became unusually rough and swarming with small fish. A large animal that she at first mistook for a shark was swimming just beneath her. In fact, it was an 18-foot-long baby gray whale. Cox was frightened and then enchanted by the playful creature that seemed to want to follow her to shore, an act that would be fatal for him. She developed an emotional bond with the whale she calls Grayson, guiding him away from the shore. Both teen and calf were hungry, fatigued, and dehydrated, but Cox, frozen to the bone in 55-degree water, was determined to find the baby's mother. With incredible optimism and courage, and the guidance and encouragement of nearby fishermen and lifeguards, Cox finally united Grayson with his huge, barnacled parent. This true adventure is as breathtaking as the exotic underwater life that the author describes in vivid detail.—Jackie Gropman, Chantilly Regional Library, Fairfax County, VA
School Library Journal

Predawn swimming in fifty-degree water off the coast of California was routine for seventeen-year-old Lynne Cox. But for Cox, the author of Swimming to Antarctica (Knopf, 2004), one morning workout became anything but typical when she discovered an eighteen-foot baby gray whale swimming with her. Continuing to shore would spell doom for the whale if he followed, so Cox decided that even though she was already exhausted, she would stay in the water to help the baby whale, whom she named "Grayson," find his mother. Despite a number of setbacks and moments of near panic when she lost sight of Grayson for significant amounts of time, Cox refused to give up. Drawing on her inner strength and optimism, she kept going, thinking that "If I try, if I believe, if I work toward something ... the impossible isn't impossible at all. Cox's remarkable journey and amazing encounters with all variety of ocean life, including a particularly vivid and moving description of a large group of dolphins "just clowning around," clearly illustrate why the experience has remained etched in the memory of the famous long-distance swimmer for more than thirty years. Her lyrical prose, understated wisdom, and obvious reverence and respect for the ocean and everything that lives in it give the story a spiritual feel. Although the initial chapters lack the suspense and action of the latter half of the book, teens who stick with this quiet tale of hope and perseverance will be richly rewarded. (Grades 7-12)
Paula Brehm-Heeger - VOYA

This book is moving and thrilling in its simple language as Cox laments the inadequacy of words to express profound feelings but demonstrates the exhilaration of the effort. —Vanessa Bush
Booklist

In a sequel of sorts to Swimming to Antarctica (2004), renowned distance swimmer Cox tells the story of an ordinary practice swim that took a decidedly extraordinary turn. She was about to wrap up her workout when she realized that she was being followed by a baby whale, who had somehow been separated from his mother. Cox was dog-tired, but realized that if she came ashore, the whale would try to follow her and would die. So she stayed in the water for hours, swimming around with the baby she dubbed Grayson, waiting and watching and hoping his mother would return. Cox vividly recreates the experience of the exhausting swim. Commenting on her hunger, she writes: "All I wanted was a ... cup of hot chocolate with a mound of whipped cream as big as Big Bear Mountain in the distance ... or carrot cake with pecans and cinnamon and clove, pineapple and coconut, or a slice of hot apple strudel-any of these would do." The narrative transports readers to the majestic, wonderful world of the ocean, filled with dolphins, small fish and odd plants. When Grayson's mother finally turns up, Cox is astounded by her size, her girth, the barnacles on her chin, the rubbery roughness of her cheek. Still, transforming the story of one afternoon into a book-length fable, even a short book-length fable, is a bit of a stretch. The tale is burdened with overwrought musings on the meaning of the time spent with Grayson: "The waiting is as important as the doing; it's the time you spend training and the rest in between; it's the painting the subject and the space in between." Nonetheless, an inspirational, almost spiritual read.
Kirkus Reviews

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Book Club Discussion Questions
1. Grayson opens with descriptions of the eerie yet magical encounters Lynne had with grunion. What makes the oceanic world alluring for her? How does it change us to be immersed in a realm where humans are in the minority?

2 . What made this mission so important to Lynne? Would others have taken such care to protect Grayson?

3. Lynne was determined to believe that Grayson’s mother was alive. Did you share her optimism? How did you respond to her words about positive energy? How would the world be different if everyone followed her philosophy?

4. On the morning she met Grayson, Lynne was assisted by many people, from Carl the fisherman to a platoon of seasoned lifeguards. Teamwork among people who watched out for each other and shared wisdom was essential to a successful outcome that day. Who plays a similar role in your life? Who provides the best guidance?

5. Lynne recalls that her friends in high school had been outsiders and that she had enjoyed knowing a variety of people who did not focus on superficial concerns. How did this perspective shape her outlook at the age of seventeen, when she was confronted with the task of helping Grayson?

6. Discuss Lynne’s attempts to communicate with Grayson and vice versa. How does sonar compare to human vocal chords and words in terms of its limitations and its range of possibilities? How do animals (including humans) “explain themselves” to one another?

7. What were the implications of size and degrees of power as Lynne searched for Grayson’s mother? As she swam farther out, a tiny person in the wake of ships and massive creatures, was she in fact so “small”? In emotional terms, was Grayson so huge?

8. Lynne describes the oil rig’s hum as reminding her of Manhattan: intriguing but mechanized, the opposite of the earth’s natural energy. How did you react to the types of dangers she encountered that day? Did you feel differently about man-made dangers versus natural ones?

9. What did you discover about the anatomy and physical needs of a baby whale compared with those of a human infant? What is the mother’s role in her offspring’s survival?

10. How does Lynne cope with fear and anxiety when she first encounters Grayson? How is she affected by his fearlessness around jellyfish and the pier’s fishing lures? What does he teach her about being agile and confident?

