One Book, One College : Common Reading Programs
A
number of colleges and universities having reading in common or summer
reading programs. In many cases, libraries participate in choosing and
discussing the book. In some cases, the library initiated the program
and in others it appears to be either tied to a curriculum initiative
(e.g. first year seminars) or to orientation (coming more from Student
Affairs than from the academic side). In some cases, books are sent to
incoming students; in others students are urged to purchase the book
before coming to campus. For a literature review and analysis, see
Andrew Twiton's report, "Common Reading Programs in Higher Education" (2007).
Several schools tie the program to a first year experience program or a new student orientation. (A list
of summer reading programs like these is also maintained by the
National Resource Center for the First Year Experience and Students in
Transition at the University of South Carolina.) Some also are used in
courses, but this is by no means standard and tends to be something
teaching faculty choose to do on their own. Some programs offer public
events, most often an author appearance, but most aren't formally tied
to a wider community reads program (through, for example, public
library and high school cross-programming).
For a state-by-state listing of what communities are reading, as well as programs in the UK, Australia, and Canada, see the "One Book" page at the Library of Congress's Center for the Book. The Beyond the Book
project Website, a UK/Canadian research collaboration, has a lot of
useful information related to community reading programs. For an
excellent guide for first-year orientation discussion facilitators, see
this handout
prepared by Rebecca Taylor Fremo, prepared with The Kite Runner in
mind. Feel free to adapt it to your needs, but please give Becky
credit.
This
list is based on information gained from Web searches and from annual
queries to the ILI-L and COLLIB-L discussion lists. The year indicates
when the book was adopted as a common book. If you'd like your
institution added or information updated, please drop me a line. You may also be interesting in joining a Summer Reading Listserv group maintained at Appalachian State University.
In the news: articles in The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report and Educator's Spotlight Digest. See also an interesting 2006 article by Michael Ferguson in AAC&U's Peer Review.
Agnes Scott Collge - American Woman: A Novel by Susan Choi (2007)
Albion College - Darfur Diaries: Stories of Surival by Jen Marlowe (2007)
American University - The Ponds of Kalambayi: An African Sojourn by Mike Tidwell (2007)
Appalachian State University - The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls (2008)
Augustana College (Rock Island, IL) - Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder (2006)
Ball State University - The Color of Water by James McBride (2007)
Barton College (NC) - Applebee's
America: How Successful Political, Business, and Religious Leaders Connect with
the New American Community by Douglas B. Sosnik, Matthew J. Dowd & Ron
Fournier (2007)
Bellevue Community College -The Worst Hard
Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust
Bowl by Timothy Egan (2007)
Belmont University - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (2007)
Bernard M. Baruch College, CUNY - Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder (2007)
Berry College - I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (2007)
Bowling Green State University - blog - The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls (2007)
Buffalo State - 20th Century Americans Who Changed Our Minds and Our Lives, a compilation of articles, images, and music (2006)
California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo - All Over Creation by Ruth Ozeki (2007)
California State University, Channel Islands - Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamon (2007)
California State University, Chico - Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder (2007)
California State University, Northridge - The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien (2007)
California State University, San Marcos - They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky by Alephonsion Deng, Benson Deng, and Benjamin Ajak (2007)
Carleton College (Northfield, MN) - Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder (2007)
Case Western Reserve University - The Working Poor: Invisible in America by David K. Shipler (2007)
Catawba College - Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder and Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner (2007)
Central College - The Kite Runner by Khaled Housseini (2007)
Central Oregon Community College / Oregon State University, Cascades - Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson (2006)
Champlain College - What is the What by Dave Eggers (2007)
Chandler-Gilbert Community College (AZ) - Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser (2007)
Clemson University - The Ghost Map by Steve Johnson (2007)
Cleveland State University - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (2007)
Coastal Carolina University (SC) - Goat by Brad Land (2007)
Coker College (SC) - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (2007)
Colgate University - The Weather Makers by Tim Flannery (2007)
College of Charleston - Jewel by Brett Lott (2007)
The College of New Jersey - Dead Man Walking by Helen Prejean (2007)
College of the Redwoods - The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (2007)
