With the fall semester in full swing, colleges and universities around the country have announced their Common Reading books for the upcoming 2024-25 academic year. We’ve compiled a list of over 337 programs and their title selections, which you can download here: First-Year Reading 2024-25. We will continue to update this listing to provide the most comprehensive record of programs available anywhere and welcome information about titles and institutions we might have overlooked. Please feel free to contact us here with additional information.
| University | Program Name | 2024-2025 |
| Adelphi University – Garden City | Honors College Common Read 2024 | God, Human, Animal, Machine: Technology, Metaphor, and the Search for Meaning, by Meghan O’Gieblyn |
| Adler University | Common Book | Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century, edited by Alice Wong |
| Aims Community College | Campus Read | How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen, by David Brooks |
| American University | Writer as Witness / College Writing Book | Against Technoableism: Rethinking Who Needs Improvement, by Ashley Shew |
| Amherst College | DeMott Summer Reading | How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy, by Jenny Odell |
| Appalachian State University | Common Reading Program | The Story of More: How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go from Here, by Hope Jahren |
| Arizona State University | Common Read | Belonging: The Science of Creating Connection and Bridging Divides, by Geoffrey L. Cohen |
| Arizona State University – New College (West Campus) | Common Read | • Tastes & Treasures II: A Storytelling Cookbook of Historic Arizona, by Historical League Inc., |
| • Unstoppable, by Anthony Robles | ||
| Arkansas State University | Common Reader | • Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, by Matthew Desmond, |
| • Tales of Two Planets: Stories of Climate Change and Inequality in a Divided World, edited by John Freeman, | ||
| • The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together, by Heather McGhee | ||
| Assumption University | COMPASS Reading / First-Year Common Book | First Year Anthology of Common Reading |
| Auburn University | Auburn Connects! Common Book | The Music of Bees, by Eileen Garvin |
| Bard College | Language and Thinking Program | Frankenstein: The 1818 Text, by Mary Shelley |
| Bard College at Simon’s Rock | Book One | Wade in the Water, by Tracy K. Smith |
| Baylor University, Honors Program | Freshman Reading Project | How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen, by David Brooks |
| Baylor University – Law School | Common Read | Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, by Bryan Stevenson |
| Bergen Community College | Common Read | Poverty, by America, by Matthew Desmond |
| Berry College | First-Year Summer Book Program | Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, by Bryan Stevenson |
| Boston College | Conversations in the First Year | The Worlds I See: Curiosity, Exploration, and Discovery at the Dawn of AI, by Dr. Fei-Fei Li |
| Brandeis University | New Student Forum First-Year Book | Klara and the Sun, by Kazuo Ishiguro |
| Brenau University | Common Reader | First Gen: A Memoir, by Alejandra Campoverdi |
| Bridgewater State University | One Book One Community | • The Lioness of Boston , by Emily Franklin |
| • Strange Arithmetic, by Kerrin Willis | ||
| Brooklyn Law School | Student Orientation | Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, by Bryan Stevenson |
| Brown University | First Readings | “Slavery and Justice Report,” Brown University |
| Brown University School of Public Health | Common Read | Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O’Connell’s Urgent Mission to Bring Healing to Homeless People, by Tracy Kidder |
| Bryant University | Freshmen Read | Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future, by Elizabeth Kolbert |
| Bucknell University | First-Year Common Reading | Sag Harbor, by Colson Whitehead |
| Bunker Hill Community College | One Book Program | Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi |
| Butte College | Book in Common | Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of ‘Latino’, by Hector Tobar |
| Cal State Polytechnic University Pomona | Common Read | Crying in H Mart, by Michelle Zauner |
| Calhoun Community College | Common Read | • Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, by James McBride |
| • Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century, edited by Alice Wong | ||
| California State University – Bakersfield | One Book Project | All You Can Ever Know, by Nicole Chung |
| California State University – Channel Islands | Campus Reading | Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O’Connell’s Urgent Mission to Bring Healing to Homeless People, by Tracy Kidder |
| California State University – Chico | Book in Common | Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of ‘Latino’, by Hector Tobar |
| California State University – Los Angeles, Public Health Dept Read | The Climate Book, by Greta Thunberg | |
| California State University – Maritime | Common Reading Program | AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future, by Kai-Fu Lee and Chen Qiufan |
| California State University – Monterey Bay | Common Reading Experience | The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World, by Jamil Zaki |
| California State University – Sacramento | One Book Program | Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates |
| California State University – San Marcos | Common Read | • Baddawi, by Leila Abdelrazaq |
| • The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison | ||
| • An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz | ||
| • The Name Jar, by Yangsook Choi | ||
| • V for Vendetta, by Alan Moore | ||
