CommonReads

19/08/2024

Read an excerpt from Barbara McQuade’s Attack from Within: How Disinformation Is Sabotaging America.

Attack from Within is an urgent, comprehensive explanation of the ways disinformation is impacting democracy.

15/08/2024

Forbes published a sampling of books assigned as college Common Readers this year.

Here are some of the books included in the list:

The University of Delaware, Mount Holyoke College, and Binghamton University selected I Never Thought of It That Way: How To Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations In Dangerously Divided Times by Monica Guzman.

The University of Mississippi selected Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier by Arthur C. Brooks and Oprah Winfrey.

Duke University selected All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis, edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine Wilkinson.

The University of Tulsa selected Exhalation by Ted Chiang.

The University of Idaho selected The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green.

California State Polytechnic University, Pomona selected Crying in H-Mart by Michelle Zauner-Pomona selected Crying in H-Mart by Michelle Zauner.

Find the full list here:

The common reader is a tradition where colleges assign new students the same book as the basis for an ongoing campus discussion. Here are ten of this year's choices.

13/08/2024

Read an excerpt from Karla Cornejo Villavicencio’s Catalina.

Catalina is a year in the life of the unforgettable Catalina Ituralde, a wry and heartbreakingly vulnerable student at an elite college.

09/08/2024

We’re pleased to announce the launch of a series of resources designed to deepen student and faculty learning and engagement with Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier co-written by Arthur C. Brooks and Oprah Winfrey to support first-year reading and orientation programs, as well as other campus reading programs.

We’re pleased to announce the launch of a series of resources designed to deepen student and faculty learning and engagement with Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier to support first-year reading and orientation programs, as well as other campus reading programs. As a s...

07/08/2024

Read an excerpt from Patrick J. Kennedy and Stephen Fried’s Profiles in Mental Health Courage.

Profiles in Mental Health Courage portrays the dramatic journeys of a diverse group of Americans who have struggled with their mental health.

29/07/2024

Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson has become one of the most banned books in the country with teachers, librarians, and community leaders fighting to keep this seminal book on shelves.

Riverhead Books has created a special “Defense Kit” to aid those seeking to defend Red at the Bone and freedom of expression itself. The Kit features a letter from Jacqueline W., discussion questions from other literary luminaries, testimonials from educators, and more. View the Defense Kit here:

Red at the Bone has become one of the most banned books in the country with teachers, librarians, and community leaders fighting to keep this seminal book on shelves. Riverhead Books has created a special “Defense Kit” to aid those seeking to defend Red at the Bone and freedom of expression itse...

19/07/2024

“Chain Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah should be taught on every college campus, as well as The Bluest Eye, but I'm sure both will be.”

Read more:

The author of Sisters First and Ana's Story: A Journey of Hope takes our literary survey.

16/07/2024

Read an excerpt from Margaret Juhae Lee’s Starry Field: A Memoir of Lost History.

Starry Field is a memoir by journalist Margaret Juhae Lee, who sets out on a search for her family’s history lost to Korea’s colonial decades.

12/07/2024

Read an excerpt from Scott Doorley and Carissa Carter’s Assembling Tomorrow: A Guide to Designing a Thriving Future from the Stanford d.school.

Assembling Tomorrow is a powerful guide to why even the most well-intentioned innovations go haywire, and the ways we can change course.

09/07/2024

Find illustrations from Marjane Satrapi’s Woman, Life, Freedom through the link below.

Woman, Life, Freedom is an urgent new collection of graphic story-telling about the present Iranian revolution.

08/07/2024

Read an excerpt from Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness.

The investigation into the collapse of youth mental health in the era of smartphones, social media, and big tech.

26/06/2024

Find a selection of titles about Ethics for College & University Common Reading programs here:

25/06/2024

Find a selection of our newest titles for College & University Common Reading programs here:

24/06/2024

Find a selection of our most frequently adopted titles for College & University Common Reading programs here:

20/06/2024

Read an excerpt from Sola Mahfouz and Malaina Kapoor’s Defiant Dreams: The Journey of an Afghan Girl Who Risked Everything for Education.

A searing, deeply personal memoir of a tenacious Afghan girl who educated herself behind closed doors and fought her way to a new life.

