Booker’s campaign bio is a bit difficult to read, because his focus is on lessons from people who guided him mainly during his terms as Mayor of Newark, rather than a chronological reciting on his life. It’s an interesting journey from law school graduate to Newark City Councilmember to U.S. Senator (only the 21st Mayor to skip directly to the Senate). Booker barely mentions law school, Oxford, or his childhood, although he credits his parents for their wisdom, warmth, and middle-class advantages. Each chapter describes his a different hero: Virginia Jones, guiding light of one of the public housing units he lived in early on in Newark; Hassan Washington, the kid he failed to save from the streets; Henry Louis Gates, who helped him discovery the strength of his ancestry; and Robin Dougherty of the Greater Newark Conservancy, who helped him understand the importance of environmentalism in an urban setting. These are fascinating people from whom Booker has obviously gained a real world understanding of interdependence, complexity, and compassion. Booker’s memoir is honest where Kamala Harris’s is cagey, and flawed where hers is cautious. I appreciate his frankness about how complicated and painful relationships can be, *and* his belief that they are the only way to save the republic.