| Case Western Reserve University | Common Reading Program | The Kissing Bug: A True Story of a Family, an Insect, and a Nation’s Neglect of a Deadly Disease, by Daisy Hernández |
| Catawba College | Common Summer Reading | Think Little, by Wendell Berry |
| Christian Brothers University | Memphis Reads | Tell Me How it Ends: An Essay in Forty Question, by Valeria Luiselli |
| Cleveland Institute of Art | New Student Read | Callings: The Purpose and Passion of Work, by Dave Isay |
| Colgate University | Summer Reading | Poverty, by America, by Matthew Desmond |
| College of DuPage | One Book, One College | Gods of Jade and Shadow, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia |
| College of New Jersey | Summer Reading | Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World, by Katharine Hayhoe |
| College of Southern Maryland | One Maryland One Book | What Storm, What Thunder, by Myriam JA Chancy |
| College of Southern Nevada | One Book, One College | The Moth Presents Occasional Magic: True Stories About Defying the Impossible, edited by Catherine Burns |
| College of St. Scholastica | Dignitas Summer Reading | Callings: The Purpose and Passion of Work, by Dave Isay |
| College of the Holy Cross | First-Year Reading | World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and other Astonishments, by Aimee Nezhukumatathil |
| College of William & Mary | One Book One Community | The Displacements, by Bruce Holsinger |
| Collin College | Book-in-Common | Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel |
| Colorado College | Common Read | belonging: a culture of place, by bell hooks |
| Colorado Mesa University | Common Read | Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness, by Kristen Radtke |
| Colorado Mountain College | CMC Common Reader | The Bill of Obligations: The Ten Habits of Good CItizens, by Richard Haass |
| Columbia College (MO) | One Read | Migrations, by Charlotte McConaghy |
| Columbus College of Art and Design | First-Year Common Read | All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis, edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkinson |
| Community College of Baltimore County | Community Book Connection | Wild Tongues Can’t be Tamed: 15 Voices from the Latinx Diaspora, edited by Saraciea J. Fennell |
| Connecticut College | Common Community Reading | There There, by Tommy Orange |
| CT State Community College Manchester | Common Read | Time is a Mother, by Ocean Vuong |
| CT State Community College Naugatuck Valley | One Book, One College | If Beale Street Could Talk, by James Baldwin |
| CT State Community College Norwalk | NCC Common Read | Time is a Mother, by Ocean Vuong |
| Cornell University – Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management | Summer Reading Program | Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, by David Epstein |
| Cosumnes Community College | One Book | Laziness Does Not Exist, by Dr. Devon Price |
| County College of Morris | Tales of Two Americas: Stories of Inequality in a Divided Nation, edited by John Freeman | |
| Crafton Hills College | One Book, One College | Parable of the Sower, by Octavia E. Butler |
| Cuesta College | Book of the Year | Fire in the Canyon: A Novel, by Daniel Gumbiner |
| CUNY Baruch College | First Year Text | • Everybody has a Breaking Point: How the Climate Crisis Affects our Brains, by Clayton Page Aldern (essay) |
| • Human and AI Collaboration in the Higher Education Environment: Opportunities and Concerns, by Paul Atchley, Hannah Pannell, Kaelyn Wofford, Michael Hopkins & Ruth Ann Atchley (study) | ||
| • The Colorblindness Trap: How a Civil Rights Ideal got Hijacked, by Nikole Hannah-Jones (essay) | ||
| • The Day I Put $50,000 in a Shoe Box and Handed It to a Stranger, by Charlotte Cowles (essay) | ||
| • Why Poverty Persists in America, by Matthew Desmond (essay) | ||
| Dallas College | Common Book | Tell Me Who You Are: Sharing Our Stories of Race, Culture, and Identity, by Winona Guo and Priya Vulchi |
| Davidson College | Common Reading Book | The Courage of Compassion: A Journey from Judgment to Connection, by Robin Steinberg |
| Defiance College | First Year Common Read | Class: A Memoir of Motherhood, Hunger, and Education, by Stephanie Land |
| Delaware County Community College | One-Book One-College Program | Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth, by Sarah Smarsh |
| Des Moines Area Community College | One Book One College | This I Believe II: The Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women, edited by Jay Allison and Dan Gediman |
| Dordt College | One Book, One Sioux County | Don’t Look Back: A Memoir of War, Survival, and My Journey from Sudan to America, by Achut Deng and Keely Hutton |
| Duke University | Common Experience Summer Reading Program | All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis, edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkinson |
| D’Youville College | Common Read | What the Eyes Don’t See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City, by Mona Hanna-Attisha |
| East Los Angeles College | One Book, One College | Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, by Robin Wall Kimmerer |
| Eastern Connecticut State University | Big Read | The Bear, by Andrew Krivak |
| Eastern Mennonite University | EMU Common Read | When the English Fall, by David Williams |
| Eastern Michigan University | Common Read | Somehow: Thoughts on Love, by Anne Lamott |
| Eastern Oregon University | Common Reading | The Beadworkers: Stories, by Beth Piatote |
| Eckerd College | Summer Reading | How to Say Babylon: A Memoir, by Safiya Sinclair |
| Edison State Community College | Common Read | Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy, by Cathy O’Neil |
| Elms College | Common Read | World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments, by Aimee Nezhukumatathil |
