Jump to 2020 Nominations | 2019 Nominations | 2018 Nominations | 2017 Nominations | 2016 Nominations
2022 Book Nominations
The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet - John Green
The Reckonings - Lacy M. Johnson
The Stakes is High - Mychal Denzel Smith
Radium Girls - Kate Moore
Redefining Normal - Justin & Alexis Black
How to Pronounce Knife: Stories - Souvankham Thammavongsa
Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood - Ibtisam Barakat
Balcony on the Moon: Coming of Age in Palestine - Ibtisam Barakat
Just Mercy - Bryan Stevenson
Make your bed: little things can change your life...and maybe the world - Admiral William H McRaven
The subtle art of not giving a F*ck - Mark Manson
The Power of Human - Adam Waytz
Friendship - Lydia Denworth
Team Human - Douglas Rushkoff
Punching the Air - Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam
Refugee - Alan Gratz
Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries - Safi Bahcall
Chasing Excellence - Pat Melgares
The Bystander Effect - Catherine Sanderson
We Art Not From Here - Jenny Torres Sanchez
Clap When You Land - Elizabeth Acevedo
The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure - Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt
Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning - Cathy Park Hong
The Vanishing Half- Brit Bennett
Hood Feminism: Notes From the Women That A Movement Forgot - Mikki Kendall
I Am a Girl from Africa - Elizabeth Nyamayaro
The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World - Simon Winchester
Destroy Your Student Loan Debt: The Step-by-Step Plan to Pay Off Your Student Loans Faster - Anthony ONeal
Who Killed Berta Cáceres? - Nina Lakhani
Inconspicuous Consumption - Tatiana Schlossberg
Polluted Promises - Melissa Checker
Braiding Sweetgrass - Robin Wall Kimmerer
Emergent Strategy - adrienne maree brown
Drawdown - Paul Hawken and Tom Steyer
The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together - Heather McGhee
2021 Book Nominations
Tuesdays with Morrie - Mitch Albom
The Racial Healing Handbook - Anneliese A. Singh
The Mothers - Britt Bennett
Cuz: The Life and Times of Michael A. - Danielle Allen
The Dew Breaker - Edwidge Danticat
Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth - Sarah Smarsh
And It Begins Like This - LaTanya McQueen
The Marrow Thieves - Cherie Dimaline
There There - Tommy Orange
Friendship- Lydia Denworth
The Power of Human - Adam Waytz
Team Human - Douglas Rushkoff
The Rosie Project - Graeme Simsion
Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging - Sebastian Junger
Love Thy Neighbor: A Muslim Doctor's Struggle for Home in Rural America - Ayaz Virji
Talking to Strangers - Malcolm Gladwell
Born a Crime - Trevor Noah
An Absolutely Remarkable Thing - Hank Green
World War Z - Max Brooks
The Sound of Waves - Yukio Mishima; Translated by Meredith Weatherby
Beartown - Fredrik Backman
Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel
Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang - Kate Wilhelm
Wool - Hugh Howey
This Book is Not Yet Rated - Peter Bognanni
The Day the World Came to Town - Jim DeFede
Flight Behavior - Barbara Kingsolver
Outcasts United: An American Town, a Refugee Team, and One Woman's Quest to Make a Difference - Warren St. John
We Fed an Island: The True Story of Rebuilding Puerto Rico, One Meal at a Time - Jose Andres
The Nightingale - Kristin Hannah
2020 Book Nominations
Below are titles of books students, staff, faculty, and community members nominated as the 2020 common book.
Semiosis - Sue Burke
The Lady and Her Monsters: A Tale of Dissections, Real-Life Dr. Frankensteins, and the Creation of Mary Shelley's Masterpiece - Roseanne Montillo
The Imitation Game: Alan Turing Decoded - Jim Ottaviani, illustrated by Leland Purvis
Trinity: A Graphic History of the First Atomic Bomb - Jonathan Fetter-Vorm
High Price - Carl Hart
The Optimist's Telescope - Bina Venkataraman
Memory of Water - Emmi Itäranta
The Water Knife - Paolo Bacigalupi
Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary - Linus Torvalds and David Diamond
Energy for Future Presidents: The Science Behind the Headlines - Richard A. Muller
Educated - Tara Westover
The Unwinding of the Miracle - Julie Yip-Williams
Breaking Night - Liz Murray
How to Bake Pi: An edible exploration of mathematics -Eugenia Cheng, Ph.D.