11. Whales appear frequently in storytelling, from the biblical narrative of Jonah to Melville”s classic Moby-Dick. How does Lynne”s account of her experience with whales, in which she was able to physically touch both Grayson and his mother, compare with other accounts of whales that you may have read?

12. When Lynne returns home and is reunited with her own parents, she downplays the events of that morning. Why do you suppose she does this? How does anyone effectively tell such a story?

13. The image of beautiful dolphins served as a good omen in Grayson. What makes them special among sea creatures? What will you take with you from the image of Lynne and Grayson interacting with them?

14. Ultimately, what is the source of Lynne’s endurance? What is your equivalent to the moments when she tells herself, “Go, go!” despite tremendous exhaustion?

15. What do you believe was being communicated when Grayson and his mother were reunited? How did you interpret that scene? How might the book have unfolded if it had been “written” by Grayson or his mother? How would they have described Lynne?

16. Lynne’s previous book, Swimming to Antarctica, features many missions that take her around the world—even placing her in the midst of geopolitical change. How does her goal to reunite a mother whale and her baby compare with those future missions, or with her previous experience of swimming the English Channel at the age of fifteen? What appears to drive all of her endeavors?
(Questions issued by publisher.)

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Brother, I'm Dying 
Edwidge Danticat, 2007
Knopf Doubleday
288 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781400034307


Summary
Winner, 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award

From the best-selling author of The Dew Breaker, a major work of nonfiction: a powerfully moving family story that centers around the men closest to her heart—her father, Mira, and his older brother, Joseph.

From the age of four, Edwidge Danticat came to think of her uncle Joseph, a charismatic pastor, as her “second father,” when she was placed in his care after her parents left Haiti for a better life in America. Listening to his sermons, sharing coconut-flavored ices on their walks through town, roaming through the house that held together many members of a colorful extended family, Edwidge grew profoundly attached to Joseph. He was the man who “knew all the verses for love.”

And so she experiences a jumble of emotions when, at twelve, she joins her parents in New York City. She is at last reunited with her two youngest brothers, and with her mother and father, whom she has struggled to remember. But she must also leave behind Joseph and the only home she’s ever known.

Edwidge tells of making a new life in a new country while fearing for the safety of those still in Haiti as the political situation deteriorates. But Brother I’m Dying soon becomes a terrifying tale of good people caught up in events beyond their control. Late in 2004, his life threatened by an angry mob, forced to flee his church, the frail, eighty-one-year-old Joseph makes his way to Miami, where he thinks he will be safe. Instead, he is detained by U.S. Customs, held by the Department of Homeland Security, brutally imprisoned, and dead within days. It was a story that made headlines around the world. His brother, Mira, will soon join him in death, but not before he holds hope in his arms: Edwidge’s firstborn, who will bear his name—and the family’s stories, both joyous and tragic—into the next generation.

Told with tremendous feeling, this is a true-life epic on an intimate scale: a deeply affecting story of home and family—of two men’s lives and deaths, and of a daughter’s great love for them both. (From the publisher.)

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Author Bio
• Birth—1969
• Where—Port-au-Prince, Haiti
• Education—B.A., Barnard College; M.F.A., Brown University
• Awards—(see below)
• Currently—lives in New York City


Edwidge Danticat is a Haitian-American novelist and short-story writer. Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, she was two years old when her father Andre immigrated to New York, to be followed two years later by her mother Rose. This left Danticat and her younger brother, also named Andre, to be raised by her aunt and uncle. Although her formal education in Haiti was in French, she spoke Kreyol at home.

Early years
While still in Haiti, Danticat began writing at 9 years old. At the age of 12, she moved to Brooklyn, New York, to join her parents in a heavily Haitian American neighborhood. As an immigrant teenager, Edwidge's disorientation in her new surroundings was a source of discomfort for her, and she turned to literature for solace.

Two years later she published her first writing in English, "A Haitian-American Christmas: Cremace and Creole Theatre," in New Youth Connections, a citywide magazine written by teenagers. She later wrote another story about her immigration experience for the same magazine, "A New World Full of Strangers". In the introduction to Starting With I, an anthology of stories from the magazine, Danticat wrote, “When I was done with the [immigration] piece, I felt that my story was unfinished, so I wrote a short story, which later became a book, my first novel: Breath, Eyes, Memory…Writing for New Youth Connections had given me a voice. My silence was destroyed completely, indefinitely.”

After graduating from Clara Barton High School in Brooklyn, New York, Danticat entered Barnard College in New York City. Initially she had intended on studying to become a nurse, but her love of writing won out and she received a BA in French literature in translation. In 1993, she earned a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from Brown University—her thesis, entitled "My turn in the fire—an abridged novel," was the basis for her novel Breath, Eyes, Memory, which was published by Soho Press in 1994. Four years later it became an Oprah's Book Club selection.

Career
Since completing her MFA, Danticat has taught creative writing at the New York University and the University of Miami. She has also worked with filmmakers Patricia Benoit and Jonathan Demme, on projects on Haitian art and documentaries about Haïti. Her short stories have appeared in over 25 periodicals and have been anthologized several times. Her work has been translated into numerous other languages, including French, Korean, German, Italian, Spanish, and Swedish.

Danticat is a strong advocate for issues affecting Haitians abroad and at home. In 2009, she lent her voice and words to Poto Mitan: Haitian Women Pillars of the Global Economy, a documentary about the impact of globalization on five women from different generations.

Edwidge Danticat is married to Fedo Boyer. She has two daughters, Mira and Leila.