| Elon University | Common Reading | The Intersectional Environmentalist: How to Dismantle Systems of Oppression to Protect People + Planet, by Leah Thomas |
| Evergreen State College | Orientation Common Reading | • How Democracies Die, by Steven Levitsky & Daniel Ziblatt |
| • Can Higher Education Help Renew American Democracy? by John M. Bridgeland, Cecilia Muñoz & Danielle Allen from Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning (Vol. 56, No. 2) | ||
| Fashion Institute of Technology | Common Read Program | The Last Catastrophe: Stories, by Allegra Hyde |
| Fitchburg State University | Fitchburg Community Read | A Woman of No Importance, by Sonia Purnell |
| Flagler College | First Year Common Read | Tomorrow, Tomorrow and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin |
| Florida Atlantic University | Honors Freshman Read | A Visit from the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan |
| Florida College | Common Reading | That Hideous Strength (Space Trilogy, Book 3), by C. S. Lewis |
| Florida International University | FIU Common Reading | Starstruck: A Memoir of Astrophysics and Finding Light in the Dark, by Sarafina El-Badry Nance |
| Fordham College – Lincoln Center | First-Year Summer Read | Miles Morales, Volume 1: Straight Out of Brooklyn, by Saladin Ahmed |
| Fort Lewis College | Common Reading Experience / SkyWords | A Snake Falls to Earth, by Darcie Little Badger |
| Fort Valley State University | Common Read | You Are Your Best Thing: Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience, Edited by Tarana Burke and Brené Brown |
| Francis Marion University | Composition Program’s “common read” | Moonrise Over New Jessup: A Novel, by Jamila Minnicks |
| Frederick Community College | Frederick Reads | Why We Remember: Unlocking Memory’s Power to Hold on to What Matters, Dr. Charan Ranganath |
| Gannon University | Gannon READS | Try to Love the Questions: From Debate to Dialogue in Classrooms and Life, by Lara Hope Schwartz |
| Gardner-Webb University | ||
| Georgetown University | Marino Family International Writers’ Academic Workshop | What Strange Paradise, by Omar El Akkad |
| Georgia College & State University | GC Reads Common Reading Program | • Essay 1: “Fear Not,” by Mathias Clasen |
| • Essay 2: “How to Be Resilient,” by Selda Koydemir | ||
| • Essay 3: “How to Know What You Really Want,” by Luke Burgis | ||
| • Essay 4: “How to Make the Most of University,” by Nic Hooper | ||
| • Essay 5: “Secrets Hurt Their Holders,” by Michael Slepian | ||
| • Essay 6: “The Happiness Ruse, by Cody Delistraty | ||
| • Essay 7: “We Heal One Another,” by Brandon Kohrt | ||
| • Essay 8: “Why We Crave,” by Zoey Lavallee | ||
| Georgian Court University | First-Year Common Read | The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet, by John Green |
| Goucher College | Summer Reading | My Time Among the Whites: Notes from an Unfinished Education, by Jennine Capó Crucet |
| Grand Rapids Community College | Campus Common Reading | Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, by Robin Wall Kimmerer |
| Green River College | One Book | The Power of Story: On Truth, the Trickster, and New Fictions for a New Era, by Harold R. Johnson |
| Hagerstown Community College | Big Read | Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America, by Chris Arnade |
| Hampshire College | Common Read | Year of the Tiger: An Activist’s Life, by Alice Wong |
| Hawkeye Community College | Hawkeye Reads | Callings: The Purpose and Passion of Work, by Dave Isay |
| Heidelberg University | AIM Hei Common Reading | Callings: The Purpose and Passion of Work, by Dave Isay |
| Hilbert College | Hilbert College Reads | All the Colors Came Out: A Father, a Daughter, and a Lifetime of Lessons, by Kate Fagan |
| Hope College | Big Read Lakeshore | The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald |
| Howard University | Freshman Seminar Common Text | Kindred, by Octavia Butler |
| Illinois Central College | One Book One College | Apple: Skin to the Core, by Eric Gansworth |
| Illinois College | Summer Common Reading | The Emergency: A Year of Healing and Heartbreak in a Chicago ER, by Thomas Fisher |
| Illinois Valley Community College | One Book, One College | Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century, edited by Alice Wong |
| Indiana University – School of Medicine | Common Read | What the Eyes Don’t See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City, by Mona Hanna-Attisha |
| Indiana University Northwest | One Book…One Campus…One Community | James, by Percival Everett |
| Indiana University Southeast | Common Experience | Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood, by Trevor Noah |
| Indiana University, Kelley School of Business | Common Read Program | Callings: The Purpose and Passion of Work, by Dave Isay |
| Johns Hopkins University | Common Question / Common Read | Common Question / WHAT IS HUMAN? |
| Johnson County Community College | Common Read | Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention—and How to Think Deeply Again, by Johann Hari |
| Kansas State University | K-State Book Network’s Common Reading | Deaf Utopia: A Memoir—and a Love Letter to a Way of Life, by Nyle DiMarco |
| Kean University | Common Read | How Beautiful We Were, by Imbolo Mbue |
| Knox College | Summer Common Reading | Little Fires Everywhere, by Celeste Ng |
| Lakeshore Technical College | Common Read | • Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, by Matthew Desmond, |
| Le Moyne College | Summer Common Reading | • Hiroshima, by John Hersey |
| • “Eyes,” “Old Woman,” “A friend,” “Appeal,” and “Entreaty,” by Sankichi Tōge from Hiroshima: Three Witnesses | ||
