What the Class of 2021 Had to Read This Summer

Each year I try to look and see what various Universities and Colleges assign as summer reading to the incoming Freshman class. In my day at least, my University did not even try to do this! Too big of a school–even with the various colleges within it, it was still too big. Today it’s a “thing” at many colleges. But the trend toward this assignment may be waning. Purdue apparently axed their summer read to save around $75,000. That’s a big chunk to give everyone one book that many will fake having read.

This year I found a few journalists had beat me to this assignment, so I’m linking here to those. There is occasional overlap, but I’ll let you read their lists to see what Stanford or other well-known colleges assigned this year. I’ve looked for some different schools, different books than the published news articles featured. National Public Radio (NPR), regarded by most as Liberal,  found still other titles. The National Review, a very Conservative publication for those who don’t know it by name, added its piece on summer reading to the mix as well. Here are the links to those articles:

Quartz: What Top College Students in the U.S. Are Reading This Summer

New York Times: Summer Reading Books; The Ties That Bind Colleges

NPR: Summer Reading For the College Bound

I’ve only read ONE book on this list–Hillbilly Elergy and I recommend it very highly. Here is my review and thoughts on the book.

My List of What the Class of 2021 Had To Read

 

Freshman Summer Reading	Class of 2021
Title	Author	University
Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka	Lev Golinkin	Boston College
Between The World And Me	Ta-Nehisi Coates	Wagner College
Between The World And Me	Ta-Nehisi Coates	Tulane
Between The World And Me	Ta-Nehisi Coates	Muhlenberg College
Book of Unknown Americans	Cristina Henríquez	Smith
Book That Changed America: How Darwin’s Theory of Evolution Ignited America	Randall Fuller	Skidmore
Citizen: An American Lyric	Claudia Rankine	Bard
Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio	Amara Lakhous	Rutgers (Honors College)
Deadly Wandering	Matt Richtel	Vermont
Distress: A Doctor’s Coming-of-Age on the Front Lines of American Medicine	Rachel Pearson	College of New Jersey
Few Good Men [play]	Aaron Sorkin	The Citadel
Freedom Summer	Bruce Watson	Lehigh
Gris Grimly’s Frankenstein	Gris Grimly	Siena College
Hillbilly Elergy	J.D. Vance	Wisconsin
Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits	Laila Lalami	Lafayette
Illegal	Lawrence Hill	Georgetown
Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything	James Martin	Fordham
Just Mercy	Bryan Stevenson	Bucknell
Just Mercy	Bryan Stevenson	Bates
Laughing Without an Accent: Adventures of a Global Citizen	Firoozeh Dumas	Texas Christian (TCU)
Life’s Golden Ticket	Brendan Burchard	Western New England U
Make Your Home Among Strangers	Jenine Capo Crucet	Whitman College
Make Your Home Among Strangers	Jenine Capo Crucet	Holy Cross
Outrage Industry	Jeffrey M. Berry and Sarah Sobieraj	Tufts
People of the Book	Geraldine Brooks	Westminster College
Prince of Los Cucyos	Richard Blanco	Duke
Radical Hope: Ethics in the Face of Cultural Devastation	Jonathan Lear	Bard
So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed	Jon Ronson	Ramapo College of NJ
Strong Inside	Andrew Maraniss	Vanderbilt
True American: Murder and Mystery in Texas	Anand Giridharadas	Lehigh
What Is Populism?	Jan-Werner Mueller	Princeton

 

Here is the link for last year’s post, What the Class of 2020 is Reading This Summer

Have you read any of these? Did you review them? Leave me a link to your review in the comments. Or, if you have a college-bound Freshman with a summer book that is not on this list, leave me the title and the name of the College or University and I’ll add it to the list.