2017 Summer Reading: Freshman Spare Parts Into the Beautiful North

• Common Reading
  • The Book
  • About the Author
  • What to Expect
  • Events
  • Activities for Teaching

Building Connections Through Literature

The Mutual Reading Program affords students the opportunity of participating in a common curricular experience that creates customs and a common footing for word.

The program is tailored specifically for incoming first-yr students. Students are expected to have read the book before the commencement day of grade and will join together with faculty and peers to discuss and think critically about primal concepts. The Common Reading Program will encourage students to partake in intellectual appointment and will create a sense of customs among newly admitted Panthers.

Virtually the Program

The FIU Mutual Reading Program is targeted specifically at incoming beginning-year students as an introduction to the academic expectations of the university. It is an endeavour to create a shared intellectual point of appointment for showtime-year students and create a sense of community.

As a FIU freshman, they will read the selected common reading volume before the beginning twenty-four hour period of class. Faculty and staff also read the book and appoint students and others in discussions that challenge all to think critically about the text.

Common reading programs are increasingly popular features of start-year programs at colleges and universities across the nation. After our pilot plan in 2008, both students and instructors in our first-year seminars reported a loftier level of communal and bookish date every bit a result of integrating the mutual reading into the curriculum.

Common Reading Video

Common Reading History

• "A Dream Called Home" (2020-2021, Class of 2024)
• "Determined" (2019-2020, Grade of 2023)
• "A Stone of Promise" (2018-2019, Course of 2022)
• "The Promise of a Pencil" (2017-2018, Class of 2021)
• "In Order to Live" (2016-2017, Class of 2020)
• "The Prince of Los Cocuyos" (2015-2016, Form of 2019)
• "No Turning Dorsum" (2014-2015, Course of 2018)
• "Wine to H2o" (2013-2014, Class of 2017)
• "I'm Down" (2012-2013, Class of 2016)
• "The Red Umbrella" (2011-2012, Class of 2015)
• "A Chant to Soothe Wild Elephants" (2010-2011, Course of 2014)
• "Funny in Farsi" (2009-2010, Class of 2013)
• "Breath, Eyes, Retentivity" (Pilot study, Course of 2012)

Mutual Reading Essay

Every year, first year students are welcome to submit their essays for the Common Reading Essay Contest. The essay competition (with cash prizes) will be held in the Spring semester. Students will be able to upload their essays commencement on June 21st, 2021!

Upload an Essay

2021-2022 Common Reading Volume Selection

E'er since she was a child, Rebekah Taussig has had to figure out how to navigate a world that not only ignores her merely is non congenital for her as a woman who uses a wheelchair. Despite the ways society represents (or in some cases, does not stand for) disabled people, Rebekah was able to carve her own path and figure out the means in which she can alive a fulfilling and wonderful life. Along with curating her Instagram (@Sitting_Pretty) which features micro-essays about her life as a disabled woman alongside photos of her with her family, plants and/or thrifted clothing, she has her hands full with teaching her high school students.

This Year'due south Essay Prompt

Using your critical thinking skills, select a theme, character, or event from Rebekah's story that you can relate to, and write a 2-three page reflective essay. Be sure to include examples from Rebekah's life and your life, and how you tin can relate the ii.

Learn More than About Past Books

• "A Dream Chosen Home" (2020-2021)

  Virtually the Book for 2020-2021

  Nearly the Volume
  Reyna Grande - "A Dream Called Home"

  As an immigrant in an unfamiliar country, with an indifferent mother and calumniating father, Reyna had few resource at her disposal. Taking refuge in words, Reyna'southward love of reading and writing propels her to rise in a higher place until she achieves the impossible and is accepted to the University of California, Santa Cruz.

  Although her acceptance is a triumph, the actual experience of American college life is intimidating and unfamiliar for someone like Reyna, who is at present estranged from her family and back up system. Again, she finds solace in words, holding fast to her vision of condign a writer, only to find she knows naught about what it takes to make a career out of a dream.