Books and Awards

• 1994 - Breath, Eyes, Memory (novel)—Granta's Best Young American Novelists; Super Flaiano Prize
• 1996 - Krik? Krak! (stories)
• 1998 - The Farming of Bones (novel)—American Book Award
• 2002 - Behind the Mountains (young adult novel)
• 2002 - After the Dance: A Walk Through Carnival in Jacmel, Haiti (travel book)
• 2004 - The Dew Breaker (novel-in-stories) The Story Prize
• 2005 - Anacaona: Golden Flower, Haiti, 1490 (young adult novel)
• 2007 - Brother, I'm Dying (memoir/social criticis ) National Book Critics Circle Award; Dayton Literary Peace Prize
• 2010 - Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work (essay collection,) OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature
• 2011 - Tent Life: Haiti (essay contributor)
• 2011 - Haiti Noir (anthology editor)
• 2011 - Best American Essays, 2011 (anthology editor)
• 2013 - Claire of the Sea Light (novel)

 (From Wikipedia. Retrieved 9/15/13.)

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Book Reviews
In Brother, I'm Dying, Ms. Danticat brings the lyric language and emotional clarity of her remarkable 2004 novel The Dew Breaker to bear on the story of her own family, a story which, like so much of her fiction, embodies the painful legacy of Haiti's violent history, demonstrating the myriad ways in which the public and the private, the political and the personal, intersect in the lives of that country's citizens and exiles. Ms. Danticat not only creates an indelible portrait of her two fathers, her dad and her uncle, but in telling their stories, she gives the reader an intimate sense of the personal consequences of the Haitian diaspora: its impact on parents and children, brothers and sisters, those who stay and those who leave to begin a new life abroad. She has written a fierce, haunting book about exile and loss and family love, and how that love can survive distance and separation, loss and abandonment and somehow endure, undented and robust.
Michiko Kakutani - New York Times


How does a novelist, who trades in events filtered through imagination and memory, recreate an event so recent, so intimate and so outrageous, an attack on her own loyalties and sense of deepest belonging? The story of Joseph Dantica could be, perhaps will be, told in many forms: as a popular ballad (performed, in my imagination, by Wyclef Jean); as Greek tragedy; as agitprop theater; as a bureaucratic nightmare worthy of Kafka. But Edwidge Danticat, true to her calling, has resisted any of these predictable responses. "Anger is a wasted emotion," says the narrator of The Dew Breaker, her most recent novel; in telling her family's story, she follows this dictum almost to a fault, giving us a memoir whose cleareyed prose and unflinching adherence to the facts conceal an astringent undercurrent of melancholy, a mixture of homesickness and homelessness.
Jess Row - New York Times Book Review


As she recounts in her powerful new memoir, Brother, I'm Dying, Danticat was 2 when her father left Haiti for the United States and 4 when her mother followed him to New York City. "Then, as now, leaving often seemed like the only answer, especially if one was sick like my uncle or poor like my father, or desperate, like both." She lived for eight years with her father's older brother, Joseph, a dynamic pastor who ran a church and school in the hilltop neighborhood of Bel Air overlooking Port-au-Prince, while waiting to join her parents. Danticat interweaves the story of her childhood spent between her two "papas" with the final months of both men's lives, which happened to coincide with her first pregnancy. In the process, Brother, I'm Dying, a nominee for this year's National Book Award, illustrates the large shadow cast by political and personal legacies over both the past and the future.
Bliss Broyard - Washington Post


(Starred review.) In a single day in 2004, Danticat (Breath, Eyes, Memory; The Farming of Bones) learns that she's pregnant and that her father, Andre, is dying—a stirring constellation of events that frames this Haitian immigrant family's story, rife with premature departures and painful silences. When Danticat was two, Andre left Haiti for the U.S., and her mother followed when Danticat was four. The author and her brother could not join their parents for eight years, during which Andre's brother Joseph raised them. When Danticat was nine, Joseph—a pastor and gifted orator—lost his voice to throat cancer, making their eventual separation that much harder, as he wouldn't be able to talk with the children on the phone. Both Andre and Joseph maintained a certain emotional distance through these transitions. Danticat writes of a Haitian adage, " A When you bathe other people's children, you should wash one side and leave the other side dirty." I suppose this saying cautions those who care for other people's children not to give over their whole hearts. In the end, as Danticat prepares to lose her ailing father and give birth to her daughter, Joseph is threatened by a volatile sociopolitical clash and forced to flee Haiti. He's then detained by U.S. Customs and neglected for days. He unexpectedly dies a prisoner while loved ones await news of his release. Poignant and never sentimental, this elegant memoir recalls how a family adapted and reorganized itself over and over, enduring and succeeding to remain kindred in spite of living apart.
Publishers Weekly


Haitian-born American writer Danticat (The Dew Breaker) is at her best-fearless, persuasive, and captivating-in recounting her family history. We meet the author as a child in her native country when she is left in the care of her pastor uncle, Joseph, after her parents and brothers immigrate to America. Fast-forward several years, and a teenage Danticat joins the family she barely remembers in New York City, leaving behind her beloved "second father" and island country. What comes next are not uncommon threads in an immigrant narrative-political uncertainties and the colorful figures imposing them, rogues empowered with guns to protect the interests of a self-serving dictator, visa aspirations, cultural woes, and the soothing power of family. In a world where the concept of the distinct nation is fast giving way to the preeminence of diasporas, this is a tale for all, both uplifting and tragic (in 2004, 81-year-old Joseph fled to Miami after escaping a pro-Aristide mob only to be detained and die in prison). Most readers will likely recognize a kindred spirit or something familiar in this family account, brought so vividly to life and captured for the ages by a fine writer. Recommended for all public libraries.
Edward K. Owusu-Ansah - Library Journal


