Auburn University has chosen The Circle by Dave Eggers as their 2017 Common Book. Auburn is the 26th college or university to select The Circle for their common reads program. This novel, which is soon to be a major motion picture, follows idealistic Mae Holland after she is hired to work for the world’s most powerful

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

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

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

Ken Ilgunas delivers an unforgettable tribute to the Great Plains and the people who live there with this account of his journey along the proposed Keystone XL route.

Garrard Conley, a survivor of the controversial “ex-gay” therapy movement, describes his traumatic experience as a gay man growing up in the South. In the years following his escape from extreme prejudice, he has learned one important lesson: compassion has the power to heal wounds, but it’s also one of the messiest human emotions.

Twitter has become a stage for constant artificial high drama, where every day a new person emerges as either a magnificent hero or a sickening villain.

War photographer Lynsey Addario’s memoir IT’S WHAT I DO will be read by the 2017 incoming Penn State class as part of the Penn State Reads program.

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

By Emily Esfahani Smith, author of The Power of Meaning: Crafting a Life That Matters (Crown, January 2017) When I was a senior in high school, I thought I knew what I wanted to do with my life: I was going to be a doctor. I loved science, and easing the suffering of others, I

By Wayne Maines, father of Nicole Maines.  The Maines family is the focus of Amy Ellis Nutt’s Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family (Random House, October 2015) Recently I had the opportunity to speak at Bowdoin College, in Brunswick, Maine. Before the lecture I spent an hour walking around their beautiful campus, thinking

By Matthew Desmond, author of Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City (Crown, March 2016) I began this project because I wanted to write a different kind of book about poverty in America. Instead of focusing exclusively on poor people or poor places, I began searching for a process that involved poor and well-off