  Through it all, Reyna is determined to make the impossible possible, going from undocumented immigrant of piddling means to "a fierce, smart, shimmering light of a writer" (Cheryl Strayed, writer ofWild); a National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist whose "power is growing with every book" (Luis Alberto Urrea, Pultizer Prize finalist); and a proud mother of two beautiful children who volition never have to know the pain of poverty and fail.

  Told in Reyna'south exquisite, heartfelt prose,A Dream Called Habitation demonstrates how, past daring to pursue her dreams, Reyna was able to build the one affair she had always longed for: a home that would endure.

  Media

  Author'due south Visit

• "Adamant" (2019-2020)

  Near the Book for 2019-2020

  Nigh the Volume
  Martin Baranek – "Determined"

  After the Nazis invaded his shtetl in World State of war Two, young Martin Baranek went on to survive the ghetto, a labor army camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, the death march, and Mauthausen. With his undying spirit—and a series of miracles—Martin escaped the train headed for Treblinka, where the majority of his family perished, and was twice sent to the quarantine barracks in Birkenau to be sent to the gas chambers. Twice he escaped with only moments to spare. Determined is well-nigh Martin'due south journeying- a triumph of hope over despair.

  "If Martin Baranek's memoir of his hellish journey were fiction, I would dismiss it as beyond comprehension. The fact that in this book Martin's own words show in some particular to his experiences from ghetto to work military camp to extermination camps to death march to liberation and eventual arrival to the Land of State of israel, powerfully teaches us that the unbelievable actually happened. This is an eye opening window into humanity at its lowest and cruelest. It is also one human being'due south intense will to survive and rebuild his life anew. I found it riveting and gut wrenching. Martin Baranek's journeying is a triumph of hope over despair."
  -Rabbi Gary Glickstein

  "I first encountered Martin Baranek as an clear and reflective survivor in the course of my inquiry on the Wierzbnik ghetto and the Starachowice slave labor camps. As his powerful memoir records, these were only the first ii circles of Hitler's inferno through which he descended in the years of the Holocaust. They were followed by Birkenau, Mauthausen, and Gunskirchen, with each stage of his incredible odyssey more challenging and horrifying that the previous 1. Martin's overall story remains very powerful."
  -Christopher R. Browning, Frank Porter Graham Professor of History Emeritus. University of Due north Carolina at Chapel Colina

  "It has been said that a chiliad doors had to open and shut in the verbal right time and succession in order for one to survive the Holocaust. If even ane door opened or closed at the wrong time, your fate was sealed. Unlike vi million other Jews, the doors Martin Baranek went through appeared for him at just the right time.
  But his survival was not simply a thing of luck. Shining through on every page of this exceptionally moving tale are Martin's courage, perseverance and sheer volition to live under the about brutal of conditions This painfully honest account is a true testament to the ability of the human spirit to triumph over unimaginable adversity. Martin's story is a remarkable memoir that is aught short of inspiring.You may have questions about God afterward reading this book - but y'all volition most certainly believe in miracles."
  -Eli Rubenstein, National Director, March of the Living Canada

  Media

  Author Visit

• "A Rock of Hope" (2018-2019)

  About the book for 2018-2019

  About the Volume
  Jim St. Germain – "A Rock of Promise"

  In the tradition ofThe Other Wes Moore andSimply Mercy, a searing memoir and clarion call to salve our at-hazard youth by a immature blackness man who himself was a lost cause—until he landed in a rehabilitation programme that saved his life and gave him purpose.

  Born into abject poverty in Haiti, immature Jim St. Germain moved to Brooklyn's Crown Heights, into an overcrowded apartment with his family. He quickly adapted to street life and began stealing, dealing drugs, and growing increasingly indifferent to despair and violence. Past the fourth dimension he was arrested for dealing cleft cocaine, he had been handcuffed more than a dozen times. At the age of fifteen the walls of the arrangement were closing around him.

  Only instead of prison, St. Germain was placed in "Boys Boondocks," a nonsecure detention facility designed for rehabilitation. Surrounded by mentors and positive male authority who enforced a system based on structure and privileges rather than intimidation and punishment, St. Germain slowly found his manner, eventually getting his GED and graduating from college. Then he made the bravest decision of his life: to live, equally an developed, in the projects where he had lost himself, and to work to reform the mode the criminal justice system treats at-risk youth.

