Common Reading Program

Goals

• To encourage students to read beyond textbooks
• To create a foundation for students to explore values and ethics
• To raise awareness and tolerance of intergenerational and cultural likenesses and differences
• To promote academic discourse and critical thinking
• To provide an introduction to the expectations of higher education
• To create a sense of community among incoming students
• To integrate an academic and social experience into the campus community

Past Selections

• 2012 The Other Wes Moore, by Wes Moore
• 2011 The Glass Castle, by Jeanette Walls
• 2010 The Soloist, by Steve Lopez
• 2009 Run, by Ann Patchett
• 2008 A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a boy soldier, by Ishmael Beah
• 2007 Behind The Veil: An American Woman's Memoir of the 1979 Iran Hostage Crisis, by Debra Johanyak
• 2006 Five Finger Discount, by Helene Stapinski
• 2005 Three Weeks with My Brother, by Nicholas Sparks
• 2004 Gum Dipped, by Joyce Dyer
• 2003 The Ditchdigger's Daughter, by Yvonne Thorton
• 2002 Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich
• 2001 October Sky, by Homer Hickam
• 2000 The Color of Water, by James McBride