October 7, 2019

The Poisoned City

By Anna Clark. Read about it on Amazon.

October 7, 2019

The Sixth Extinction

By Elizabeth Kolbert. Read about it on Amazon.

October 7, 2019

Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore

By Elizabeth Rush. Read about it on Amazon.

October 7, 2019

The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature

By Drew Lanham. Read about it on Amazon.

October 7, 2019

The Honey Bus: A Memoir of Loss, Courage and a Girl Saved by Bees

By Meredith May. Read about it on Amazon.

The purpose of this blog is to enable people to provide comments on books being considered by the selection committee. You can also see the comments of the selection committee members. State what you like and dislike about the books listed and whether you think it would be appropriate as the campus reading book and why. Please consult and use the established criteria for the CRP selection (See the list of bulletpoints.)

Thank you.

Caution: There are spoilers in the comments to the posts.

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 of 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.)

SJSU Campus Reading Program Committee Book Selection

San Jose State University

The Poisoned City

The Sixth Extinction

Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore

The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature

The Honey Bus: A Memoir of Loss, Courage and a Girl Saved by Bees