  A Stone of Hope is more than than an incredible coming-of-age story; told with a degree of candor that requires the deepest courage, information technology is also a rallying cry. No 1 is who they are going to exist—or capable of being—at sixteen. St. Germain is living proof of this. He contends that we must piece of work to build a world in which we do not requite upwardly on a swath of the next generation.

  Passionate, eloquent, and timely, illustrated with photographs throughout,A Stone of Promise is an inspiring challenge for every American, and is sure to spark debate nationwide.

  Jim St. Germain is the co-founder of Preparing Leaders of Tomorrow (PLOT) and is on the Lath of the National Juvenile Defender Center and was recently appointed by former President Barack Obama to the Coordinator Quango on Juvenile and Justice Delinquency Prevention. For more information, please visit Plot for Youthand read the authors bio.

  Media

  Author Visit

• "The Promise of a Pencil" (2017-2018)

  About the volume for 2017–2018

  Adam Braun – "The Promise of a Pencil"

  Adam Braun began working summers at hedge funds when he was merely xvi years old, sprinting downward the path to a successful Wall Street career. Merely while traveling he met a young boy begging on the streets of India, who afterwards being asked what he wanted near in the earth, simply answered, "A pencil." This small request led to a staggering series of events that took Braun backpacking through dozens of countries earlier eventually leaving a prestigious task to constitute Pencils of Promise, the honor-winning arrangement he started with just $25 that has since built more than 250 schools beyond Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

  The Hope of a Pencil chronicles Braun's journey to find his calling, as each chapter explains i clear step that every person can take to turn their biggest ambitions into reality. If you feel restless and set for transition, if you are seeking direction and purpose, this critically acclaimed bestseller is for you. Driven past inspiring stories and shareable insights, this is the volume that volition give you the tools to make your ain life a story worth telling.

  Adam Braun is an author, speaker, and entrepreneur. He is the founder of Pencils of Hope and has been a featured speaker at the White Firm, the Clinton Global Initiative, and the Un. To learn more, visit Braun's website.

  "A compelling and singular story filled with universal truths every needs to hear."
  -Us Senator Cory Booker

  Media

• "In Order to Alive" (2016-2017)

  About the book for 2016–2017

  Yeonmi Park – "In Society to Live"

  Yeonmi Park has told the harrowing story of her escape from North korea as a kid many times, just never before has she revealed the most intimate and devastating details of the repressive society she was raised in and the enormous price she paid to escape.

  Park's family was loving and close-knit, but life in North Korea was vicious, practically medieval. Park would regularly go without nutrient and was made to believe that, Kim Jong Il, the country's dictator, could read her mind. After her male parent was imprisoned and tortured by the regime for trading on the blackness-market, a take a chance he took in social club to provide for his wife and two immature daughters, Yeonmi and her family were branded equally criminals and forced to the cruel margins of North Korean society. With thirteen-year-old Park suffering from a botched appendectomy and weighing a mere sixty pounds, she and her female parent were smuggled across the border into China.

  I wasn't dreaming of freedom when I escaped from North Korea. I didn't even know what it meant to be free. All I knew was that if my family stayed behind, we would probably dice—from starvation, from illness, from the inhuman conditions of a prison labor camp. The hunger had become unbearable; I was willing to run a risk my life for the hope of a bowl of rice. Just there was more to our journey than our ain survival. My female parent and I were searching for my older sister, Eunmi, who had left for China a few days earlier and had not been heard from since.

  Park knew the journey would be difficult, but could not take imagined the extent of the hardship to come. Those years in China price Park her childhood, and nearly her life. By the time she and her mother made their manner to South Korea two years later on, her father was dead and her sis was still missing. Before at present, but her female parent knew what really happened between the time they crossed the Yalu river into China and when they followed the stars through the frigid Gobi Desert to liberty. As she writes, "I convinced myself that a lot of what I had experienced never happened. I taught myself to forget the residual."

