The Other Wes Moore: Introduction–Part I

by Wes Moore
Two children, both named Wes Moore, grew up in similar circumstances in Baltimore, but one ended up in prison while the other won a Rhodes Scholarship and became a respected business leader. In this book, author Wes Moore explores the challenges and choices that led him and the other Wes Moore to have two radically different fates.

Here are links to our lists for the book: Introduction–Part I, Part II, Part III–Epilogue
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. presumptuous
    going beyond what is appropriate, permitted, or courteous
    I was sure that I’d made a mistake, that I’d been self-indulgent and presumptuous and insulting, and that I’d never hear back from him.
  2. heinous
    extremely wicked or deeply criminal
    We definitely have our disagreements — and Wes, it should never be forgotten, is in prison for his participation in a heinous crime.
  3. accountability
    responsibility to someone or for some activity
    Rather, this book will use our two lives as a way of thinking about choices and accountability, not just for each of us as individuals but for all of us as a society.
  4. idiosyncrasy
    a behavioral attribute peculiar to an individual
    She’d always pull back enough in her interactions with her classmates to give herself room to quietly observe them, so that when she got home she could practice imitating their accents, their idiosyncrasies, their style.
  5. patois
    a regional dialect of a language
    The melodic, swooping movement of her Jamaican patois was quickly replaced by the more stable cadences of American English.
  6. insatiable
    impossible to fulfill, appease, or gratify
    Armed with an insatiable desire to succeed — and aided by his natural gifts, which included a deeply resonant voice — he made his dream come true soon after finishing up at Bard College in 1971.
  7. askance
    with suspicion or disapproval
    The hospital looked at him askance, insulted him with ridiculous questions, and basically told him to fend for himself.
  8. gregarious
    temperamentally seeking and enjoying the company of others
    Kenneth, usually a gregarious and fun-loving person, also fought the demons of alcoholism.
  9. tirade
    a speech of violent denunciation
    He loved his brother but had learned to ignore his occasional “do as I say, not as I do” tirades.
  10. affluent
    having an abundant supply of money or possessions of value
    The diversity of the borough is extraordinary: areas like the Italian-immigrant-settled Country Club neighborhood were among the most affluent of the city but were only minutes away from the poorest congressional district in the nation.
  11. diaspora
    the dispersion of something that was originally localized
    They spent many hours talking together about the changing world and the dawning of independence and liberation movements across the African Diaspora.
  12. cohort
    a group of people having approximately the same age
    The basketball court is a strange patch of neutral ground, a meeting place for every element of a neighborhood’s cohort of young men.
  13. condone
    excuse, overlook, or make allowances for
    We increased our pace; neither of our mothers would condone us coming home late.
  14. lambaste
    censure severely or angrily
    A few months into his administration, Mayor Schmoke was lambasted for saying, “I started to think, maybe we ought to consider this drug problem a public health problem rather than a criminal justice problem.”
  15. vulnerable
    susceptible to criticism or persuasion or temptation
    Wes joked about it, putting on a charade around his friends, but it was the most uncomfortable and vulnerable he had ever felt.
Created on Tue May 12 19:31:38 EDT 2015 (updated Wed Jul 02 23:44:55 EDT 2025)

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