| Lebanon Valley College | First-Year Common Reading Program | World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whales Sharks, and other Astonishments, by Aimee Nezhukumatathil |
| Lenoir-Rhyne University | Campus Read | Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law, by Mary Roach |
| Lincoln University | Common Read Program | His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice, by Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa |
| Lone Star College – University Park | ReadUP! | The Possibility of Life: Science, Imagination, and Our Quest for Kinship in the Cosmos, by Jaime Green |
| Louisiana State University | Honors College Summer Shared Read | Things We Lost to the Water: A Novel, by Eric Nguyen |
| Loyola University Chicago | Rambler Read | Wake Up With Purpose, by Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt and Seth Davis |
| Loyola University Chicago – Stritch School of Medicine | Common Read | What the Eyes Don’t See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City, by Mona Hanna-Attisha |
| Loyola University Maryland | Common Text Program | Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility, Edited by Rebecca Solnit and Thelma Young Lutunatabua |
| Luther College | Paideia Summer Read | Calling for a Blanket Dance, by Oscar Hokeah |
| Madisonville Community College | MCC Common Reader | The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet, by John Green |
| Maine College of Art & Design | Common Read | Redbone: The True Story of a Native American Rock Band, by Christian Staebler and Sonia Paoloni; Illustrated by Thibault Balahy |
| Manchester Community College | Common Read | Time is a Mother, by Ocean Vuong |
| Manhattanville College | First-Year Common Read | • Callings: The Purpose and Passion of Work, by Dave Isay |
| • The Octopus in the Parking Garage by Rob Verchick | ||
| Marist College | Common Reading | Felix Ever After, by Kacen Callender |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | MIT Reads | Mind and Matter: A Life in Math and Football, by John Urschel and Louisa Thomas |
| Medical College of Wisconsin | Common Read | Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O’Connell’s Urgent Mission to Bring Healing to Homeless People, by Tracy Kidder |
| Menlo College | Common Book | Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, by Isabel Wilkerson |
| Meredith College | Summer Reading Program | The Bill of Obligations: The Ten Habits of Good CItizens, by Richard Haass |
| Merrimack College | First Year Seminar | The Road to Character, by David Brooks |
| Messiah University | Book of the Year Program | The Odyssey, by Homer |
| Metropolitan Community College – Longview (MO) | Common Read | Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations, by Mira Jacob |
| Metropolitan State University Denver | 1 Book/1 Project/2 Transform | First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers, by Loung Ung |
| Middle Tennessee State University | Summer Reading Program | Laughing Without an Accent: Adventures of an Iranian American, at Home and Abroad, by Firoozeh Dumas |
| Midlands Technical College | MTC Reads | A collection of resources that explore “The Stories We Tell & The Objects We Keep” |
| Minnesota State University – Moorhead | One Book, One Community / Common Text Reading | The River We Remember, by William Kent Krueger |
| Mississippi University for Women | Common Reading Initiative | First Gen: A Memoir, by Alejandra Campoverdi |
| Molloy University | Common Reading Program | The Plant Hunter, by Cassandra Leah Quave |
| Montana State University | Common Reading | There There, by Tommy Orange |
| Monroe Community College, SUNY | Common Read | Remarkably Bright Creatures, by Shelby Van Pelt |
| Montcalm Community College | MCC Reads | These Silent Woods: A Novel, by Kimi Cunningham Grant |
| Moorpark College | One Campus, One Book | They Called Us Enemy, by George Takei |
| Moraine Valley Community College | One Book, One College | Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century, edited by Alice Wong |
| Mount Holyoke College | MHC Common Reading | I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times, by Mónica Guzmán |
| Mount St. Mary’s University (CA) | Campus Read | Somewhere We Are Human: Authentic Voices on Migration, Survival, and New Beginnings, by Reyna Grande |
| Naugatuck Valley Community College | One Book, One College | If Beale Street Could Talk, by James Baldwin |
| Nevada State University | Common Read Program | The Moth Presents All These Wonders: True Stories about Facing the Unknown, edited by Catherine Burns |
| New York University | NYU Reads | Stay True: A Memoir, by Hua Hsu |
| Norfolk State University | Freshman Common Reader | Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America, by Michael Harriot |
| North Carolina A&T State University | Text-in-Community | Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines, by Dr. Joy Buolomwini |
| North Carolina A&T State University | Honors Text in Common | Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines, by Dr. Joy Buolomwini |
| North Dakota State University | One Book, One Community | The River We Remember, by William Kent Krueger |
| North Idaho College | NIC Common Reading Program: Cardinal Reads | • The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World, by Jamil Zaki |
| • The Night Watchman, by Louise Erdrich | ||
| Northeastern State University | Common Read | There is No Good Card for This, by Dr. Kelsey Crowe and Emily McDowell |
| Northern Kentucky University | Common Experience | Educated: A Memoir, by Tara Westover |
| Northern State University | Common Read | I Must Betray You, by Ruta Sepetys |
| Northwestern University | One Book, One Northwestern | The Night Watchman, by Louise Erdrich |
| Northwood University | Omniquest Program | • The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible: A Free Market Odyssey by Ken Schoolland |
| • Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALS Lead and Win, by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin | ||
| Oakland University – Honors College | Common Read | • To Shake the Sleeping Self: A Journey from Oregon to Patagonia, and a Quest for a Life with No Regret, by Jedidiah Jenkins |
| • The Girl With All the Gifts, by M. R. Carey | ||
| Occidental College | First-Year Summer Reading | The Vanishing Half, by Brit Bennett |
| Olin College of Engineering | Summer Book Program | How Infrastructure Works: Inside the Systems That Shape Our World, by Deb Chachra |
| Onondaga Community College | Common Read | Your Brain on Art, by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross |
| Oregon State University | First Year Reading Experience | Solito, by Javier Zamora |
| Otterbein University | Common Book | The Light We Give, by Simran Singh |
| Owens Community College | The BIG Read | True Biz: A Novel, by Sara Nović |
| Owensboro Community & Tech. College | Common Reading | A Parchment of Leaves: A Novel, by Silas House |
| Pennsylvania State University – Altoona | Common Read | All the Memories that Remain: War, Alzheimer’s, and the Search for a Way Home, by E. M. Liddick |
| Pennsylvania State University – Berks | Common Reading Program | The Worth of Water, by Gary White and Matt Damon |
| Pennsylvania State University – New Kensington | First-Year Summer Reading | (Podcast) “How to Make the Most of Your Twenties,” by Adam Grant (ReThinking) |
| Piedmont Virginia Community College | One Book Project | Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, by Angela Duckworth |
| Polk State College | Freshmen Read | American Like Me: Reflections on Life Between Cultures, edited by America Ferrera |
| Pomona College | Orientation Book | Afterparties: Stories, by Anthony Veasna So |
| Princeton University | Princeton Pre-Read | The Worlds I See: Curiosity, Exploration, and Discovery at the Dawn of AI, by Dr. Fei-Fei Li |
| Purdue University | English Dept. Big Read | Aunty Lee’s Delights: A Singaporean Mystery, by Ovidia Yu |
| Purdue University Northwest – Calumet Campus | One Book, One University | The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century’s Greatest Dilemma, by Mustafa Suleyman with Michael Bhaskar |
| Ramapo College of New Jersey | FYS Summer Reading | The Personal Librarian, by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray |
| Reed College | Welcome to Reed | Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison |
| Reedley College | One Book, One College | Tomorrow, Tomorrow and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin |
| Regis College | Common Reading Program | Tell Me Who You Are: Sharing Our Stories of Race, Culture, and Identity, by Winona Guo and Priya Vulchi |
| Rhode Island College | Open Books-Open Minds | Light From Uncommon Stars, by Ryka Aoki |
| Rhodes College | Rhodes Reads | Tell Me How it Ends: An Essay in Forty Question, by Valeria Luiselli |
| Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology | Common Read | All that She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake, by Tiya Miles |
| Rowan College of South Jersey (formerly Cumberland County College) | One Book, One College | The Last Beekeeper: A Novel, by Julie Carrick Dalton |
| Russell Sage College | Summer Reading | Outcasts United: An American Town, a Refugee Team, and One Woman’s Quest to Make a Difference, by Warren St. John |
| Rutgers University, Honors College, New Brunswick | Summer One Read | How Beautiful We Were, by Imbolo Mbue |
| Rutgers University, SAS Honors Program | Summer Reading | True Biz: A Novel, by Sara Nović |
| Saddleback College | One Book, One College | The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime that Changed their Lives, by Dashka Slater |
| Saint Louis University | Campus Read | The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead |
| Saint Michael’s College | Common Text | Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist, by Judith Heumann with Kristen Joiner |
| Saint Michael’s College | Education Department Common Read | Mascot, by Charles Waters and Traci Sorell |
| Salisbury University | One Maryland One Book / New Student Reader | What Storm, What Thunder, by Myriam JA Chancy |
| Sam Houston State University | Common Reader Program | Callings: The Purpose and Passion of Work, by Dave Isay |
| Samuel Merritt University | Community Reads | Cross Cultural Medicine, Volume 6: A Collection of Health Narratives by Students of Oakland High School’s Health Academy, created by Jessica Forbes |
| San Antonio College | Common Read | Tales from la Vida: A Latinx Comics Anthology, by Frederick Luis Aldama |
| San Diego State University | One Book, One San Diego | Know My Name: A Memoir, by Chanel Miller |
| San Jose State University | SJSU Reading Program | The Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives, by Viet Thanh Nguyen |
| San Juan College | One Book/One Community | Sabrina and Corina: Stories, by Kali Fajardo-Anstine |
| Santa Clara University | Community Read | Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines, by Dr. Joy Buolomwini |
| Santa Rosa Junior College | Work of Literary Merit | Colors of Nature: Culture, Identity, and the Natural World, by Alison Hawthorne Deming and Lauret E. Savoy, eds. |
| Sarah Lawrence College | Shubeik Lubeik, by Deena Mohamed | |
| Seattle University | Common Text | Binti: The Complete Trilogy, by Nnedi Okorafor |
| Shepherd University | Common Reading | Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America, by Heather Cox Richardson |
| Siena Heights University | Common Reading | Music is History, by Questlove |
| Simmons University | First Year Read | Yellowface, by R. F. Kuang |
| Skidmore College | Summer Reading Program | Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted, by Suleika Jaouad |