  In In Lodge to Alive, Park shines a light not just into the darkest corners of life in Due north Korea, describing the deprivation and deception she endured and which millions of North Korean people continue to endure to this day, merely also onto her ain most painful and difficult memories. She tells with bravery and dignity for the first time the story of how she and her mother were betrayed and sold into sexual slavery in Mainland china and forced to endure terrible psychological and physical hardship before they finally fabricated their way to Seoul, South korea—and to freedom.

  Still in her early twenties, Yeonmi Park has lived through experiences that few people of whatever age will always know—and well-nigh people would never recover from. Park confronts her by with a startling resilience, refusing to be defeated or divers by the circumstances of her former life in Democratic people's republic of korea and Communist china. In spite of everything, she has never stopped existence proud of where she is from, and never stopped striving for a better life. Indeed, today she is a homo rights activist working determinedly to bring attending to the oppression taking place in her dwelling house country.

  Park'south testimony is rare, edifying, and terribly important, and the story she tells in In Order to Live is heartbreaking and unimaginable, but never without hope. Her voice is riveting and dignified. This is the human spirit at its well-nigh indomitable.

• "The Prince of Los Cocuyos" (2015-2016)

  Almost the book from 2015-2016

  Richard Blanco – "The Prince of Los Cocuyos"

  A poignant, hilarious, and inspiring memoir from the first Latino and openly gay countdown poet, which explores his coming-of-age as the kid of Cuban immigrants and his attempts to understand his place in America while grappling with his burgeoning artistic and sexual identities.

  Richard Blanco's childhood and boyhood were experienced between two imaginary worlds: his parents' cornball earth of 1950s Cuba and his imagined America, the country he saw on reruns of The Brady Agglomeration and Exit it to Beaver—an "exotic" life he yearned for every bit much as he yearned to see "la patria."

  Navigating these worlds somewhen led Blanco to question his cultural identity through words; in plough, his vision as a writer—every bit an artist—prompted the courage to accept himself as a gay homo. In this moving, contemplative memoir, the 2013 countdown poet traces his poignant, often hilarious, and quintessentially American coming-of-age and the people who influenced him.

  A prismatic and lyrical narrative rich with the colors, sounds, smells, and textures of Miami, Richard Blanco's personal narrative is a resonant business relationship of how he discovered his authentic cocky and ultimately, a deeper agreement of what it ways to be American. His is a singular yet universal story that beautifully illuminates the experience of "condign;" how we are shaped by experiences, memories, and our complex stories: the humor, love, yearning, and tenderness that define a life.

  About the Writer

  Richard Blanco's mother, vii months significant, and the residual of the family arrived as exiles from Cuba to Madrid where he was born on February 15th, 1968. Forty-5 days later, the family emigrated once again to New York City. Only a few weeks old, Blanco already belonged to three countries, a foreshadowing of the concerns of identify and belonging that would shape his life and work. Eventually, the family unit settled in Miami where he was raised and educated. Growing up amid shut-knit Cuban exiles instilled in him a strong sense of customs, dignity, and identity that he'd carry into his adult life as a author.

  Though possessed by a stiff creative spirit since babyhood, Blanco likewise excelled in math and the sciences. As such, his parents encouraged him to written report engineering science, believing it would ensure a more stable and rewarding career for him. He took their advice, earning a caste from Florida International University in 1991 and began working equally a consulting civil engineer in Miami. In his mid-20s he was compelled to express his artistic side through writing, prompted by questions of cultural identity and his personal history. He returned to Florida International Academy where he was mentored past poet Campbell McGrath, and earned a Master of Fine Arts in artistic writing in 1997.

  Blanco'southward first volume of poetry Urban center of a Hundred Fires was published in 1998 to critical acclaim, winning the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poesy Prize from the University of Pittsburgh Press. The drove explored his cultural yearnings and contradictions every bit a Cuban-American, and captured the emotional details of his transformational first trip to Republic of cuba, his figurative homeland. After the success of his first book, Blanco took a hiatus from his engineering career, and accustomed a position at Cardinal Connecticut Country University equally a professor of creative writing. While living in Connecticut, he met his current life-partner, Dr. Marker Neveu, a renowned enquiry scientist.

