2020 Catalogs for First-Year & Common Reading

We are delighted to present our new First-Year reading catalogs for 2020! From award-winning fiction and memoir to new books about science, technology, history and current events, the titles presented in our college reading catalogs will have students not only eagerly flipping through the pages, but also excited for the chance to discuss their reading

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The Water Dancer Is the Inaugural Pick for the New Oprah’s Book Club

On Monday, September 23, Oprah Winfrey announced that The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates is the inaugural selection for the new iteration of Oprah’s Book Club, a partnership between Winfrey and Apple. Coates appeared alongside Winfrey on CBS This Morning as the selection was made public. In a YouTube video shared on the Oprah Winfrey

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Interviews, Reviews, and News: Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments

The Testaments, Margaret Atwood’s sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, has been called the most anticipated novel of the year. Gilead and the world of the handmaids have inspired a successful TV adaptation, as well as protests against U.S. healthcare restrictions and the controversial confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Awarded the 2019 Booker Prize, The Testaments has

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A Yale Law Professor’s Stand Against Meritocracy

In his new book The Meritocracy Trap, Yale Law School professor Daniel Markovits presents a revolutionary new argument attacking the false promise of our so-called meritocracy. Americans still hold tight to the meritocratic ideal: that social and economic rewards should follow achievement; that social mobility should be possible, if hard-earned. But today, meritocracy has become

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Barack Obama Shares His 2019 Summer Reading List

Summer might be ending soon, but there’s still time to pick up some of Barack Obama’s seasonal reading picks!   Last month, former President Barack Obama continued his annual tradition of sharing his summer reading list on his Facebook Page, and many of his selections are published by Penguin Random House imprints. Mr. Obama begins

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The Booker Prize 2019 Finalists

We are thrilled that two Penguin Random House authors, Margaret Atwood and Salman Rushdie, have been honored as finalists for the 2019 Booker Prize. The Booker Prize is the leading literary award in the English speaking world, which has brought recognition, reward and readership to outstanding fiction for over 50 years. It is awarded annually

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FROM THE PAGE: Beaten Down, Worked Up

In recent years, corporate profits have skyrocketed in the United States. Workers often haven’t seen the same good fortune as their employers, with wages on average remaining stagnate or seeing only slight increases after inflation. In this excerpt from Beaten Down, Worked Up, reporter Steven Greenhouse shares the struggles faced by many Americans, their stories

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CONFERENCE PREVIEW: American Political Science Association

  For over 100 years, the APSA has supported over 12,000 members from more than eighty different countries by bringing together political scientists from all fields of inquiry, regions, and occupational endeavors within and outside academe to deepen our understanding of politics, democracy, and citizenship throughout the world. The annual meeting gives attendees the opportunity

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Interviews, Reviews, and News: Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys

Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad received glowing critical reception upon its publication, earning him the National Book Award and the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. His highly anticipated follow-up novel The Nickel Boys faced the threat of being overshadowed by its predecessor, but has quickly earned a spotlight of its own. We’ve put together a

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50th Anniversary of Apollo 11 Moon Landing

July 20, 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin from Apollo 11. On this day in 1969, 530 million people (according to NASA) watched a live global broadcast!   If you’re looking to use this historic milestone as a jumping-off point to get students interested in all

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Celebrating Gabriel García Márquez (Celebrando Gabriel García Márquez)

Journalist, novelist, and short story writer—no matter the medium, master storyteller Gabriel García Márquez knew how to transport readers from around the world to Latin America. With his signature mix of realism and the fantastic, García Márquez’s words brought to life the history and culture of an entire continent. As a way to celebrate the

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FROM THE PAGE: Eat Like A Fish

Seaweed is a sustainable, easy-to-produce ocean vegetable that has a positive impact on climate change and our environment. Why then is it not a staple ingredient used in American kitchens? In his recently published memoir, fisherman-turned-ocean farmer Bren Smith aims to change that through his tales of ocean-bound adventure and culinary re-imagination. In the following

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