Freshman Reads – Required Reading

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9czrjGRcEWhen a good friend, and an alumna of Mt. Holyoke, mentioned Americanah as the college’s choice for the incoming freshman class, I wondered what other books were on the agenda for freshmen.  At most colleges new students come to campus ready to debate and analyze the book.   Here’s a short list –

See your school?  Read the books?  Have one to add?

Freshman Summer Reads

  • Duke University: Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
  • Tufts Univeristy: Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation by Eboo Patel
  • Cornell University: Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
  • University of Pennsylvania: The Big Sea by Langston Hughes
  • Columbia University: The Iliad by Homer
  • Johns Hopkins University: The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood by Ta-Nehisi Coates
  • The Pennsylvania State University: The Boom by Russell Gold
  • University of Maryland: Head Off and Split by Nikky Finney
  • University of Vermont: The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman
  • New York University:  Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

and Berkelely has a Summer Sampler – books not required but a great recommended list: http://reading.berkeley.edu/

 

 

 

 

2 thoughts on “Freshman Reads – Required Reading”

  1. Interesting list of books. I especially like the Berkeley list you attached and would like to pick up a few of these, notably Vikram Chandra’s book, Jar City and French Lessons. I will put them on my TBR, thanks.

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