Danticat (The Dew Breaker, 2004, etc.) tells the dramatically twinned stories of her father's and uncle's hardworking, tragedy-haunted lives. This exceptionally gripping memoir starts off momentously in 2004, when the author discovers she's pregnant on the same day she learns that her father has end-stage pulmonary fibrosis. From there, Danticat angles backward in time, sketching a family history marked by long absences and a backdrop of political unrest. While her parents tried to make a better life in Brooklyn, the author was raised in Haiti by her uncle Joseph; she didn't join her mother and father until she was 12. She depicts Joseph, a pastor in Port-au-Prince, as a quiet, dignified man who suffered as only good men do. A radical laryngectomy in 1978 took away his voice. Years later, fleeing the gangs terrorizing Haiti in the post-Aristide years, he died in an undeservedly ugly fashion, humiliated and denied his medication by the U.S. authorities to whom he applied for asylum. Shifting back and forth in time, Danticat alternates between her uncle's and her father's stories. She keeps herself solidly in the background, using her childhood experiences as a means to vividly portray two honorable, duty-bound men who wanted nothing more than to lead respectable lives in a peaceful and prosperous Haiti. The country's troubled history is always smoldering in the background, and there's an explosion of tears waiting behind almost every sentence. But Danticat avoids sentimentality in smoothly honed prose that is nonetheless redolent with emotion. Deeply felt memoir rife with historical drama and familial tragedy.
Kirkus Reviews

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Discussion Questions 
1. Danticat tells us that she has constructed the story from the...

borrowed recollections of family members.... What I learned from my father and uncle, I learned out of sequence and in fragments. This is an attempt at cohesiveness, and at re-creating a few wondrous and terrible months when their lives and mine intersected in startling ways, forcing me to look forward and back at the same time [pp. 25-26].

Discuss what this work of reconstruction and reordering means for the structure of the story she presents, as well as for her own understanding of what happened to the two brothers

2. Consider the scene in which Danticat sees the results of her pregnancy test. How do her fears for her father affect her first thoughts of her child? She says to herself, "My father is dying and I'm pregnant" [pp. 14-15]. How does this knowledge change her sense of time? How does it affect her understanding of the course of her family's history?

3. As a child, Danticat was disturbed at how little her father said in the letters he sent to the family in Haiti. He later told her, “I was no writer.... What I wanted to tell you and your brother was too big for any piece of paper and a small envelope” [p. 22]. Why, as a child, did she “used to dream of smuggling him words” [p. 21]? 

4. How does young Edwidge retain her loyalties to her parents, even though they are absent from her life for so many years? Is there evidence that she feels hurt or rejected by their decision to leave for the States? How does she feel when they come back to visit Haiti with two new children [pp. 87-96]?

5. Haiti's history is briefly sketched on page29 and elsewhere. While many readers will know that Haiti was a slave colony, why is the fact of the American invasion and nineteen-year occupation less well known [p. 29]? Danticat's paternal grandfather, Granpe Nozial, fought with the guerrilla resistance against the Americans. How does the family's engagement with Haiti's political history affect Joseph's unwillingness to emigrate to the U.S.? Why does he refuse to leave Haiti, or even to remove himself from the dangers of Bel Air [pp. 30-36]?

6. If so few words are passed between Danticat's parents and their two children in Haiti, how is emotion transmitted? Is there a sense, in the book, that Danticat is emotionally reticent even after her reunion with her parents? Why is she reluctant to tell her parents the news about her pregnancy [p. 44]? Why is it important that her father gave her a typewriter as a welcoming present [pp. 118-20]? 

7. Danticat found a scrap of paper on which she had written, soon after coming to Brooklyn, “My father's cab is named for wanderers, drifters, nomads. It's called a gypsy cab” [p. 120]. What does this suggest about how she understood, or thought about, her father's work and her family's status in America? What does it reveal about a young girl's interest in the power of words?

8. Brother, I'm Dying is Danticat's first major work of nonfiction. What resemblances does it bear, if any, to her works of fiction in terms of style, voice, content, etc.?

9. Danticat says of her story, “I am writing this only because they can't” [p. 26]. As a girl, Edwidge was often literally her uncle's voice, because after his tracheotomy she could read his lips and tell others what he was saying. Why is it important that she also speak for her father and her uncle in writing this memoir?

10. Consider the relationship between the two brothers, Mira and Joseph. There is a significant difference in age, and Mira has been away from his brother for decades, by the end of the story. Despite this, they remain close. What assumptions about kinship and family ties are displayed in their love for each other? Are these bonds similar to, or stronger than, ties you would see between American-born brothers?

11. When Danticat describes the death of her cousin, Marie-Micheline, or her uncle's list of the bodies he has seen on the street, or when she recounts the story of the men laughing as they kick around a human head, or the threat of the gangs to decapitate her uncle Joseph, or the looting and burning of his home and his church, what is your response as a reader? How does this violence resonate against the warmth and love that are so clearly expressed by the feeling of Danticat's extended family members for each other?

12. How does Danticat convey a sense of the richness of Haitian culture? What are the people like? What are their folk tales like? How does their use of both Creole and French affect their approach to language and speech? How does she make us feel the effects of the violence and poverty that the Haitians endure? 

13. Does what happened to Joseph while in custody in Florida suggest that racist assumptions lie at the heart of U.S. immigration policy? Is Danticat right to wonder whether this would have happened had he not been Haitian, or had he not been black [p. 222]? Does it seem that the family could have taken legal action against the Department of Homeland Security?

14. Danticat's description of what happens to her uncle in U.S. custody is reconstructed from documents. How does Danticat control her emotion while presenting these events? How, in general, would you describe her writing style as she narrates these often devastating events?

