Here’s what colleges are asking new students to read this year.
Today over at Forbes, Michael T. Nietzel gives a rundown of the books that colleges are assigning to their incoming students as a sort of conversation starter for the year ahead (and a first piece of homework that everyone can try to avoid together). It’s an interesting survey of the topics and authors that they’re prioritizing: some of the titles are well-beloved already, while others have reached a more limited audience; it’s great to see colleges highlighting those, as well as books on race, disability, and the environment.
It’s also a kind of unexpected Rorschach test; which of these would you want to read? (Based on this list alone, I’d probably end up at Smith, which, well, checks out.)
For anyone interested, here’s the list:
University of Mississippi: John Green, The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet
Smith College: Ruth Ozeki, The Book of Form and Emptiness
Seton Hall University: Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption
University of Delaware: Ahmed M. Badr, While the Earth Sleeps We Travel: Stories, Poetry, and Art from Young Refugees Around the World
Bucknell University: George Takei, They Called Us Enemy
University of North Carolina Charlotte: Scott Ellsworth, The Ground Breaking: An American City and Its Search for Justice
Sam Houston State University: Rebekah Taussig, Sitting Pretty: The View From My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body
Siena College: Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys
University of Idaho: Ijeoma Oluo, So You Want to Talk About Race
Washington State University: Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
Wichita State University: Kwame Onwuachi and Joshua David Stein, Notes from a Young Black Chef
Colorado College: Katherine E. Standefer, Lightning Flowers: My Journey to Uncover the Cost of Saving a Life
