Academic First Year Experiences

Common Read 2019-2020 Announced

January 16, 2019

Educated book cover

 

The Common Read Selection Committee is thrilled to announce that The Far Away Brothers: Two Young Migrants and the Making of an American Life by Lauren Markham has just been chosen as CSUN's Freshman Common Read for 2019-2020!

Nominated by Carolyn Darin, a University 100 instructor, The Far Away Brothers appealed greatly to the members of the selection committee. The book is a deeply reported story of identical twin brothers who escape El Salvador’s violence to build new lives in California—fighting to survive, to stay, and to belong. Members of the committee were struck by how compelling and timely the book is, and how it easily meets all the criteria of our common reading program. The book focuses on the very personal story of the twin brothers while at the same time weaving a broader picture of immigration today. Themes found within include immigration, belonging, resilience, mental health, adolescence, education, and family. We believe that it will appeal to a wide variety of departments across campus and engage our first year students.

Though it hasn’t yet been updated to include next year’s selection, you can read more about the Common Reading Program at CSUN: https://www.csun.edu/undergraduate-studies/academic-first-year-experiences/common-read.

We are also already accepting nominations for the 2020 Common Reading book, so if you have a title you think would work (see criteria), please feel free to submit!