15. Danticat relates her Granme Melina's story about the girl who wanted the old woman to bring her father back from the land of the dead [pp. 265-67]: what is the effect of her decision to end the book with this story? How does the story reflect on the book as a whole, and on the act of writing?

16. As one reviewer put it, “If there's such a thing as a warmhearted tragedy, Brother, I'm Dying is a stunning example” (Yvonne Zipp, The Christian Science Monitor). Do you agree? If so, what elements in the writing and the story contribute to this effect?
(Questions issued by publisher.)

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The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind 
William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer, 2009
HarperCollins
372 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780061730337


Summary 
A windmill means more than just power, it means freedom.

William Kamkwamba was born in Malawi, a country where magic ruled and modern science was mystery. It was also a land withered by drought and hunger, and a place where hope and opportunity were hard to find. But William had read about windmills in a book called Using Energy, and he dreamed of building one that would bring electricity and water to his village and change his life and the lives of those around him. His neighbors may have mocked him and called him misala-crazy—but William was determined to show them what a little grit and ingenuity could do.

Enchanted by the workings of electricity as a boy, William had a goal to study science in Malawi's top boarding schools. But in 2002, his country was stricken with a famine that left his family's farm devastated and his parents destitute. Unable to pay the eighty-dollar-a-year tuition for his education, William was forced to drop out and help his family forage for food as thousands across the country starved and died.

Yet William refused to let go of his dreams. With nothing more than a fistful of cornmeal in his stomach, a small pile of once—forgotten science textbooks, and an armory of curiosity and determination, he embarked on a daring plan to bring his family a set of luxuries that only two percent of Malawians could afford and what the West considers a necessity— electricity and running water.

Using scrap metal, tractor parts, and bicycle halves, William forged a crude yet operable windmill, an unlikely contraption and small miracle that eventually powered four lights, complete with homemade switches and a circuit breaker made from nails and wire. A second machine turned a water pump that could battle the drought and famine that loomed with every season.

Soon, news of William's magetsi a mphepo—his "electric wind"—spread beyond the borders of his home and he became an inspiration around the world. Here is the remarkable story about human inventiveness and its power to overcome crippling adversity. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind will inspire anyone who doubts the power of one individual's ability to change his community and better the lives of those around him. (From the publisher.)

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Author Bio 
• Birth—August 5, 1987
• Where—Malawi, Africa
• Education—self-educated
• Currently—a student in Johannesburg, South Africa


William Kamkwamba is a student at African Leadership Academy, a pan-African high school in Johannesburg, South Africa. A 2007 TED Global Fellow, Kamkwamba has been profiled in the Wall Street Journal and his inventions displayed at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry. He's often invited to tell his story, and in 2008, he delivered an address at the World Economic Forum on Africa. (From the publisher.)

More (on William Kamkwamba)
William Kamkwamba is a Malawian secondary school student and inventor. He gained fame in his country when, in 2001, he built a windmill, to power a few electrical appliances in his family's house in Masitala, using blue gum trees, bicycle parts, and materials collected in a local scrapyard.

Since then, he has built a solar-powered water pump that supplies the first drinking water in his village, and two other windmills (the tallest standing at 39 feet) and is planning two more, including one in Lilongwe. After leaving school due to his family inability to afford the tuition, he took up self-education by going to his village's library. There, he found the book Using Energy and in it discovered a picture and explanation of windmills.

His story, told in The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, was written with journalist Bryan Mealer and published in 2009. Kamkwamba took part in the first event celebrating his particular type of ingenuity, called Maker Faire Africa, in Ghana in August 2009.

When the Daily Times newspaper in Blantyre wrote a story on Kamkwamba's windmills in November 2006, the story circulated through the blogosphere, and TED conference director Emeka Okafor invited Kamkwamba to speak at TED Global 2007 in Arusha, Tanzania, as a guest. His speech moved the audience, and several venture capitalists at the conference pledged to help finance his secondary education. His story was covered by Sarah Childress for the Wall Street Journal. He became a student at African Bible College Christian Academy in Lilongwe, but is now on a scholarship at the African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Among other appearances, Kamkwamba was interviewed on The Daily Show on October 7, 2009 and by social news website Reddit. (From Wikipedia.)

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Bryan Mealer
Bryan Mealer is the author of All Things Must Fight to Live: Stories of War and Deliverance in Congo, which chronicled his experience covering the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Mealer is a former Associated Press staff correspondent and his work has appeared in several magazines, including Harper's and Esquire. (From the publisher.)

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Book Reviews 
(Starred review.) American readers will have their imaginations challenged by 14-year-old Kamkwamba's description of life in Malawi, a famine-stricken, land-locked nation in southern Africa: math is taught in school with the aid of bottle tops ("three Coca-Cola plus ten Carlsberg equal thirteen"), people are slaughtered by enemy warriors "disguised... as green grass" and a ferocious black rhino; and everyday trading is "replaced by the business of survival" after famine hits the country. After starving for five months on his family's small farm, the corn harvest slowly brings Kamkwamba back to life. Witnessing his family's struggle, Kamkwamba's supercharged curiosity leads him to pursue the improbable dream of using "electric wind"(they have no word for windmills) to harness energy for the farm. Kamkwamba's efforts were of course derided; salvaging a motley collection of materials, from his father's broken bike to his mother's clothes line, he was often greeted to the tune of "Ah, look, the madman has come with his garbage." This exquisite tale strips life down to its barest essentials, and once there finds reason for hopes and dreams, and is especially resonant for Americans given the economy and increasingly heated debates over health care and energy policy.
Publishers Weekly


