Across the country, colleges and universities use “Common Reader” programs to kick off orientation and seed conversation on campus. The programs vary in name and scope, but they share the same aim of creating a shared intellectual experience for incoming college freshmen. Through these books, students begin to engage with the kind of dialogue and reflection that will shape their years ahead.
Now that many of last year’s seniors have settled in at college, some of them have spent the summer poring over these assigned books. The Midpeninsula Post has compiled a list of Common Readers that universities have selected, laid out for our readers’ convenience.
For their autumn semester, Stanford University has chosen “Selfless: The Social Creation of ‘You’,” a nonfiction book by Brian Lowery which explores how our identities are socially formed. For the spring semester, students will be reading “Free: Coming of Age at the End of History” by Lea Ypi, in which she describes her tumultuous childhood growing up in communist Albania.
“Generosity” is the theme of UC Berkeley’s summer reading list, a compilation of fiction and nonfiction books recommended by Cal staff and students. Each selection interprets generosity differently; in John Steinbeck’s “Grapes of Wrath,” collective emerges amid the collective hardships of the Joad family; in Javier Zamora’s “Solito: A Memoir,” generosity manifests through the strangers who guide a young boy on his migrant journey; and in Kristen Hannah’s war novel “The Nightingale,” generosity surfaces in the sacrifices made during wartime. Other novels take place in an entirely futuristic world, like Becky Chambers’s “A Psalm for the Wild-Built,” where robots gained consciousness and disappeared into the wilderness to evolve on their own, exploring generosity more philosophically.
As part of Duke University’s Common Experience, the university has selected Percival Everett’s “James,” a retelling of Huckleberry Finn, told from the perspective of an enslaved man, Jim, who learns he is to be sold and emancipates himself. This title was chosen to prompt conversation about history, representation and the black narrative voice.
Michael D. Gordin’s “On the Fringe: Where Science Meets Pseudoscience” is this year’s selection for Princeton University’s pre-read tradition. The book tries to define the term “pseudoscience,” which has recently become a buzzword commonly used in debates. The book was chosen for its great diversity of topics and lack of political affiliation. It explores topics from quantum mechanics to eugenics to UFOlogy, which could provide incoming students with a sweeping introduction to different topics they’ll be exposed to in the year.
Santa Clara University’s “Community Read” is a tradition established by the University Library to introduce first-year students to the intellectual expectations of college. This year, they’ve chosen the nonfiction book “We Need to Build Fieldnotes for Diverse Democracy” by Eboo Patel. The book describes how to build credible institutions to create social change, inspired by Patel’s own activist work and admiration for love-based activists such as Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi and John Lewis.
Instead of a book, UCLA’s Common Experience has chosen the television series “Reservation Dogs,” a comedy-drama that follows a group of teens who spend their days committing petty crimes to save money for their dream of moving to California. This journey is fueled by their grief over the recent death of their friend, Daniel, and their desire to escape their limited life on their reservation. The show was chosen for its exploration of the “beauty, resilience, culture and tenacity of Indigenous Peoples,” UCLA Professor of American Indian Studies Theresa Ambo said.