College of Wooster -
The Riverkeepers by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and John Cronin (2007)
Collin County Community College (TX) - First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers by Loung Ung (2006)
Concordia College (MN) - Sold by Patricia McCormick (2007)
Converse College (SC) - Kettle Bottom by Diane Gilliam Fisher (2007)
Cornell University - The Pickup by Nadine Gordimer (2007)
Creighton University - The
Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini; My Freshman Year by Rebekah Nathan;
Surely You're Joking by Richard Feynman; Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
(2007); instructors choose one of the four for their section of a first
term seminar
Cuyahoga Community College - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (2006)
Dartmouth College - Oil on the Brain: Adventures from the Pipe to the Pipeline by Lisa Margonelli (2007)
Davidson College (NC) - The Dignity of Difference: How to Avoid the Clash of Civilizations by Jonathan Sacks (2006)
Duke University - The Best of Enemies by Osha Gray Davidson (2007)
East Tennessee State University - The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls (2007)
Eastern Kentucky University - The Mercury 13 by Martha Ackmann (2007)
Elon University (NC) - An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore (2007)
Emerson College - Howl on Trial: The Struggle for Free Expression edited by Bill Morgan and Nancy J. Peters (2007)
Fairfield University - blog - Lucky Child by Loung Ung (2007)
Farleigh Dickinson University (NJ) - The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (2007)
Florida Southern College - If Harry Potter Ran General Electric by Tom Morris (2007)
Florida State University - A Hope in the Unseen by Ron Suskind (2007)
Fort Lewis College - Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder (2007)
Franklin Pierce University - Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (2007)
Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering - The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell (2006)
Furman University - Blood Done Sign My Name by Timothy Tyson (2006)
Georgetown University - Knots by Nuruddin Farah (2007)
Gettysburg - Lincoln at Gettysburg, by Garry Wills (2006)
Goucher College - The Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri (2007)
Greensboro College - The Innocent Man by John Grisham (2007)
Guilford College (NC) - Big Fish by Daniel Wallace (2007)
Gustavus Adolphus College - Chinese Lessons: Five Classmates and the Story of New China by John Pomfret (2008)
Hamline University - The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien (2007)
Harrisburg Area Community College - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (2007)
Hawaii Pacific University - The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad (2007)
Hobart and William Smith Colleges - The Cathedral Within: Transforming Your Life by Giving Something Back by Bill Shore (2007)
Houston Community College Northwest - Leaving Microsoft to Change the World by John Wood (2007)
Howard Community College (MD) - Small Wonder by Barbara Kingsolver (2007)
Illinois Central College - Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (2007); the college participates with Peoria Reads
Illinois Wesleyan University - - Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder (2007)
Indiana State University - The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan (2006)
Indiana University of Pennsylvania - Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change by Elizabeth Kolbert (2007)
Indiana University, South Bend - more - An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen (2007)
Indiana University Southeast - Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody (2006)
Ithaca College - Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie (2007)
James Madison University - Federalist 10 by James Madison (2007)
Juniata College (PA) - Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ismael Beah (2007)
Kalamazoo College - The Known World by Edward P. Jones (2007)
Keene State College (NH) - The Devil's Highway: A True Story by Luis Alberto Urrea (2007)
Kent State University - The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (2007)
Lafayette College (PA) - On Liberty by John Stuart Mill (2007)
LaGuardia Community College - CUNY - An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore (2007)
Lasell College (MA) - Twentysomething Essays by Twentsomething Writers by Matt Kellogg and Jillian Quint (eds). (2007)
Lehigh University - Freedom in Exile by the Dalai Lama (2007)
Lenoir-Rhyne College - Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder (2007)
Lynchburg College - Ecology of a Cracker Childhood by Janisse Ray (2007)
Loyola Marymount University (CA) - Chasing Spring: An American Journey through a Changing Season by Brian Stutz (2006)
Louisianna State University - Breach of Faith: Hurricane Katrina and the Near Death of a Great American City by Jed Horne (2007)
Luther College - Warriors Don't Cry by Melba Patillo Beals (2007)
Manhattan College - The Ethics of What We Eat by Peter Singer and Jim Mason (2007)
Marquette University - Bomingham by Anthony Grooms (2007)
Mars Hill College (NC) - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (2007)
Marymount College (CA) - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (2007)
Massasoit Community College - Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick (2007)
McDaniel College - Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (2006)
