Common Reads® Presents 2018 First-Year Reading Roundup

By Sara Clemens | August 1 2018 | Common Reads

For the second year in a row, Common Reads has pulled together an extensive list of First-Year Reading programs run by colleges and universities across the country. Over 415 such programs exist, with facilitators choosing to build programming around an eclectic mix of titles, essays, and even drama scripts.

See below for a selection of Penguin Random House titles that have been chosen by some of these programs, then head over to the Common Reads site to view and/or download the full list of known programs and their title selections.

The Purpose and Passion of Work
9780143110071
Stories of passion, courage, and commitment, following individuals as they pursue the work they were born to do, from StoryCorps founder Dave Isay
$16.00 US
Apr 18, 2017
Paperback
288 Pages
Penguin Books

A Memoir
9781101873724
National Bestseller
$16.00 US
Feb 28, 2017
Paperback
304 Pages
Vintage

The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
9780307742483
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST 
$17.00 US
Apr 03, 2018
Paperback
416 Pages
Vintage

The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked
9780735222847
An urgent investigation into behavioral addiction, the dangerous effect of today's unavoidable digital technologies, and how to regain control.
$18.00 US
Mar 06, 2018
Paperback
368 Pages
Penguin Books


True Stories About Facing the Unknown
9781101904404
Selected for common reading at:
$28.00 US
Mar 21, 2017
Hardcover
352 Pages
Crown

A Novel (National Book Award Finalist)
9780804172448
Finalist for the National Book Award 
$18.00 US
Jun 02, 2015
Paperback
352 Pages
Vintage


A Novel
9780735212206
One of the most anticipated and thunderously greeted books of 2017: an astonishingly timely love story that brilliantly imagines the forces that transform ordinary people into refugees and the impossible choices that follow, to the uncertain embrace of new lands.
$18.00 US
Feb 27, 2018
Paperback
256 Pages
Riverhead Books

Poverty and Profit in the American City
9780553447453
Winner of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction | Winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction | Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction | Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction Finalist | Shortlisted for The PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction | Named One of the Best Books of the Year by The New York Times Book Review • The Boston Globe • The Washington Post • NPR • Fortune • San Francisco Chronicle • Milwaukee Journal Sentinel • St. Louis Post-Dispatch • Politico • Kirkus Reviews • Library Journal • Chicago Public Library • Publishers Weekly • Booklist • and others
$18.99 US
Feb 28, 2017
Paperback
448 Pages
Crown