United: Thoughts on Finding Common Ground and Advancing the Common Good by Senator Cory Booker is a memoir wrought in the “conspiracy of love.” It is an autobiographical text by a man who understands the importance of family and what it means to accept the responsibility of the called political servant.

Replete with stories of humane servitude and kindness, United is a model text if one seeks to understand the human characteristics needed to work at building what the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. identifies as the “beloved community.” Emerging from it are lessons that can be applied as one walks humbly and purposefully on the planet. These are the lessons:

• Lesson One: It is important to try to be the “best version of yourself” everyday of your life.

• Lesson Two: “No man (woman) is an island . . . millions of people’s actions colluded to allow [our] existence and to offer the abundant opportunities [we] inherited” (223).

• Lesson Three: Public service is, indeed, a called work.

• Lesson Four: “Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor.” (quote from James Baldwin).

• Lesson Five: God and family are most important to your success.

United is, indeed, an American story that is a must read; I encourage you to partake!