Messiah College - The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (2007)
Miami University (OH) - Ahmed's War, Ahmed's Peace: Surviving in Saddam, Dying in the New Iraq by Michael Goldfarb (2006)
Michigan State University - Lay that Trumpet in Our Hands by Susan Carol McCarthy (2007)
Michigan Tech - They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky: The True Story of the Lost Boys from Sudan by Benson Deng, Alephonsion Deng, Benjamin Ajak, with Judy A. Bernstein (2007)
Middle Tennessee State University - An Ordinary Man by Paul Rusesabagina (2007)
Midlands Technical College (SC) - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (2007)
Montana State University - Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson (2007)
Moravian College - The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls (2007)
Mount Holyoke - Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change by Elizabeth Kolbert (2007)
Murray State University - Something to Declare by Julia Alvarez (2007)
Muskingum College (OH) - Socrates Café by Christopher Phillips (2006)
New Mexico State University - Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder (2007)
New York Institute of Technology - The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama (2007)
Niagara University - The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (2007)
Nichols College (MA) - The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (2007)
Northern Arizona University - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Hadden (2007)
Northern Kentucky University - Lost Mountain by Erik Reece (2007)
Northwestern University - Othello by William Shakespeare (2006)
Northwood University - Where Have All The Leaders Gone? by Lee Iacocca (2007)
Ohio State University - Life on the Color Line by Gregory Howard Williams and What is the What? by Dave Eggers (2007)
Ohio Wesleyan - Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned by Walter Moseley (2007)
Ohio University - Nickel and Dimed: On Not Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich (2007)
Okahoma City University - First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers by Loung Ung (2006)
Otterbein College - Under the Feet of Jesus by Helena Maria Viramontes (2007)
Owensboro Community and Technical College (KY) - Buffalo Dance by Frank X. Walker (2007)
Parkland College (IL) - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (2007); Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash by Elizabeth Royte
(2008)
Pellissippi State (TN) - Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder (2006)
Pennsylvania State University, Berks - Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser (2007)
Queens University of Charlotte - Blood Done Sign My Name by Timothy Tyson (2007)
Ramapo College of New Jersey - Long Way Gone: Memories of a Boy Soldier by Ismael Beah (2007)
Randolf-Macon
College - Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (funded by an NEA "Big
Reads" grant, with Pamunkey Regional Public Library, 2006)
Ripon College - Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich (2006)
Roanoke College - The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls (2008)
Roger Williams University (RI) - Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (2006)
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (IN) - The Life of Pi by Yann Martel (2007)
St. Ambrose University (IA) - Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder (2007)
St. Bonaventure University - Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser (2007)
Saint Joseph's University (PA) - Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee and The Beak of the Finch by Jonathan Wiener (2006)
St. Louis Community College - All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (2007)
St. Louis University - Heroic Leadership by Chris Lowney (2007)
St. Mary's College of Maryland - Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (2007)
St. Michael's College (VT) - Babette's Feast by Isak Dinesen (2007)
Salisbury University - The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls (2007)
San Diego State University - Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder (2007)
San Jose State University - more - Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by Z.Z. Packer (2007)
Santa Clara University (CA) - Teacher Man by Frank McCourt (2006)
Sarah Lawrence College - The Book of Sarahs by Catherine E. McKinley (2007)
Seton Hall University - Nickel and Dimed: On Not Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich (2007)
Skidmore College - Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder (2007)
Smith College - Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi (2007)
Southern Methodist University (TX) - The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Ane Fadiman (2006)
Southwest Minnesota State University - Soul of a Citizen by Paul Loeb (2007)
Spokane Falls Community College - The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (2007)
Stonehill College (MA) - Long Way Gone: Memories of a Boy Soldier by Ismael Beah (2007)
Stony Brook University - Longitude by David Sobel (2006)
SUNY Brockport - Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home by Nando Parrado with Vince Rause (2007)
SUNY Geneseo - Letters from Young Activists: Today's Rebels Speak Out by Dan Berger and Chesa Boudin (2006)
SUNY Oswego - Bomingham by Anthony Groom (2007)
Susquehanna University - When the Rivers Run Dry: Water - the Defining Crisi of the Twenty-First Century by Fred Pearce (2007).