A Country Doctor - Sarah Orne Jewett
The Book of Lights - Chaim Potok
The Radium Girls - Kate Moore
Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II - Liza Mundy
My Brief History - Hawking, Stephen
Songs of the Gorilla Nation: My Journey Through Autism - Dawn Prince-Hughes Ph.D.
Struck by Genius: How a Brain Injury Made Me a Mathematical Marvel - Jason Padgett
Chasing Space: An Astronaut's Story of Grit, Grace, and Second Chances - Leland Melvin
Flight Of The Gin Fizz: Midlife At 4,500 Feet - Henry Kisor
Fallout - Jim Ottaviani, Janine Johnston, Steve Lieber, Vince Locke, Bernie Mireault and Jeff Parker
The Andromeda Strain - Michael Crichton
Losers in Space - John Barnes
Wool - Hugh Howey
The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Computer - Sydney Padua
Hidden Figures - Margot Lee Shetterly
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers - Mary Roach
The Good Food Revolution - Will Allen
The Mercury 13: The Untold Story of Thirteen American Women and the Dream of Space Flight - Martha Ackmann
Flu: The Story Of The Great Influenza Pandemic Of 1918 And The Search For The Virus That Caused It - Gina Kolata
Spaceman: An Astronaut's Unlikely Journey to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe - Mike Massimino
The Science Education of American Girls - Kim Tolley
Alan Turing: The Enigma - Andrew Hodges
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind - William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer
Autonomous - Annalee Newitz
The Martian - Andy Weir
Lab Girl - Hope Jahren
The Housekeeper and the Professor - Yoko Ogawa
An Abundance of Katherines - John Green
The Three Body Problem - Cixin Liu
2019 Book Nominations
Below are titles of books students, staff, faculty, and community members nominated as the 2019 common book.
- Butterfly: From Refugee to Olympian - My Story of Rescue, Hope, and Triumph - Yusra Mardini
- How to Disappear - Sharon Huss Roat
- Good Self, Bad Self: Transforming Your Worst Qualities into Your Biggest Assets - Judy Smith
- Super Better: A Revolutionary Approach to Getting Stronger, Happier, Braver and More Resilient--Powered by the Science of Games - Jane McGonigal
- Habit Stacking: 127 Small Changes to Improve Your Health, Wealth, and Happiness - S.J. Scott
- Win No Matter What: A Guide to Hyping Up Your Life - Nihar Suthar
- It's Kind of a Funny Story - Ned Vizzini
- I am the Messenger -Marcus Zusak
- We Need to Talk: How to Have Conversations That Matter - Celeste Headlee
- Reclaiming Conversation The Power of Talk in a Digital Age - Sherry Turkle
- The Last Lecture - Randy Pausch
- Percy Jackson and the lightning thief - Rick Riordan
- The Immortalists - Chloe Benjamin
- The Circle - Dave Eggers
- Autonomous - Annalee Newitz
- The Radium Girls - Kate Moore
- The Journey - Kaneil Harrison
- Furiously Happy - Jenny Lawson
- The Glass Castle - Jeannette Walls
- I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter - Erika L. Sánchez
- Turtles All the Way Down - John Green
- Mindsight: The New Science of Personal Transformation - Daniel Siegel
- Failing Up: How to Take Risks, Aim Higher, and Never Stop Learning - Leslie Odom Jr.
- Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom - Rick Hanson
- The Happiness Trap: How to Stop Struggling and Start Living - Russ Harris
- The Martian - Andy Weir
- Ready, Player One -Ernest Cline
- When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi
- Wonder - R. J. Palacio
- 10% Happier - Dan Harris
- Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness - Susannah Cahalan
- War Against the Animals - Paul Russell
- Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance - Angela Duckworth
- The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business - Charles Duhigg
- Walden on Wheels - Ken Ilgunas
- Ode to Kirihito - Osamu Tezuka
- I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter - Erika L. Sánchez
- Darius the Great Is Not Okay - Adib Khorram
- Butterfly - Yusra Mardini
- Hillbilly Elegy – JD Vance
- Vox - Christina Dalcher
- Turtles All the Way Down - John Green
- Beartown - Fredrik Backman
- Homegoing - Yaa Gyasi
- Grit - Angela Duckworth
- Hamilton: An American Musical
2018 Book Nominations
Below are titles of books students, staff, faculty, and community members nominated as the 2018 common book.
