- Deceit and Other Possibilities by Vanessa Hua
- Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
- Uncommon Type: Some Stories by Tom Hanks
- It Takes a School by Jonathan Starr
- The Underground Girls of Kabul by Jenny Nordberg
- Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond
- Empty Hands: A Memoir by Sister Abegail Ntleko
- The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
BOOK SELECTION CRITERIA:
- Must be well written and engaging,
- Must offer topics and themes conducive to stimulating thoughtful discussion, calling for critical thinking about ideas, issues, practices, values, traditions, relationships, or beliefs.
- Must speak in a meaningful manner to our target audience (the entire campus community, but also newly entering freshmen we wish to win over to participating in and supporting a culture or reading).
- Must provide connecting opportunities for cross- and interdisciplinary corollary lectures, activities, presentations, and/or performances to encourage integration across wide and diverse sections of the SJSU community (and perhaps into a range of different class assignment possibilities).
- Must have received some critical praise or acclaim, with some evidence of popularity or the potential for popularity.
- Must be published within the last five years.
- Must be available in paperback by the time book orders for Summer Orientation sessions are due.
- Must not be made into a film before or during the year of its selection.
- Must not exceed 300 pages.
- Might speak to a significant “hot topic” current social issue, might have a special or particular tie to our campus history or local city and area culture and history.
(NOTE– On issues such as date of publication or page length, if the selection is extremely strong in other areas and gets very positive support from a majority of the committee, these criteria can be waived.)