Syracuse University - Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder (2007)
Temple University - Black Ice by Lorene Cary (2007)
Texas Tech University - A Hope in the Unseen by Ron Suskind (2007)
Truman State University - The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (2006)
Union
College (NE) - Black Ice by Lorene Cary (2007)
University at Buffalo, SUNY - Long Way Gone: Memories of a Boy Soldier by Ismael Beah (2007)
University of Akron - Behind the Veil: An American Woman's Memoir of the 1979 Iran Hostage Crisis by Debra Johanyak (2007)
University of Alabama, Birmingham - All Over But the Shoutin' by Rick Bragg (2007)
University of Alaska, Anchorage and Alaska Pacific University - The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood and The Swallows of Kabul by Yasmina Khadra (2007)
University of Alberta, Augustana Campus - annual theme - resource list (2006)
University of Arizona in Tucson - West of Kabul, East of New York by Tamim Ansary (2007)
University of California, Berkeley - Lincoln at Gettysburg by Garry Wills (2007); see also the Summer Reading List of books recommended by faculty.
University of Dayton
- The Price of a Dream: The Story of the Grameen Bank by David Bornstein (2007)
University of Florida - Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder (2007)
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama (2006)
University of Maryland (College Park) - The Ravaging Tide: Strange Weather, Future Katrinas, and the Coming Death of America's Coastal Cities by Mike Tidwell (2007)
University of Maryland, Baltimore County - Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (2006)
University of Massachusettes, Amherst (Commonwealth College) - Dean's Book Course - more - Terror in the Name of God by Jessica Stern (Fall 2007) and A Primate's Memoir by Robert Sapolsky (Spring 2008)
University of Missouri - Ordinary Man by Paul Rusesabagina (2007)
University of Montana - Missoula - Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (2007)
University of North Carolina at Charlotte - The Color of Water by James McBride (2007)
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill - The Death of Innocents by Helen Prejean (2007)
University of North Carolina, Wilmington - The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (2007)
University of Richmond - Taking on the Big Boys: Or Why Feminism is Good for Families, Business, and the Nation by Ellen Bravo (2007)
University of South Carolina - When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka (2007)
University of St. Thomas - The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (2007)
University of Tennessee, Knoxville -In the Wake of the Plague by Norman F. Cantor (2007)
University of Texas as San Antonio - Places Left Unfinished at the Time of Creation by John Philip Santos (2006)
University of Vermont - Long Way Gone: Memories of a Boy Soldier by Ismael Beah (2007)
University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science - Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing (2007)
University of Virginia's College at Wise - The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien (2006)
University of Washington - Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change by Elizabeth Kolbert (2007)
University of West Georgia - Choosing Civility: The Twenty-Five Rules of Considerate Conduct by P.M. Forni (2006)
University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh - A Long Way Gone by Ismael Beah (2007)
University of Wisconsin, Parkside - The Laramie Project by Moises Kaufman et al (2007)
University of Wyoming - Beyond Oil: The View from Hubbert's Peak by Kenneth S. Deffeyes (2007)
Utah State University - Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science by Atul Gawande (2007)
Wartburg College - Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (2007)
Washington State University - Flu by Gina Kolata (2007)
West Kentucky Community College - The Girl with the Tangerine Scarf by Mohja Kahf; The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini; The Faith Club by Ranya Idlliby, Suzanne Oliver, and Priscilla Warner; To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (2007-2008)
West Texas A&M - Night by Elie Wiesel (2007)
Western State College of Colorado - The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls (2006)
Wheaton (MA) - The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan (2007)
Whitman College - The Devil's Highway: A True Story by Luis Alberto Urrea (2007)
Widener University - Brown Bag Bookclub (various books)
Winthrop University - The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp (2007)
Woodbury University - I am Alive in Los Angeles by Mike Sonsken ("Mike the Poet") (2007)
York College (PA) - In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (2007)
Barbara Fister 4/08