What Students Will Be Reading: Campus Common Reading Roundup, 2024-25

By Coll Rowe | October 23 2024 | College & University Reads

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 336 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 Great Read Series 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 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 11/15/2024
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