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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
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