After graduating from Harvard University, Michelle Kuo joined Teach for America and found herself in the Mississippi Delta town of Helena, Arkansas. There she met Patrick, a student she connects with and who shows tremendous potential. Three years later Kuo hears the news that Patrick is in prison for murder and she goes back to the Delta to spend seven months reading classic novels with him. Changed by her experience, she ponders questions of what it is we owe each other, what it is to live a good life, and how deeply racism has penetrated our institutions in her book "Reading with Patrick"