- Code Talker: The first and only memoir by one of the original Navajo code talkers of WWII - Chester Nez with Judith Schiess Avila
- Anti-Intellectualism in American Life - Richard Hofstadter
- The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation - Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón
- American Boys - Jason Reynolds, Brendan Kiely
- Ragtime - E.L. Doctorow
- Inside Out & Back Again - Thanhha Lai
- Autobiography of a Recovering Skinhead: The Frank Meeink Story - Frank Meeink
- The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
- Lab Girl - Hope Jahren
- Our Daily Bread; The Essential Norman Borlaug - Noel Vietmeyer
- The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - Michael Chabon
- Gaining Ground: A Story of Farmers' Markets, Local Food, and Saving the Family Farm - Forrest Pritchard
- Colored People - Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
- The Boys in the Boat - Daniel James Brown
- In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom - Yeonmi Park
- Exit West - Mohsin Hamid
- Natural Born Heroes: Mastering the Lost Secrets of Strength and Endurance - Christopher McDougall
- Americanah - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life - Karen Armstrong
- Born A Crime - Trevor Noah
- The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Rocket Boys - Homer Hickman
- How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent - Julia Alvarez
- The Mothers - Brit Bennett
- Behold the Dreamers: A Novel - Imbolo Mbue
- The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - Michael Chabon
- The Midnight Man - David Eric Tomlinson
- The Book of Unknown Americans - Cristina Henríquez
- The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian - Sherman Alexie
- Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
- Everything That Remains -Joshua Fields Millburn, Ryan Nicodemus
- A Different Beautiful: Discovering and Celebrating Beauty in Places You Never Expected - Courtney Westlake
- Life in a Jar: The Irena Sendler Project - Jack Mayer
- The Distance Between Us: A Memoir - Reyna Grande
- Breakpoint: The Changing Marketplace for Higher Education - Jon McGee
- Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis - Robert D. Putnam
- When I Was Puerto Rican - Esmeralda Santiago
- The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas
- Hillbilly Elegy - JD Vance
- The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Hidden Figures - Margot Lee Shetterly
2017 Book Nominations
Below are titles of books students, staff, faculty, and community members nominated as the 2017 common book.
Code Talker: The first and only memoir by one of the original Navajo code talkers of WWII - Chester Nez with Judith Schiess Avila
- Anti-Intellectualism in American Life - Richard Hofstadter
- The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation - Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón
- American Boys - Jason Reynolds, Brendan Kiely
- Ragtime - E.L. Doctorow
- Inside Out & Back Again - Thanhha Lai
- Autobiography of a Recovering Skinhead: The Frank Meeink Story - Frank Meeink
- The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
- Lab Girl - Hope Jahren
- Our Daily Bread; The Essential Norman Borlaug - Noel Vietmeyer
- The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - Michael Chabon
- Gaining Ground: A Story of Farmers' Markets, Local Food, and Saving the Family Farm - Forrest Pritchard
- Colored People - Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
- The Boys in the Boat - Daniel James Brown
- In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom - Yeonmi Park
- Exit West - Mohsin Hamid
- Natural Born Heroes: Mastering the Lost Secrets of Strength and Endurance - Christopher McDougall
- Americanah - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life - Karen Armstrong
- Born A Crime - Trevor Noah
- The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Rocket Boys - Homer Hickman
- How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent - Julia Alvarez
- The Mothers - Brit Bennett
- Behold the Dreamers: A Novel - Imbolo Mbue
- The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - Michael Chabon
- The Midnight Man - David Eric Tomlinson
- The Book of Unknown Americans - Cristina Henríquez
- The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian - Sherman Alexie
- Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
- Everything That Remains -Joshua Fields Millburn, Ryan Nicodemus
- A Different Beautiful: Discovering and Celebrating Beauty in Places You Never Expected - Courtney Westlake
- Life in a Jar: The Irena Sendler Project - Jack Mayer
- The Distance Between Us: A Memoir - Reyna Grande
- Breakpoint: The Changing Marketplace for Higher Education - Jon McGee
- Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis - Robert D. Putnam
- When I Was Puerto Rican - Esmeralda Santiago
- The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas
- Hillbilly Elegy - JD Vance
- The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Hidden Figures - Margot Lee Shetterly
2016 Book Nominations
Below are titles of books students, staff, faculty, and community members nominated as the 2016 common book.
- Deferred Interest -Ryan Pollyea
- Walk to Beautiful - Jimmy Wayne
- Tribe - Sebastian Junger
- Walden - Michael Dolan
- In The Country We Love: My Family Divided - Diane Guerrero
Jump to 2020 Nominations | 2019 Nominations | 2018 Nominations | 2017 Nominations | 2016 Nominations