What the Class of 2020 is Reading This Summer

As I said in yesterday’s post, I like to see what the assigned summer book is for in-coming college Freshmen. Some schools give a list to choose from, some assign a single book. For some students it is optional, for others required. Many colleges simply don’t bother with this. I like to see what it is though because often it sparks interest in the book for a wider audience. My methodology in compiling this is first to check and see if anyone else has done this–very likely, but I did not find one in my not-very-exhaustive Google searches! I’m sure some diligent librarian out there has done a libguide of it, but maybe I didn’t search hard enough? No matter. This year the book above–Just Mercy–is assigned in at least three colleges. I’ll likely read it just to see why.

Freshmen Summer Reading	Class 2020
Title	Author	University
Asking for It	Kate Harding	Tulane
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity	Katherine Boo	Sacred Heart U (CT)
Book of Unknown Americans	Cristina Henríquez	Gettysburg
Dorito Effect	Mark Schatzker	Lehigh
For Love of Country	Howard Schultz	MTSU
How to Win an Election	Cicero	TCU
Just Mercy	Bryan Stevenson	Duke
Just Mercy	Bryan Stevenson	NCSU
Just Mercy	Bryan Stevenson	St. Louis U
Lila	Marilynne Robinson	Scranton
Lives in Limbo: Undocumented and Coming of Age in America	Roberto G. Gonzales	Tufts
Loving Day	Mat Johnson	Bucknell
One Amazing Thing	Chitra Divakaruni	Clemson
Other Wes Moore	Wes Moore	Seton Hall
Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality	Danielle Allen	Princeton
Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail-but Some Don’t	Nate Silver	Northwestern
So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed	Jon Ronson	Appalachian State U
Spare Parts	Joshua Davis	Miami (OH)
Stealing Buddaha’s Dinner	Bich Minh Nguyen	Lehigh
Strong Inside	Andrew Maraniss	Vanderbilt
This I Believe	Jay Allison	U Louisiana Monroe
Where am I Wearing: A Global Tour to the Countries, Factories, and People That Make Our Clothes 2nd ed.	Kelsey Timmerman.	Ohio Northern U
Whisper of the River	Ferrol Sams	Mercer

838-02485143 © SuperStock / Masterfile Model Release: Yes Property Release: No Two college students sitting on a ledge and reading a book