Contributed by Lamya H, author of Hijab Butch Blues: A Memoir. Using some of the most famous stories in the Quran to make sense of her struggles and triumphs as a queer, devout Muslim immigrant, Lamya H tells her story, from childhood in the Middle East to her arrival in the United States for college

After his father’s death, Esau McCaulley went back through his family history, seeking to understand the community that shaped him: someone who, through hard work, faith, and determination, overcame childhood poverty, anti-Black racism, and an absent father to earn a job as a university professor and a life in the middle class. With profound honesty

With the fall semester in full swing, colleges and universities around the country have announced their Common Reading books for the upcoming 2023-24 academic year. We’ve compiled a list of over 330 programs and their title selections, which you can download here: First-Year Reading 2023-24. We will continue to update this listing to provide the

Contributed by Malaina Kapoor, co-author of Defiant Dreams: The Journey of an Afghan Girl Who Risked Everything for Education. A searing, deeply personal memoir of a tenacious Afghan girl who educated herself behind closed doors and fought her way to a new life, the book has received advance praise from Bill Gates, Sal Khan, and

Waiting to Be Arrested at Night is a poet’s account of one of the world’s most urgent humanitarian crises, and a harrowing tale of a family’s escape from genocide. One A Phone Call from Beijing I keep returning to the first day of 2013. That evening, I received an unexpected call from Ilham Tohti, an economics

We are delighted to present our new First-Year & Common Reading Catalog for 2024! From award-winning fiction and memoir to new books about science, technology, history, and current events, the titles presented in our common reading catalog will have students not only eagerly flipping through the pages, but also excited for the chance to discuss

In Solito, a young poet tells the inspiring story of his migration from El Salvador to the United States at the age of nine.   Winner of the Los Angeles Times Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiography Winner of the American Library Association Alex Award Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence and the PEN/Open Book Award Finalist for

Two-time world champion debater and former coach of the Harvard debate team, Bo Seo tells the inspiring story of his life in competitive debating and reveals the timeless secrets of effective communication and persuasion.   1. Topic How to find the debate On a Monday morning in January 2007, a couple of months after my graduation

The PRH CommonReads Advisory Board Convenes Virtually On April 26, 2023, the Penguin Random House First-Year Reading Advisory Board convened for their annual summit. 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. PRH Education received valuable information

By: Kristen Joiner “So, you’ve been a feminist and worked in human rights your whole career?” Judy Heumann asked me the first time we met to discuss the possibility of writing her memoir. “Right.” “And you never knew disability was a civil rights issue?” Since I’d already owned up to this, I nodded again. “So,

The book is based on your popular class Life Worth Living at Yale. What do you want readers to take away from the book?   Five things stand out to us: We want readers to have a deep conviction that the question of what makes life most worth living matters and confidence that they have

Contributed by Sara Nović, author of True Biz: A Novel. Following students at the River Valley School for the Deaf, True Biz is a story of sign language and lip-reading, disability and civil rights, isolation and injustice, first love and loss, and, above all, great persistence, daring, and joy. Absorbing and assured, idiosyncratic and relatable,