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K-State First Book (KSFB)

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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

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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

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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

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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

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