| Smith College | Smith Reads | World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and other Astonishments, by Aimee Nezhukumatathil |
| Somerset Community College | SCC Common Read | Ash Grove: A Novel, by Wanda Fries |
| Sonoma State University | Common Read | The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story, by Nikole Hannah-Jones and The New York Times Magazine |
| South Dakota State University | Campus and Community Common Read | The Invention of Wings, by Sue Monk Kidd |
| Southeastern Louisiana University | Common Read | The Fish that Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America’s Banana King, by Richard Cohen |
| St. Edward’s University | Common Read | On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons for the Twentieth Century, by Timothy Snyder |
| St. Petersburg College | SPC Reads | The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams |
| Stanford University | Three Books Program | • Open, by Andre Agassi |
| • On Juneteenth, by Annette Gordon-Reed | ||
| • and a film (TBD) | ||
| Stevens Institute of Technology | First Year Reading Program | What Can a Body Do?: How We Meet the Built World, by Sara Hendren |
| Stockton University | Freshman Common Reading | My Monticello, by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson |
| SUNY Binghamton | Common Read | I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times, by Mónica Guzmán |
| SUNY Cortland | Common Reading | • The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture, by Gabor Mate |
| • Bewilderment: A Novel, by Richard Powers | ||
| SUNY Oneonta | Common Read | The Book of Unknown Americans, by Cristina Henríquez |
| SUNY Oswego | Oswego Reading Initiative | Which Side Are You On, by Ryan Lee Wong |
| Sussex County Community College | College Novel | The Measure, by Nikki Erlick |
| Sweet Briar College | Common Reading | Mobility: A Novel, by Lydia Kiesling |
| Texas A & M International University | Common Read | Something Fierce: Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter, by Carmen Aguirre |
| Texas A&M University | Common Ground Reading Initiative / Oberhelman | College Rules!: How to Study, Survive, and Succeed in College, by Jodi Patrick Holschuh |
| Texas A&M University – San Antonio | Common Reading Experience | My First Vote, by Brennan Center for Justice |
| Texas State University | Honors College | Exhalation, by Ted Chiang |
| The Citadel | Summer Reading Program | A Few Good Men, by Aaron Sorkin |
| The University of Scranton | Royal Reads | • What We Remember Will Be Saved: A Story of Refugees |
| • The Things They Carry, by Stephanie Saldaña | ||
| Thomas College | Common Read | “Starlings in Winter,” by Mary Oliver |
| Towson University – Honors College | Honors College Read | Literary Theory for Robots: How Computers Learned to Write, by Dennis Yi Tenen |
| Tufts University – Medical School | Common Read | What the Eyes Don’t See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City, by Mona Hanna-Attisha |
| Tulane University | Tulane Reading Project | Platonic: How the Science of Attachment Can Help You Make—and Keep—Friends, by Marisa G. Franco, PhD |
| Tulsa Community College | TCC Common Book | I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times, by Mónica Guzmán |
| United States Air Force Academy | One Book, One USAFA | The Cellist Sarajevo, by Steven Galloway |
| University of Alabama – Huntsville, Honors College | Common Book | Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, by James McBride |
| University of Alabama – Tuscaloosa, Honors College | Common Book Experience | Birding to Change the World: A Memoir, by Trish O’Kane |
| University of Alaska, Southeast | One Campus, One Book | Pollution is Colonialism, by Max Liboiron |
| University of Arizona | ||
| University of Arizona, Honors Program | Franke Honors Common Reading 2024 | I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times, by Mónica Guzmán |
| University of Arkansas, Fayetteville | One Book One Community | Rising Class: How Three First-Generation College Students Conquered Their First Year, by Jennifer Miller |
| University of Arkansas, Fort Smith | Read This! / Big Read | Hidden Figures: The Story of the African-American Women Who Helped Win the Space Race, by Margot Lee Shetterly |
| University of California, Berkeley | On the Same Page | “Oppenheimer” (movie) |
| University of California, Davis | Campus Community Book Project | Weathering: The Extraordinary Stress of Ordinary Life in an Unjust Society, by Arline T. Geronimus |
| UC Davis School of Law | Community Read 2024 | Poverty, by America, by Matthew Desmond |
| University of California, Los Angeles | Common Experience | The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World, by Jamil Zaki |
| University of California, Santa Cruz | The Deep Read | James, by Percival Everett |
| University of California, Santa Cruz – Cowell College | Cowell College One | • The Refugees, by Viet Thanh Nguyen |
| • Unflattening, by Nick Sousanis | ||
| University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus | One Book, One Campus | The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot |
| University of Colorado, Boulder | Buffs One Read | Solito, by Javier Zamora |
| University of Delaware | First Year Common Reader | I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times, by Mónica Guzmán |
| University of Evansville, Honors Program | Common Read Experience | The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet, by Jeff Goodell |
| University of Houston – Clear Lake | Common Reader Program | Take My Hand, by Dolen Perkins-Valedez |
| University of Idaho | Common Read | The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet, by John Green |
