My name is Nadia Murad. I am Yazidi, a member of a small, monotheistic religious community whose holy temples and homelands are located in northern Iraq. Early in the morning of August 3, 2014, militants with the Islamic State attacked Kocho, my small village, and from that moment on my life—as well as the lives

With the fall semester just weeks away, colleges and universities around the country have announced their Common Reading books for the upcoming 2017-18 academic year.  We’ve compiled a list of over 440 programs and their title selections, which you can download here. We will continue to update this listing to provide the most comprehensive record of

Across the political spectrum, people agree on one point and one point only: our public sphere is a great big mess. Mistrust of our neighbors, anger at their folly, inadvertent or deliberate misunderstanding of their views, attribution of the worst possible motives to those whose politics we despise: these are the dissonant notes we hear

For Fiction, the Pulitzer Prize Board called THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, by Colson Whitehead “a smart melding of realism and allegory that combines the violence of slavery and the drama of escape in a myth that speaks to contemporary America.” The novel chronicles a young slave’s adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in

I was born in Cameroon and moved to the United States after high school to attend college. Having never been that far from home, I was extremely homesick in my first months in the country (it didn’t help that the weather was too cold for my liking). That all changed when I arrived at college.

In a new Ted Talk entitled “Solving Illegal Immigration [For Real],” decorated journalist and author Sonia Nazario suggests an alternative method to naturalization or heavy border policing to stem the flow of undocumented individuals into the United States. Nazario boasts a long and impressive writing career, during which she has shown immense dedication to featuring

On February 10, 2017, the Penguin Random House First-Year Reading Advisory Board convened for their annual summit the day before The First-Year Experience® Conference exhibit and sessions commenced. The Board members, representing a variety of public and private higher education institutions of varying sizes, came together to exchange ideas, and provide feedback and guidance. Two new members joined the existing five members for

The best defense against sly prevaricators, the most reliable one, is for every one of us to learn how to become critical thinkers. Critical thinking trains us to take a step back, to evaluate facts and form evidence-based conclusions.

  If you were one of the many in attendance at the First-Year Experience® conference in Atlanta this past  February, you might have joined us at one of our events showcasing authors and books ideal for common reading. If you or your colleagues didn’t make it, or if you would like to watch the talks

Penguin Random House Academic Resources is pleased to announce the author line-up for the 2017 First-Year Experience® Conference (February 11-14, Atlanta, GA).  Featuring books on social justice, identity, fiction, economic inequality, and more, we have a book and an author that are perfect for your school.  Click here to RSVP to our events. Our author lineup

Welcome to the new Common Reads website!  Featuring a highly-curated list of titles from across all publishing divisions of Penguin Random House, this site was created and designed to help you find the right book and the right resources for your program. Whether you are an educator or a librarian looking for an adult or