  Driven past a curiosity to examine the essence of place and belonging, Blanco became an extensive traveler; and eventually moved with Marker to Republic of guatemala, and then to Washington, DC in 2002. In DC, he taught at Georgetown and American universities, The Writers Centre, and at the Arlington Country Detention Facility. Poems relating to his journeys through Spain, Italia, France, Guatemala, Brazil, Cuba, and New England comprised his 2d book, Directions to The Beach of the Dead (2005), receiving the Across Margins Accolade from the PEN American Heart for his explorations of the platonic of home and connections sought through identify, culture, family, and love.

  But soon Blanco was on the move again, returning in 2004 to Miami, his home abroad from home, where he resumed his engineering career. Engineer past day, he designed several town revitalization projects; poet by dark, he completed an electronic chapbook of poems, Place of Listen. He also began working on some other collection before moving one time once more. This time to Bethel, Maine, a ski resort town on the foothills of the White Mountains, where he sought the peace and tranquility of nature, which he considers a universal dwelling. While in Maine, he completed Looking for The Gulf Cabin, published in 2012; it related the writer's circuitous navigation through his cultural, sexual, and artistic identities.

  After the re-ballot of President Barack Obama, Blanco was called to serve as the 5th inaugural poet of the United states of america, following in the footsteps of such great writers equally Robert Frost and Maya Angelou. Blanco wrote Ane Today, an original poem for the occasion, which he read at Obama'southward inauguration ceremony at the Capitol on Jan 21, 2013. That day confirmed him as a historical figure: the outset Latino, immigrant, and gay writer bestowed by such an honor, as well as the youngest ever, at the historic period of 44. In his beginning prose publication, For All of Us, One Today: An Inaugural Poet's Journey, Blanco shared the emotional details of his experiences equally inaugural poet, reflecting on his understanding of what it means to be an American, and his life-changing function equally a public voice.

  Since the inauguration, Blanco was named a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Young man, and received an honorary doctorate from Macalester College. He continues connecting communities with poetry through the art of occasional poesy. To help heal the emotional wounds of the Boston Marathon bombings, Richard wrote Boston Strong, a poem he performed at the TD Boston Garden Benefit Concert and at a Boston Red Sox game at Fenway Park. He has likewise written and performed occasional poems for such organizations equally Freedom to Marry, the Tech Awards of Silicon Valley, and the Fragrance Awards at Lincoln Center.

  Whether speaking as the Cuban Blanco or the American Richard, the homebody or the world traveler, the scared boy or the openly gay man, the engineer or the countdown poet, Blanco's writings possess a story-rich quality that easily illuminates the human being spirit. His captivating images and accessible narratives invite readers and audiences to see themselves in his poems, which for him are similar mirrors in front of which we stand side by side with him—each i of the states gazing into our corresponding lives blurred together with his, connecting us all across social, political, and cultural gaps. For in the end, his piece of work asks himself those universal questions nosotros all ask ourselves on our own journeys: Where am I from? Where do I belong? Who am I in this earth?

  For more information, y'all may visit Blanco's website.

• "No Turning Dorsum" (2014-2015)

  About the book from 2014-2015

  Bryan Anderson – "No Turning Back"

  Bryan relates the story of how he was injured past an Improvised Explosive Device in Iraq, his subsequent rehabilitation at Walter Reed Medical Centre, and his determination to enjoy life and take advantage of the opportunities earlier him. He talks about his background, his life earlier his injury, and the steps he has taken to adapt to life subsequently his injuries. Bryan relates his experiences of accepting the new realities of his life and reinventing himself effectually them. He talks about his experiences with Esquire Mag and how he landed on the embrace of this major publication, how he came to be the spokesperson for Quantum Rehab, and the latest updates in his budding acting career. Bryan emphasizes taking advantage of opportunities as they nowadays themselves and challenges his audience to do the aforementioned in spite of the challenges they face.