Discarded motor parts, PVC pipe, and an old bicycle wheel may be junk to most people, but in the inspired hands of William Kamkwamba, they are instruments of opportunity. Growing up amid famine and poverty in rural Malawi, wind was one of the few abundant resources available, and the inventive fourteen-year-old saw its energy as a way to power his dreams. "With a windmill, we'd finally release ourselves from the troubles of darkness and hunger," he realized. "A windmill meant more than just power, it was freedom." Despite the biting jeers of village skeptics, young William devoted himself to borrowed textbooks and salvage yards in pursuit of a device that could produce an "electric wind." The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind is an inspiring story of an indomitable will that refused to bend to doubt or circumstance. When the world seemed to be against him, William Kamkwamba set out to change it. —Dave Callanan.
Amazon


William Kamkwamba, the youthful author of this book, was born in Malawi, an African nation best known for its harrowing poverty, its AIDS epidemic, and its long-term food crisis. In 2001, William was just 14 years old when the country was struck by the greatest famine within memory. With his family now too poor to pay his $80-a-year tuition, this eager learner was forced to leave school. Against those staggering odds, he continued to read, learn, and experiment. Inspired by a few old school textbooks, he devised a primitive working windmill, cobbled together from bicycle parts, blue-gum trees, and other makeshift scraps. With his homemade invention, he gave his family and himself electricity and a new start. Inspiring and refreshing as the wind.
Barnes & Noble 

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Discussion Questions 
1. Could you imagine living without electricity? What would your life be like? Describe William's life and compare it to American teenagers and even your own.

2. How did the villagers compensate for not having electricity, telephones, or most of the modern conveniences we take for granted?

3. What is the role of magic in the story? What about education? Contrast the two. Is there room for both in a culture? What about education and religion? How do the two impact each other? How did William's religion influence his outlook?

4. What did electricity and the creation of the windmill mean for William, his family, and his village? What might his accomplishment mean for the world?

5. What motivates people like William to attempt the unthinkable? How would you describe him to someone who's never heard of his achievement?

6. Compare William to his father and to his mother. How are they alike? How did his parents shape William's outlook?

7. Imagine what a handful of Williams with some encouragement and financial backing from government and private sources might accomplish. Offer some ideas.

8. Malawi is an extremely poor nation. What are the causes of this poverty and what exacerbates it? How might these causes and influences be overcome? How has the West—think of organizations like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, run by Americans and Europeans—helped to contribute to nations like Malawi's troubles?

9. William writes of the corruption, greed, nonexistent services, and lack of empathy that turned the drought into a disaster for average people like him and his family. Can you see any similarities with our own culture, both past and present? Think about the American Depression. How did that compare to Malawi's drought?

10. William was desperate to stay in school but could not because of money. Think about American students. Why do you think with all the opportunities for schooling, students are disinterested in learning? In your opinion, what accounts for the differences between William and his American counterparts?

11. Many Americans criticize public schools and some even question the need for them. Others argue that money doesn't matter when it comes to education. How does William's experience address our own debates on the subject? Think about his school, and compare it to American schools. Might William's life be different if he had access to education without having to pay? How so?

12. What lessons did you take away from William's story?
(Questions issued by publisher.)

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Decision Points
George W. Bush, 2010
Crown Publishing
497 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780307590619


Summary
In this candid and gripping account, President George W. Bush describes the critical decisions that shaped his presidency and personal life.

George W. Bush served as president of the United States during eight of the most consequential years in American history. The decisions that reached his desk impacted people around the world and defined the times in which we live.

Decision Points brings readers inside the Texas governor’s mansion on the night of the 2000 election, aboard Air Force One during the harrowing hours after the attacks of September 11, 2001, into the Situation Room moments before the start of the war in Iraq, and behind the scenes at the White House for many other historic presidential decisions.

For the first time, we learn President Bush’s perspective and insights on:

• His decision to quit drinking and the journey that led him to his Christian faith
• The selection of the vice president, secretary of defense, secretary of state, Supreme Court justices, and other key officials
• His relationships with his wife, daughters, and parents, including heartfelt letters between the president and his father on the eve of the Iraq War
• His administration’s counterterrorism programs, including the CIA’s enhanced interrogations and the Terrorist Surveillance Program
• Why the worst moment of the presidency was hearing accusations that race played a role in the federal government’s response to Hurricane Katrina, and a critical assessment of what he would have done differently during the crisis
• His deep concern that Iraq could turn into a defeat costlier than Vietnam, and how he decided to defy public opinion by ordering the troop surge
• His legislative achievements, including tax cuts and reforming education and Medicare, as well as his setbacks, including Social Security and immigration reform
• The relationships he forged with other world leaders, including an honest assessment of those he did and didn’t trust
• Why the failure to bring Osama bin Laden to justice ranks as his biggest disappointment and why his success in denying the terrorists their fondest wish—attacking America again—is among his proudest achievements.

A groundbreaking new brand of presidential memoir, Decision Points will captivate supporters, surprise critics, and change perspectives on eight remarkable years in American history—and on the man at the center of events. (From the publisher.)

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Author Bio
• Birth—July 6, 1946
• Where—New Haven, Connecticut, USA
• Education—B.A., Yale University; M.B.A., Harvard University
• Currently—lives in Crawford, Texas

George Walker Bush was the 43rd President of the United States (2001-2009), and the 46th Governor of Texas (1995-2000).

Bush is the eldest son of President George H. W. Bush, who served as the 41st President, and Barbara Bush, making him one of only two American presidents to be the son of a preceding president. He is also the brother of Jeb Bush, former Governor of Florida.