| University of Iowa | One Community, One Book | Wastelands: The True Story of Farm Country on Trial, by Corban Addison |
| University of Iowa | Common Reader – Interpretation of Literature | There There, by Tommy Orange |
| University of La Verne | One Book, One University | Nobody Needs to Know: A Memoir, by Pidgeon Pagonis |
| University of Maine, Honors College | Honors Read | How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures, by Sabrina Imbler |
| University of Maryland | First Year Book | Poverty, by America, by Matthew Desmond |
| University of Memphis – Honors College | Common Read | Callings: The Purpose and Passion of Work, by Dave Isay |
| University of Miami | One Book, One U | The Kissing Bug: A True Story of a Family, an Insect, and a Nation’s Neglect of a Deadly Disease, by Daisy Hernández |
| University of Michigan – Dearborn | Community Read | Verified: How to Think Straight, Get Duped Less, and Make Better Decisions About What to Believe Online, by Mike Caulfield and Sam Wineburg |
| University of Michigan – Flint | Common Read | No Ashes in the Fire: Coming of Age Black & Free in America, by Darnell L. Moore |
| University of Michigan, Engineering | Engineering Common Reading Experience | Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup, by John Carreyrou |
| University of Minnesota, Twin Cities – College of Education and Human Development | CEHD Reads | The Seed Keeper: A Novel, by Diane Wilson |
| University of Mississippi | Common Reading Experience | Build the Life You Want, by Arthur C. Brooks and Oprah Winfrey |
| University of Missouri – Kansas City | Roos Read | Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century, edited by Alice Wong |
| University of Missouri, Honors College | Honors College One Read | Solito, by Javier Zamora |
| University of Missouri, Law School | Mizzou Law One Read | The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America, by Richard Rothstein |
| University of Montana | Griz Reads | Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel |
| University of Nevada, Las Vegas | Common Reader | The Moth Presents: A Point of Beauty, by The Moth |
| University of New Orleans | One Book New Orleans | Black Creole Chronicles, by Mona Lisa Saloy |
| University of North Alabama | Mane Read | list of core readings that explore the idea of community: |
| • Students’ sense of campus community: What it means, and what to do about it (2004) by David X. Cheng | ||
| • The painful birth of blues and jazz (2017, February 24) by Stephanie Hall | ||
| • On social connection in university life (2012) by Sara Kathleen Henry | ||
| • Community, frame of reference, and boundary: Three sociological concepts and their relevance for virtual worlds research (2009) by J. Patrick Williams | ||
| University of North Carolina School of the Arts | First-Year Common Read | The Creative Act: A Way of Being, by Rick Rubin |
| University of Notre Dame – Glynn Family Honors Program | Glynn Summer Read | • Transcendent Kingdom, by Yaa Gyasi |
| • Reader, Come Home, by Maryanne Wolf | ||
| • Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver | ||
| University of Oregon | Common Reading | Hijab Butch Blues, by Lamya H |
| University of the Pacific | Common Book | I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times, by Mónica Guzmán |
| University of Pennsylvania – Graduate School of Education | One Book One GSE | Try to Love the Questions: From Debate to Dialogue in Classrooms and Life, by Lara Schwartz |
| University of Pittsburgh – Greensburg | Westmoreland Reads | What the Eyes Don’t See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City, by Mona Hanna-Attisha |
| University of Portland | ReadUP – One Book Together | Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, by Cheryl Strayed |
| University of Rhode Island | Center for the Humanities Big Read | Solito, by Javier Zamora |
| University of Saint Joseph | Common Read | Common theme: Resilience includes a list of nine recommended titles |
| University of San Diego | One Book, One San Diego / Just Read! | Know My Name: A Memoir, by Chanel Miller |
| University of South Alabama | Common Read | The Good Food Revolution: Growing Healthy Food, People, and Communities, by Will Allen |
| University of South Carolina Upstate | PREFACE | The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature, by J. Drew Lanham |
| University of Southern Mississippi | Common Read | World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments, by Aimee Nezhukumatathil |
| University of St. Francis | First Year Experience | Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones, by James Clear |
| University of Tennessee – Chattanooga | Read2Achieve | Waste: One Woman’s Fight Against America’s Dirty Secret, by Catherine Coleman |
| University of the District of Columbia | Freshman Book | Undocumented: A Dominican Boy’s Odyssey From a Homeless Shelter to the Ivy League, by Dan-El Padilla Peralta |
| University of the Incarnate Word | Honors Common Read | Poverty, by America, by Matthew Desmond |
| University of Toledo | Common Read | The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet, by John Green |
| University of Tulsa | Common Read | Exhalation, by Ted Chiang |
| University of Vermont | Learning Community Summer Reading | Redbone: The True Story of a Native American Rock Band, by Christian Staebler and Sonia Paoloni; Illustrated by Thibault Balahy |
| • March: Book Three, by John Lewis & Andrew Ayden | ||
| • Belonging: The Science of Creating, by Geoffrey Cohen | ||
| • Birding to Change the World Keeper, by Trish O’Kane | ||
| • Outliers: The Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell | ||
| • A Psalm for the Wild-Built, by Becky Chambers | ||
| • Tetris: The Games People Play, by Brian “Box” Brown | ||
