Q. What are you reading?

A. I've been rereading "Sula" by Toni Morrison, which is a wonderful example of this interesting, strong and deeply flawed person. ... And I also read Camilla Gibb's "Sweetness in the Belly" about this woman born to sort of hippie parents who end up getting murdered at a Sufi shrine, and she ends up in Ethiopia. ... The book takes place in Ethiopia and London and...I found this idea of belonging to more than one place simultaneously very appealing to me for personal reasons, also because she is an orphan and my brother and I have lost our parents. ... Then, I just started Glenn Paige's "Nonkilling Global Political Science." He's at the Center for Global Nonviolence up on Tantalus, and sent me this book to give to my brother; I'm doing so but also checking it out. It has some concrete ideas about the potential of nonviolence to transform.

Q. How did you discover Morrison and Gibb?

A. Toni Morrison has been one of my favorites since I was a teenager. I loved "Song of Solomon" and I love the way that she is able to take single sentences and paint a whole world. ... Recently she came out with a beautiful letter of support for my brother, and I decided to re-read her. ... I stumbled across Gibb's book by accident in the bookstore. I do that a lot — browse in bookstores — and enjoy discovering contemporary fiction that way.

Q. Do these windows into global communities engender ideas about how to present a vivid vision to your students and the American people as you campaign for your brother's presidency?

A. Absolutely. I think, and have said on numerous occasions that my brother's brilliance, I believe, as a politician, is in his ability to craft a braver narrative of our future, to offer a vision that is more pregnant with possibilities than we imagined, that is more inclusive, that is broad. And that's what I try to do on a smaller scale as a teacher, and that's what all teachers do — to not only tell a wide variety of stories, but to help students shape their own stories and imagine stories of the future that are courageous.