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Former President George W. Bush’s memoir, “Decision Points,” will be released by Crown Publishers, a division of Random House, on Nov. 9, the publisher said on Monday. Mr. Bush will write about political and personal challenges and discuss his handling of events, including the Sept. 11 attacks and Hurricane Katrina, as well as embracing his faith amid an effort to quit drinking.

In a news release, Crown said that Mr. Bush would focus on 14 critical decisions in his life and share his reflections on subjects including the closely fought 2000 presidential election and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Crown said that Mr. Bush had given few speeches or interviews since leaving office.

“Instead, he has spent almost every day writing ‘Decision Points,’” the release said, adding, “He writes honestly and directly about his flaws and mistakes, as well as his historic achievements.” The book will be released in hardcover and in audio and e-book formats. Mr. Bush will also go on a national book tour.

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George W. Bush, who once famously called himself "The Decider," has written a book about decisions.

"I want people to understand the environment in which I was making decisions," the former U.S. president said during a brief telephone interview Wednesday with The Associated Press from his office in Dallas.

"I want people to get a sense of how decisions were made, and I want people to understand the options that were placed before me."

Instead of telling his life story, Bush will concentrate on about a dozen personal and presidential choices, from giving up drinking to picking Dick Cheney as his vice president to sending troops to Iraq.

The structure of Bush's current book is not unlike his A Charge to Keep, published by William Morrow in 1999 as the then-Texas governor was preparing to run for president. In the foreword to Charge, Bush noted that he had no interest in a comprehensive, chronological memoir.

"That would be far too boring," he wrote. "The book chronicles some of the events that have shaped my life and some of my major decisions and actions as governor of Texas."

Although he didn't keep a diary while in the White House — he "jotted" down the occasional note — he said he began Decision Points just two days after leaving the White House.

Once known for his reluctance to acknowledge mistakes, Bush said the book would include self-criticism, "Absolutely, yes," but cautioned that "hindsight is very easy" and that he would make sure readers could view events as he saw them.

"I want to recreate what it was like, for example, right after 9/11," he said, "and have people understand the emotions I felt and what others around me felt at the time."

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