| University of Vermont – Honors College | First-Year Summer Reading | The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable by Amitav Ghosh |
| University of Virginia – School of Education and Human Development | Common Read | What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma, by Stephanie Foo |
| University of Washington – Seattle, College of Arts and Sciences | CAS Big Read | Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines, by Dr. Joy Buolomwini |
| University of Wisconsin – Madison | Go Big Read | Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body, by Rebekah Taussig |
| University of Wisconsin – Stout | Honors Colloquium | Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well by Amy Edmondson |
| Ursinus College | Summer Readings – Common Intellectual Experience | • Dear Ijeawele: or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
| • “Allegory of the Cave,” from The Republic, by Plato | ||
| Vanderbilt University | Commons Reading | I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times, by Mónica Guzmán |
| Vassar College | Common Reading | The Prophets, by Robert Jones, Jr. |
| Villanova University – School of Business | Read to Lead | Turnaround Time: Uniting an Airline and Its Employees in the Friendly Skies, by Oscar Munoz and Brian DeSplinter |
| Virginia Commonwealth University | Common Reading | “Memory Wars,” a six-part podcast series created by Virginia journalists that explores how cultures deal with difficult histories |
| Viterbo University | First Year Student Common Read | Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country in America, by Sarah Smarsh |
| Wake Forest University | Project Wake | Project Wake Theme: Interconnectedness: A Call for Humanity, 34 titles to choose from |
| • A Psalm for the Wild-Built, by Becky Chambers | ||
| • Against Purity: Living Ethically in Compromised Times, by Alexis Shotwell | ||
| • Anxious People by Fredrick Backman | ||
| • Belonging, by Geoffrey L. Cohen | ||
| • Between the Listening and the Telling: How Stories Can Save Us, by Mark Yaconelli | ||
| • Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood, by Trevor Noah | ||
| • Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer | ||
| • Clifton Strengths for Students, by Gallup, Inc. | ||
| • Congratulations by the Way, by George Saunders | ||
| • Devout: a Memoir of Doubt, by Anna Gazmarian | ||
| • Divergent, by Veronica Roth | ||
| • Ducks, by Kate Beaton | ||
| • How Basketball Can Save the World, by David Hollander | ||
| • Intellectual Empathy, by Maureen Linker | ||
| Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, by Bryan Stevenson | ||
| Klara and the Sun, by Kazuo Ishiguro | ||
| • Mark Twain in India, by Mark Twain | ||
| • Rest is Resistance, by Tricia Hersey | ||
| Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O’Connell’s Urgent Mission to Bring Healing to Homeless People, by Tracy Kidder | ||
| • Running Red, by Noel Conrad | ||
| • Talking to Strangers, by Malcolm Gladwell | ||
| • The Humans, by Matt Haig | ||
| • The Life-Changing Science of Detecting Bullshit, by John V. Petrocelli | ||
| • The Measure, by Nikki Erlick | ||
| • The Revolt of the Black Athlete, by Dr. Harry Edwards | ||
| • The Stone Face, by William Gardner Smith | ||
| • The Unfiltered Enneagram: A Witty and Wise Guide to Self-Compassion by Liz Orr | ||
| • The Violin Conspiracy, by Brendan Slocumb | ||
| • The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love, by bell hooks | ||
| • To Stand With and For Humanity, collection of essay by Wake Forest Faculty, Staff, and Admin | ||
| • Together, by Vivek H. Murphy | ||
| Tomorrow, Tomorrow and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin | ||
| • Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals, by Alexis Pauline Gumbs | ||
| • Who’s Afraid of Gender?, by Judith Butler | ||
| Washburn University | iRead | Raft of Stars, by Andrew J. Graff |
| Washington and Lee University | First-Year Read / Common Book | Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston |
| Washington State University | WSU Common Reading | How the Other Half Eats, The Untold Story of Food and Inequality in America, by Priya Fielding-Singh, PhD. |
| Washington State University – Tri-Cities | Common Reading | How the Other Half Eats, The Untold Story of Food and Inequality in America, by Priya Fielding-Singh, PhD. |
| Washington State University – Vancouver | Freshman Common Read | How the Other Half Eats, The Untold Story of Food and Inequality in America, by Priya Fielding-Singh, PhD. |
| Wesleyan University | First Year Matters Common Experience | Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, by Robin Wall Kimmerer |
| West Kentucky Community & Technical College | One Book Read | A Pearl in the Storm: How I Found My Heart in the Middle of the Ocean, by Tori Murden McClure |
| West Shore Community College | Common Read | Klara and the Sun, by Kazuo Ishiguro |
| West Virginia University | Campus Read | The Complete Maus, by Art Spiegelman |
| Western Carolina University | One Book | Even As We Breathe: A Novel, by Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle |
| Westminster College (MO) | One Read | Migrations: A Novel, by Charlotte McConaghy |
| Westminster College (PA) | The Next Chapter: First Year Program | What the Eyes Don’t See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City, by Mona Hanna-Attisha |
| Wichita State University | WSU Reads | My Broken Language: A Memoir, by Quiara Alegría Hudes |
| William Woods University | One Read | Migrations: A Novel, by Charlotte McConaghy |
| Winona State University | WSU Common Book Project | Why We Act: Turning Bystanders Into Moral Rebels, by Catherine A. Sanderson |
| Yavapai College | Riders Read | Fit for the Gods: Greek Mythology Reimagined, by Jenn Northington and S. Zainab Williams |
| Last Updated | 12/18/2024 |
| Programs Reporting | 337 |
