Nominations
Nominations for the 2027-28 common book are open!
There is not a specific theme for next year, so you can nominate a broad range of books that positively impact first-year student success and learning. Examine our selection criteria and the previous nominations below to determine if your nomination might be a good fit for our program and first-year K-State students!
Past Nominations
Explore the nominations for previous years if you are looking for inspiration or just for a good book to read.
Full list coming soon!
- Callings by Dave Isay
- Americanah - Chimanda Ngozi Adichie
- Gaza Writes Back: Short Stories from Young Writers in Gaza, Palestine - Refaat Aleer
- First Gen - Alejandra Campoverdi
- Braving the Wilderness - Brene Brown
- Just Mercy - Bryan Stevenson
- Between the World and Me - Ta-NehisiCoates
- American Dirt - Jeanine Cummins
- The Girl with the Louding Voice - Abi Dare
- The Measure - Nikki Erlick
- Driving the Green Book: A Road Trip Through the Living History of Black Resistance - Alvin Hall
- Exit West - Mohscin Hamid
- Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist - Judith Heumann
- Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman
- March: Book One John Lewis - Andrew Aydin
- Klara and the Sun - Kazuo Ishiguro
- You are Changing the World: Whether You Like it or Not - David LaMotte
- The Cancelling of the American Mind - Greg Lukianoff
- The Stars Beneath Our Feet - David Barclay Moore
- News from Nowhere - William Morris
- How High We Go In The Dark - Sequoia Nagamatsu
- Our Missing Hearts - Celeste Ng
- The Berry Pickers - Amanda Peters
- How to Stand up to a Dictator - Maria Ressa
- The Gift of Perspective - Roy Lindsey
- Milkweed - Jerry Spineli
- Dear Martin - Nic Stone
- Educated: A Memoir - Tara Westover
- Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body - Rebekah Taussig
- Slaughterhouse-Five: The Graphic Novel - Kurt Vonnegut
- The Martian - Weir Andy
- The Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead
- Now is Not the Time To Panic - Kevin Wilson
- A Man Called Ove - Fredrik Backman
- The Belles - Dhonielle Clayton
- How You Say It: Why We Judge Others by the Way They Talk—and the Costs of This Hidden Bias - Katherine Kinzler
- Deaf Utopia: A Memoir―and a Love Letter to a Way of Life - Nyle DiMarco and Robert Siebert
- Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century - Alice Wong
- What the Eyes Don't See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City - Mona Hanna-Attisha
- On the Line: Two Women's Epic Fight to Build a Union - Daisy Pitkin
- Saving Us: A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World - Katharine Hayhoe
- The Good Food Revolution: Growing Healthy Food, People, and Communities - Will Allen
- Good Arguements - Bo Seo
- Solito Javier - Zamora
- The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse - Charlie Mackesy
- Radical Inclusion: Seven Steps to Help You Create a More Just Workplace, Home and World - David Moinina Sengeh
- Coyote America: A Natural and Supernatural History - Dan Flores
- Long Way Down - Jason Reynolds
- A Long Walk To Water - Linda Sue Park
- The Humans - Matt Haig
- Milk and Honey - Rupi Kaur
- Lore Olympus: Volume One - Rachel Smythe- Persephone
- The Comfort Crisis - Michael Easter
- Long Way Down - Jason Reynolds
- I Am Strong: The Life and Journey of an Autistic Pastor - Lamar Hardwick
- Mario Barradas and Son Jarocho: The Journey of a Mexican Regional Music - Yolanda Broyles-González
- John Lewis: Making Good Trouble - Amanda Jackson Green
- Sisters of the Lost Nation - Nick Medina
- Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel
- The Measure - Nikki Erlick
- Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen - Jose Antonio Vargas
- The Summer We Got Free - Mia McKenzie
- Lot: Stories - Bryan Washington
- Jonny Appleseed - Joshua Whitehead
- The Sweetness of Water - Nathan Harris
- Fruit of the Drunken Tree - Ingrid Rojas Contreras
- Guapa - Saleem Haddad
- Melissa (previously published as GEORGE) - Alex Gino
- A Different Kind of Daughter: The Girl Who Hid from the Taliban in Plain Sight - Maria Toorpakai with Katherine Holstein
- The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America - Thomas King
- Melissa (previously published as GEORGE) - Alex Gino
- We Are Not From Here - Jenny Torres Sanchez
- A Different Kind of Daughter: The Girl Who Hid from the Taliban in Plain Sight - Maria Toorpakai with Katherine Holstein
- Hunger- Roxane Gay
- Shrill - Lindy West
- Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood - Marjane Satrapi
- Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation - Eboo Patel
- Being Heumann - Judith Heumann & Kristen Joiner
- The United States Constitution: A Graphic Adaptation - Jonathan Hennessey
- Maus I & II - Art Spiegelman
- Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century - Alice Wong
- Listening Is an Act of Love - Dave Isay
- Letter to a Young Female Physician: Thoughts on Life and Work - Suzanne Koven
- Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants - Robin Wall Kimmerer
- All Boys Aren't Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto - George M. Johnson
- This Land is My Land: A Graphic History of Big Dreams, Micronations, and Other Self-Made States - Andy Warner
- Credo: The Rose Wilder Lane Story - Peter Bagge
- Queer: A Graphic History - Meg-JohnBarker
- They Called Us Enemy - George Takei
- Educated: A Memoir - Tara Westover
- Mind and Matter: A Life in Math and Football -John Urschel
- Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet - Claire L. Evans
- Lab Girl - Hope Jahren
- Free: A Child and a Country at the End of History - Lea Ypi
- The Lives of Campus Custodians - Insights Into Corporatization and Civic Disengagement in the Academy - Peter Magolda
- This Is How It Always Is - Laurie Frankel
- Know My Name - Chanel Miller
- Born A Crime; Stories from a South African Childhood - Trevor Noah
- Last Summer on State Street - Toya Wolfe
- Good Kings Bad Kings - Susan Nussbaum
- Boys and Oil: Growing Up Gay in a Fractured Land - Taylor Brorby
- Son of Elsewhere: A Memoir in Pieces -Elamin Abdelmahmoud
- Braiding Sweetgrass -Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Kindred - Octavia Butler
- Q & A - Vikas Swarup
- Butterfly - From Refugee to Olympian - Yusra Mardini
- Homegoing - Yaa Gyasi
- City of Veils - Zoe Ferraris
- Between the World and Me - Ta-Nehisi Coates
- On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous - Ocean Vuong
- Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World--and Why Things Are Better Than You Think - Hans Rosling
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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