After graduating from Yale University in 1968 and Harvard Business School in 1975, Bush worked in oil businesses. He married Laura Welch in 1977 and ran unsuccessfully for the House of Representatives shortly thereafter. He later co-owned the Texas Rangers baseball team before defeating Ann Richards in the 1994 Texas gubernatorial election. In a close and controversial election, Bush was elected President in 2000 as the Republican candidate, defeating then-Vice President Al Gore in the Electoral College. He was named Time Person of the Year 2000 and 2004.

Early on, the Bush administration withdrew from a number of international treaty processes, notably the Kyoto Protocol on global warming. A series of terrorist attacks occurred eight months into Bush's first term as president on September 11, 2001. In response, Bush announced a global War on Terrorism, ordered an invasion of Afghanistan that same year and an invasion of Iraq in 2003.

In addition to national security issues, Bush promoted policies on the economy, health care, education, and social security reform. He signed into law broad tax cuts, the No Child Left Behind Act, the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, and Medicare prescription drug benefits for seniors. His tenure saw national debates on immigration, Social Security, electronic surveillance, waterboarding and other "enhanced interrogation techniques".

Bush successfully ran for re-election against Democratic Senator John Kerry in 2004, in another relatively close election. After his re-election, Bush received increasingly heated criticism from across the political spectrum. In 2005, the Bush Administration dealt with widespread criticism over its handling of Hurricane Katrina. Following this and other controversies, as well as dissatisfaction with the direction of the Iraq War, Democrats won control of Congress in the 2006 elections.

As the U.S. entered its longest post–World War II recession in December 2007, the Bush Administration took more direct control of the economy, enacting multiple economic programs intended to preserve the country's financial system. Though Bush was popular in the U.S. for much of his first term, his popularity declined sharply during his second term. He was a highly controversial figure internationally, with public protests occurring even during visits to close allies, such as the UK

After leaving office, Bush returned to Texas and purchased a home in a suburban area of Dallas. He is currently a public speaker and published his memoir, Decision Points, in 2010. (From Wikipedia.)

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Book Reviews
There is something very modern, almost New Agey, and endearingly insecure, about the tone and posture the son adopts in Decision Points. Even as he's bombing Baghdad back to the Stone Age, he s very much in touch with his feelings. In college, he says, he was appalled to learn how the French Revolution betrayed its ideals.
Michael Kinsley - New York Times


Of the postwar presidents who lived long enough to assemble their autobiographies, not a single one produced a book of any real merit. It's not so much that they're bad books as that they're dull ones, reducing flesh-and-blood presidents—all of them interesting men, no matter how one may feel about them politically or ideologically—to cardboard figures representing Virtue in various forms, described in prose that for the most part appears to have been put together by committee, or a computer on autopilot. Decision Points is no exception. It's competent, readable and flat. The voice in which it is written is occasionally recognizable as that of George W. Bush—informal, homespun, jokey—but more often it's the voice of a state paper, impersonal and dutiful.
Jonathan Yardley - Washington Post


The book contains delightful and telling personal observations. Hank Paulson's family was so Democratic that his mother cried when he joined the Bush cabinet. After Mr. Bush refuses to pardon Scooter Libby, convicted of obstruction of justice in the Valerie Plame affair, Vice President Dick Cheney tells him: "I can't believe you're going to leave a soldier on the battlefield." When Gen. Pete Pace is removed as Joint Chiefs chairman in a bonfire of political correctness, Mr. Bush says that Gen. Pace took off his four stars and left them at the Vietnam Memorial near the name of a Marine in his old platoon. In contrast to the ugly cartoon figure drawn by his opponents, Mr. Bush is unfailingly gracious to virtually all his opponents, including Cindy Sheehan, the antiwar activist who had lost a son in Iraq.
Daniel Henniger - Wall Street Journal


As former President George W. Bush—barely two years out of office—points out in the acknowledgement of his memoir, Decision Points, virtually every member of his extended, very political family has published a bestseller, including his parents' dogs. Where does Bush's account of his astonishingly eventful eight years rank in such company? Probably far higher than many of his detractors expected. As Bush writes..., he enjoys surprising those who underestimate him.
Tim Rutten - Los Angeles Times


After eight years in the White House, George W. Bush has written a memoir that offers up a staunch defense to the critics who questioned his domestic and foreign policies.... The book reads at a steady pace with a conversational voice. Bush offers behind-the-scenes views from the Oval Office as well as his discussions with and the input from others in his successes and failures on policy and events during his two terms in office.... [He] offers few major surprises, other than contemplation of replacing Vice President Dick Cheney as a running mate in 2004.... Unlike other presidential memoirs, Bush touches on just a few personal milestones before his years in the White House.
Gary Martin - San Antonio Express


Here is a prediction: Decision Pointswill not endure. Its prose aims for tough-minded simplicity but keeps landing on simpleminded sententiousness. Though Bush credits no collaborator, his memoirs read as if they were written by an admiring sidekick who is familiar with every story Bush ever told but never got to know the President well enough to convey his inner life. Very few of its four hundred and ninety-three pages are not self-serving.
The New Yorker


Bush, smartly dividing the book into themes rather than telling the story chronologically, offers readers a genuine (and highly readable) look at his thought processes as he made huge decisions that will affect the nation and the world for decades. Many will ridicule his thinking and bemoan those decisions, but being George Bush, he won’t really care. —Ilene Cooper
Bookist