17/06/2024

Read an excerpt from Julie Bogart’s Becoming a Critical Thinker: A Workbook to Help Students Think Well in an Age of Disinformation.

Becoming a Critical Thinker is a practical resource to grow students’ ability to think well in an age of information overload.

14/06/2024

Read an excerpt from Jaclyn Moyer’s On Gold Hill: A Personal History of Wheat, Farming, and Family, from Punjab to California.

On Gold Hill is a South Asian American woman’s story of reconnecting with her identity, family, and heritage through sustainable farming.

11/06/2024

Read an excerpt from Clayton Page Aldern’s The Weight of Nature: How a Changing Climate Changes Our Brains.

The Weight of Nature is a deeply reported, eye-opening book about climate change, our brains, and the weight of nature on us all.

05/06/2024

On April 23, 2024, the Penguin Random House First-Year Reading Advisory Board convened for their annual summit. 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. PRH Education received valuable information about the opportunities and needs of common reading programs, as well as feedback on specific titles ideal for the academic space.

Read more here:

The PRH CommonReads Advisory Board Convenes Virtually On April 23, 2024, the Penguin Random House First-Year Reading Advisory Board convened for their annual summit. The Board members, representing a variety of public and private higher education institutions of varying sizes, came together to excha...

21/05/2024

Read an excerpt from Ethan Mollick’s Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI.

From Wharton professor Ethan Mollick comes the definitive playbook for working, learning, and living in the new age of AI.

15/05/2024

Watch author Clayton Page Aldern discuss The Weight of Nature: How a Changing Climate Changes Our Brains.

is a video series highlighting exceptional and unique authors talking about their books.

Here is a deeply reported, eye-opening book about climate change, our brains, and the weight of nature on us all.

14/05/2024

Read an excerpt from Noé Álvarez’s Accordion Eulogies: A Memoir of Music, Migration, and Mexico.

Accordion Eulogies is an odyssey to repair a severed family lineage, told through the surprising history of a musical instrument.

13/05/2024

Watch authors Sola Mahfouz and Malaina Kapoor discuss DEFIANT DREAMS: The Journey of an Afghan Girl Who Risked Everything for Education.

is a video series highlighting exceptional and unique authors talking about their books.

Defiant Dreams is a personal memoir of a tenacious Afghan girl who educated herself behind closed doors and fought her way to a new life.

24/04/2024

Author Benjamin Herold discusses researching this book, Disillusioned: Five Families and the Unraveling of America's Suburbs, as well as the impact that it has had on his undergraduate students.

Outside Atlanta, a middle-class Black family faces off with a school system seemingly bent on punishing their teenage son. North of Dallas, a conservative white family relocates to an affluent suburban enclave, but can’t escape the changes sweeping the country. On Chicago’s North Shore, a multir...

22/04/2024

Read an excerpt from Yashica Dutt’s Coming Out as Dalit: A Memoir of Surviving India's Caste System.

The coming-of-age story of a Dalit individual that illuminates systemic injustice in India and its growing impact on US society.

15/04/2024

Read an excerpt from Edward Humes’ Total Garbage: How We Can Fix Our Waste and Heal Our World.

An investigative narrative that dives into the waste embedded in our daily lives and shows how communities are making a real difference.

10/04/2024

Read an excerpt from Clancy Martin’s How Not to Kill Yourself: A Portrait of the Suicidal Mind.

How Not to Kill Yourself examines why the thought of death is so compulsive for some while demonstrating that there’s always another solution.

09/04/2024

Read an excerpt from Lakiesha Carr’s An Autobiography of Skin.

A masterful portrait of interconnected generations in the South that offers a raw and tender view into the interior lives of Black women.

08/04/2024

Read an excerpt from Matthew Desmond's Poverty, by America.

Matthew Desmond reimagines the debate on poverty, making an argument about why it persists in America: because the rest of us benefit from it.

25/03/2024

Read an excerpt from Sheila Liming’s Hanging Out: The Radical Power of Killing Time.

Hanging Out: The Radical Power of Killing Time shows us what we have lost to the frenetic pace of digital life and how to get it back.