From award-winning fiction, poetry, memoir, and biography to new books about the environment, current events, history, public health, science, social justice, student success, and technology, 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 their reading journey when they return to campus. Selected titles include program mainstays as well as new titles from emerging authors that look at contemporary topics and issues facing young people today.
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The Small and the Mighty
From America’s favorite government teacher, a “fascinating and fun” (Adam Grant) portrait of twelve ordinary Americans whose courage formed the character of our country.
Learn MoreSharks Don't Sink
The uplifting story of a young Black scientist’s challenging journey to flourish outside the traditional confines of academia, inspired by her innate connection to nature’s most misunderstood animal—the shark.
Learn MorePoverty, by America
Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Nonfiction
The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Evicted reimagines the debate on poverty, making a “provocative and compelling” (NPR) argument about why it persists in America: because the rest of us benefit from it.
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unCommon Authors is a monthly video series highlighting exceptional and unique authors talking about their books. The authors in this collection are included in the series. Find the authors discussing their videos on each individual book page.
A “powerful” (The Guardian) reflection on basketball, life, and home—from the author of the National Book Award finalist A Little Devil in America. Longlisted for the National Book Award Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award 5:00 You will surely forgive me if I begin
Read more“To be a well-informed citizen of Planet Earth,” Rolling Stone has advised, “you need to read Elizabeth Kolbert.” From her National Magazine Award-winning series The Climate of Man to her Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Sixth Extinction, Kolbert’s work has shaped the way we think about the environment in the twenty-first century. Collected in Life on a Little-Known Planet are her most
Read moreA Harvard student from China discovers the fraught, hidden history of the Tiananmen Square massacre in this powerful novel of protest and suppression from the National Book Award–winning author. 1 In the fall of 2008, my sophomore year at Harvard, China’s premier came to visit and gave a speech. Urged by the officials of
Read moreFrom the celebrated writer J. Malcolm Garcia, a narrative nonfiction account of a forgotten Alabama neighborhood through intimate, tender, and gritty profiles of its people as they navigate immense loss and an unassailable determination to overcome their circumstances. Overture December 2020. A friend calls and tells me about a feature story he saw on PBS about
Read moreThe bestselling author of American Nations reveals how centuries-old regional differences have brought American democracy to the brink of collapse and presents a powerful story that can bridge our cultural divisions and save the republic. Introduction Democratic collapses, like bankruptcies, happen gradually and then all at once. So do collapses of countries. Americans are experiencing what
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