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One
Book,
One College : Common Reading Programs [note:
I have stopped maintaining this site with the 2015 list; I don't have
time (or maybe it's patience) to keep it current. There's a massive up-to-date list available from the National Resources Center for the First Year Experience and Students in Transition at the University of South Carolina.]
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. 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).
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 began with information
gained from
Web searches and from queries to the Summer Reading, ILI-L and
COLLIB-L
discussion lists and has been updated annually. 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.
In
the news: articles
about common reading programs have been published in The
New York Times and U.S.
News and World Report. See also an interesting 2006
article by Michael Ferguson in AAC&U's Peer
Review. The conservative National Association of
Scholars
has repeatedly criticized
these "beach book programs, concluding they promote liberal
political agendas and lack intellectual rigor. Carolyn
Foster Segal wrote about the difficulties of choosing a common reading
and argues for books that are sustained and challenging at Inside
Higher Ed. More recently, one successful program was
described in the Chronicle
of Higher Education and Inside
Higher Ed covered
a panel held at the 2012 Modern Languages Association
conference.
In 2014, the South Carolina House of
Representatives cut
the budget for common reading programs at the
University of South Carolina in Spartanburg and the College of
Charleston to "send a message" that selecting books about gay
sexuality would not be supported by legislators. The College of
Charleston announced it would save the program, which had chosen Alison
Bechtel's Fun Home
as a common book. Later the same month, the president of Purdue
University cut
their common reading program saying there wasn't sufficient
research on its benefits to support the cost, and the money would be
used to revise new-student orientation programs. Faculty protested the
decision.
In 2015, Inside Higher Ed
surveyed
over 100 schools to find out what they were reading, finding books
about race and social justice particularly popular choices.
What
were we reading in 2007?
What
were we reading in 2008?
What
were we reading in 2009/10?
What
were we reading in 2011?
What were we reading in 2012?
What were
we reading in 2013?
What were we reading in
2014?
Appalachian
State University - A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy
Soldier by Ishmael Beah (2015)
Armstrong
Atlantic State University (GA)
- I am Malala by Malala Yousafzai
with Christina Lamb (2015)
Ball
State University - Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh
Dumas (2015)
Berry
College (MA) - IGod’s Hotel by Victoria Sweet (2015)
Bowling
Green State University (OH) - Behind the Beautiful
Forevers by Katherine Boo (2015)
California State
University, Chico -
Just
Mercy by
Bryan Stevenson (2015)
California
State University, Northridge - Every Day by David Levithan
(2015)
California State
University, Sacramento - Weed Land by Peter Hecht (2015)
Case
Western Reserve University - Whistling Vivaldi: How
Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do by Claude M. Steele (2015)
Chaffey
College (CA) - Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 by Anna Deavere
Smith (2015)
Clemson
University - We Are All Completely Beside
Ourselves by
Karen Joy Fowler (2015)
Coastal
Carolina University (SC) - A Deadly Wandering by Matt Richtel
(2015)
College of Charleston -
Freedom
Summer by
Bruce Watson (2015)
The College
of New Jersey -The Nature of College by James J. Farrell (2015)
College of
the Redwoods and Humboldt State University - The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers (2015)
College of
Wooster (OH) - Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda
Ngozi
Adichie
(2015)
Community College of
Baltimore County - Prayers For The Stolen by Jennifer Clement
(2015)
Cornell University - Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut (2015)
Corning
Community College (NY) - Whistling
Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do by Claude M. Steele (2015)
Cosumnes
Community College (CA) - Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies by Seth M. Holmes (2015)
Davidson
(NC) - Americanah by Chimamanda
Ngozi
Adichie
(2015)
Eastern Illinois
University - Ties That Bind by Dave Isay (2015)
Eastern Kentucky
University - Hamlet's Blackberry by William
Powers (2015)
George Mason
University (VA) - Fall for the Book -
an annual city-wide book festival
Goucher
College - The
Power of Mindful Learning by Ellen J. Langer
(2015)
Gustavus
Adolphus
College (MN) - The Immortal Life of
Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
(2015)
Hampshire
College (MA) - The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin (2015)
Humboldt
State University - The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers (2015)
Indiana
University, South Bend - The New Jim Crow by Michelle
Alexander (2014)
Ithaca
College (NY) - The Good Lord Bird by James McBride
(2014)
Kalamazoo College -
The
Empathy Exams
by Leslie Jamison (2015)
Kansas State University -
The Other Wes
Moore by
Wes Moore (2015)
Lackawanna
College (PA) - Saddle Up, Charlie by C.