In a page-turner structured around important decisions in his life and presidency, Bush surprises with a lucid, heartfelt look back. Despite expected defenses of past decisions, Bush is candid and unafraid to say when he thinks he was wrong. Critics on both the left and right are challenged to walk in his shoes, and may come away with a new view of the former president—or at least an appreciation of the hard and often ambiguous choices he was forced to make. Aside from the opening chapter about his decision to quit drinking, the book is not chronologically ordered. Bush mixes topics as needed to tell a larger story than a simple history of his administration. Certain themes dominate the narrative: the all-encompassing importance of 9/11 to the bulk of his presidency, and how it shaped and shadowed almost everything he did; the importance of his faith, which is echoed in every chapter and which comes through in an unassuming manner; the often unseen advisor whom the president conferred with and confided in on almost every subject—his wife, Laura Bush; and the wide array of people who helped him rise to the White House and then often hindered him once he was there. The book is worthwhile for many reasons. Even if many readers may not agree with his views on the subjects, Bush's memories of 9/11, Hurricane Katrina and other major events are riveting and of historical value on their own. Additionally, Bush provides insight into the daily life of the president. The author accepts blame for a number of mistakes and misjudgments, while also standing up for decisions he felt were right. Honest, of course, but also surprisingly approachable and engaging.
Kirkus Reviews

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Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:

• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)

Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for Decision Points:

1. Why do you think former President Bush wrote Decision Points?

• To shape his legacy?
• To defend his presidency against critics on both left and right?
• To contribute to historical knowledge?
• To offer leadership advice on decision-making?
• To acknowledge his mistakes?
• To explain and provide insights into controversial decisions?
• Another reason?

2. Does this book matter? Given the astonishing events that occurred during the Bush presidency, events that required far reaching decisions, will this memoir survive? Do you think it will be read 50 years from now?

3. Mr. Bush says that "decades from now, I hope people will view me as a president who recognized the central challenge of our time and kept our vow to keep the country safe." Do you think his hope will be fulfilled—that people will acknowledge that he kept the U.S. safe?

4. Mr. Bush admits that he drew inspiration from 14 biographies of Abraham Lincoln. Why does he feel such an affinity with Lincoln?

5. After reading his memoir, what do you think was the toughest decision Mr. Bush had to make during his presidency?

6. After reading his memoir, what do you feel was Mr. Bush's most successful policy decision as President?

7. After reading his memoir, what do you think was Mr. Bush's most controversial decision—vis-a-vis national or international opinion—during his tenure in the White House?

8. What are some of the mistakes Mr. Bush acknowledges during his presidency. In his acknowledgment, does he accept blame or attempt to absolve himself of responsibility? What's your opinion?

9. Mr. Bush says that in terms of polarizing the nation, some Democrats never got over the 2000 election and were determined not to cooperate with me." But he also says that "no doubt I bear some of the responsibility as well." What are your views about those two statements?

10. How does Bush defend himself against charges of racism leveled at him after Hurricane Katrina? What does he say about his response to Katrina?

11. Why does Mr. Bush say that it was the Louisiana state officials—rather than Michael Brown, the head of FEMA—who hampered the federal response to Katrina? How did Louisiana interfere with Washington's efforts?

12. How does Mr. Bush defend the waterboarding, a practice that stimulates drowning during interrogation of suspected terrorists? What are your views?

13. Why does Bush remain adamant that his bailout "spared the American people from an economic disaster of historic proportions"? How does he describe the efforts of those who worked on the bailout? What are your views?

14. Talk about how Mr. Bush eventually abandoned the course of action in Iraq that was pushed by Donald Rumsfeld and Generals George Casey and John Abizaid. How did he arrive at the new solution—the "surge" with Generals David Petraeus and Ray Odierno in charge? Why does he say he waited for three years to make the changes?

15. Why didn't Mr. Bush pardon Scooter Libby after he was convicted of obstruction of justice in the Valerie Plame case? What are your views?

16. What reason does Mr.Bush give for not firing Donald Rumsfeld after Abu Ghraib? What are your views?

17. At one point, Mr. Bush says, by the end of 2005, much of my political capital was gone." What does he mean and why did he write that statement?

18. What surprised you most about the Bush Presidency, or any of the events—national and international—that occurred during those eight years

19. What have you learned from reading Mr. Bush's memoirs? For instance...

• Have you gained insight into the different forces that influence decision-making?
• Have you learned something new about the personalities of the White House staff or about Mr. Bush himself?
• Do you have a greater understanding of various (unsexy) issues such as foreign trade, immigration, or social security?
• Anything else?

20. After reading his memoirs, have your views toward Mr. Bush and his years in office been altered...or left unchanged? Do you admire Mr. Bush more...or less?

21. How would you describe the personality of Mr. Bush after reading his memoir? Would you call him affable, calm, determined, candid, defensive, deceptive, open to other views, narrow-minded, strong-willed...how does he come across

22. Talk about Mr. Bush's conversion to Christianity and the role faith played in both his personal and political life.

23. Mr. Bush's memoirs are remarkably gracious to his political opponents. He does, however, indulge in a few barbs directed at the press, academia, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. Fair...unfair? Justified... unjustified? Agree...disagree?

24. Mr. Bush says he learned from Theordore Roosevelt and Ronald Regan how important it is to "lead the public, not chase the opinion polls.... As I told my advisers, 'I didn't take this job to play small ball.'" Talk about where in his memoirs he leads the country, ignoring public opinion, and taking what he believes is the correct path for the country. But also then, how does one explain the prominence of Karl Rove as a friend and adviser?

25. How does Mr. Bush describe himself during his bout with alcoholism. To what does he attribute his ultimate decision to quit drinking? Do you admire his candor?

26. Much was made in the press about Mr. Bush's desire to "out-do" his father. How does Mr. Bush describe his relationship with his father, the former President George Herbert Walker Bush? How would you describe the relationship? Talk about the letter he wrote to his father before the Iraq War.

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)

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