Freshman Year Reading

1. In Other Rooms, Other Wonders

   Daniyal Mueenuddin

   Finalist for the 2009 National Book Award in Fiction: “The rural rootedness and gentle humour of R.K. Narayan with the literary sophistication and stylishness of Jhumpa Lahiri.”—Financial TimesMore

2. Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life

   Dacher Keltner

   “A landmark book in the science of emotions and its implications for ethics and human universals.”—Library Journal, starred reviewMore

3. The Garden of Last Days: A Novel

   Andre Dubus, III

   “So good, so damn compulsively readable, that I can hardly believe it.” —Stephen King, Entertainment WeeklyMore

4. The Post-American World

   Fareed Zakaria

   “Zakaria . . . may have more intellectual range and insights than any other public thinker in the West.” —Boston Sunday GlobeMore

5. Fugitive Denim: A Moving Story of People and Pants in the Borderless World of Global Trade

   Rachel Louise Snyder

   “A fascinating chronicle of the $55-billion-a-year global denim industry.” —David Futrelle, Los Angeles TimesMore

6. Earth: The Sequel: The Race to Reinvent Energy and Stop Global Warming

   Miriam Horn, Fred Krupp

   How to harness the great forces of capitalism to save the world from catastrophe.More

7. Let Me Stand Alone: The Journals of Rachel Corrie

   Rachel Corrie

   "A testament to how deeply we need the power and vision and energy of young women to transform the world."--Eve EnslerMore

8. The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google

   Nicholas Carr

   "Future Shock for the Web-apps era.... Compulsively readable—for nontechies, too."—Fast CompanyMore

9. The Telephone Gambit: Chasing Alexander Graham Bell's Secret

   Seth Shulman

   "A stellar example of historical investigation at its probing best."—Chuck Leddy, Boston GlobeMore

10. Someone Knows My Name: A Novel

    Lawrence Hill

    "Wonderfully written...as in the slave narratives that inspired it, language is power."—Nancy Kline, New York Times Book ReviewMore

11. The Lost Ravioli Recipes of Hoboken: A Search for Food and Family

    Laura Schenone

    A Newsday Best Cookbook of 2007: can a recipe change your life? A quest for an authentic dish reveals a mythic love story and age-old culinary secrets.More

12. The Last Chicken in America: A Novel in Stories

    Ellen Litman

    "[An] elegantly constructed web of stories about Russian-Jewish immigrants....Warm, true and original."—New York Times Book ReviewMore

13. The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story

    Diane Ackerman

    The New York Times bestseller: a true story in which the keepers of the Warsaw zoo saved hundreds of people from Nazi hands.More

14. Buzzed: The Straight Facts About the Most Used and Abused Drugs from Alcohol to Ecstasy

    Cynthia Kuhn, Scott Swartzwelder, Wilkie Wilson

    Third Edition

    The third edition of the essential, accessible source for understanding how drugs work and their effects on body and behavior.More

15. Inventing Human Rights: A History

    Lynn Hunt

    “A tour de force.”—Gordon S. Wood, New York Times Book ReviewMore