Terry Walters and Charlie Wysocki (2014)
Macalester
College (MN) - Hope Against Hope by Sarah Carr (2015)
Miami
University (OH) - The 46 Rules of Genius by
Marty Neumeier
(2015)
Michigan State University -
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson (2015)
Michigan Tech -
Nothing to
Envy by
Barbara Demick
(2015)
Montana State
University - The Immortal Life of
Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
(2015)
Moncalm
Community College (MI) - The Soloist by Steve Lopez (2015)
Occidental
College (CA) - The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert
(2015)
Okahoma
City University -Acts of Faith: The Story of
an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation by Eboo Patel
Owensboro
Community and Technical College (KY) - A Companion for Owls by Maurice
Manning (2015)
Pennsylvania
State University, Berks - What I Wish I Knew When I Was
20 by Tina Seelig
(2015)
Ramapo
College of New Jersey - Deep Down Dark by Hector Tobar (2015)
Rhode Island College – The Brief Wondrous Life
of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (2015)
Rutgers
University, School of Arts and Science Honors Program - Strength In What Remains by Tracy Kidder (2015)
San Jose State University -
The Circle by Dave Eggers
(2015)
Shepherd
University (WV) - Alone Together by Sherry Turkle
(2015)
Smith
College - The
Collapse of Western Civilization by Naomi Oreskes
and Erik Conway (2015)
SUNY Brockport - Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman (2015)
Susquehanna
University - a collection of readings on the university's
theme for the year,"Adventure" (2014).
University
at Buffalo, SUNY - Breaking Night by Liz Murray (2015)
University
of Alabama, Birmingham - The Chimp and The River by
David Quammen (2015)
University
of Arizona Honors Program - The Other Wes Moore by
Wes Moore (2014)
University of Arkansas -
– Outcasts
United by Warren St. John (2015)
University
of California, Davis - The Divide by Matt Taibbi
(2015)
University
of Florida - Double Take by Kevin Michael Connolly (2015)
University of
Houston - Victoria (TX) - Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (2015)
University of Kentucky -
Picking Cotton by Jennifer Thompson-Cannino
and Ronald Cotton (2015)
University
of Louisville -This I Believe edited by Jay Allison
and Dan Gediman
(2014)
University
of Maine Honor's College - Eaarth by
Bill McKibben
(2014)
University of
Maryland (College Park) - Head Off & Split by Nikky
Finney (2015)
University of Massachussetts,
Amherst - The True American by Anand Giridharadas
(2015)
University of Mississippi -
The Education
Of A Lifetime by
Robert Khayat
(2015)
University
of Montana - Missoula - The Tiger by John Vaillant
(2015)
University
of North Carolina at Charlotte - The Yellow Bird by Kevin
Powers (2014)
University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill - Just mercy by Bryan Stevenson (2015)
University of North
Carolina, Wilmington - Chasing Chaos by Jessica Alexander
(2015)
University of South
Carolina, Aiken - The Pregnancy Project by Gaby Rodriguez (2015)
University of Tennessee, Knoxville - The Book of Unknown
Americans by
Cristina Henríquez (2015)
University of
Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science - Spare Parts by Joshua Davis (2015)
University of
Wisconsin, Madison – Just
Mercy by Bryan Stevenson (2015)
University of Wisconsin, Parkside - Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (2014)
Utah
State University - The Emerald Mile by Kevin Fedarko
(2015)
Virginia
Commonweath
University - The
Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore
(2015)
Wartburg
College - I am Malala (2016)
Washington
State University - Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
(2015)
Whiman College (WA) - Brother, I'm Dying by Edwidge
Danticat (2015)
Xavier University
of Louisiana - Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward (2015)
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