  About the Writer

  Bryan Anderson

  Bryan currently resides in the Chicago surface area nearby his parents, Jim and Janet, identical twin brother Bob, and teenage sister Briana. In add-on to academic excellence, Bryan excelled in sports during his loftier school years and competed as an achieved gymnast in state level competitions. Following graduation, he worked for American Airlines every bit a Footing Crew Main at O'Hare airport.

  Bryan enlisted in the Army in April 2001 and had a 'ship out' date of September xi, 2001. He served 2 tours of duty in Iraq and was stationed in the Baghdad expanse. He attained the rank of Sergeant in the War machine Police (MP), conducted police grooming courses in Iraq and gained boosted law enforcement experience at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary every bit a prison guard.

  In October 2005, Bryan was injured past an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) that resulted in the loss of both legs and his left hand. As a outcome of his injuries, he was awarded a Majestic Heart. Bryan received rehabilitation for a catamenia of 13 months at Walter Reed Army Hospital. He is 1 of the few triple amputees to have survived his injuries in Iraq.

  Bryan's story has received extensive media coverage including a encompass story in USA Today, two feature articles in Esquire Magazine (one a cover shot in Jan 2007), also every bit numerous manufactures in major newspapers and publications, from his hometown Chicago Sun Times to the LA Times and NY Times. He recently appeared in a 60 Minutes segment profiling Gary Sinese.

  Bryan has appeared in the HBO Documentary, Alive 24-hour interval Memories: Home from Iraq, and in a CSI: NY episode titled DOA for a DAY as a murder suspect. He appeared in the Gold Globe Award winning film The Wrestler, starring Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei, which was released in December 2008. Bryan was interviewed past MTV News 'Choose or Lose Street Team' and has appeared on the daytime drama 'All My Children.' He was the subject of the Captain America comic, 'Theater of State of war – to soldier on,' released in August 2009. Bryan has finished piece of work on a book titled No Turning Back, released November 1, 2011, and near recently hosted a new PBS show in the Chicago area, Reporting for Service with Bryan Anderson, which received an Emmy Award. He also received a Television receiver Award for his work on a Quantum Rehab production video titled 'Life Beyond Limits' and is scheduled to appear in an episode of 'Hawaii 5-0' this season (2014).

  Bryan is the national spokesman for Breakthrough Rehab, a partitioning of Pride Mobility Corporation, and travels the state making numerous personal appearances while delivering his bulletin of perseverance and determination in major rehab facilities. In add-on, he is an Ambassador for the Gary Sinise Foundation and is a spokesman for USA Cares, a national non-profit system based in Radcliff, Ky., that is focused on profitable post 911 veterans in times of demand.

  Bryan is an energetic and enthusiastic private who enjoys challenging his limits. He snowboards, wake boards, white water rafts and stone climbs. He loves to travel and enjoys meeting new people.

  For additional background information, you may visit Anderson's website.

  Contact:

  Dick McLane
  182 Susquehanna Ave.
  Exeter, PA 18643
  800-800-8586 x1099 Ext.1099
  dmclane@pridemobility.com

• "Wine to Water" (2013-2014)

  Almost the Volume from 2013-2014

  In 2003, Dickson "Physician" Hendley was like most American college students and just having fun. Yet, he remembers "a sinking feeling in my stomach, similar I should exist doing something better with my life" (p. 27). Within months, the college senior and pop bartender launched an organization that has already improved—and saved—thousands of lives in more 9 countries around the globe.

  Despite being the son of a preacher, Doc doesn't fit the Adept Samaritan stereotype. Cocky-described every bit "rough around the edges" and tattooed, Dr. took an early dislike to rules and adult a gustation for whiskey and Harleys while nonetheless a teen. As his higher graduation neared, Doc began to dread the prospect of life "in a cubicle" (p. 27).

  By chance, Doc learned nigh an international aid organization named Samaritan'due south Purse and began brainstorming means that he could help the earth's needy. That night he woke up from his slumber with the words "wine to water" spinning around in his caput.

  Md hit the Internet and learned that "unclean h2o kills a child every twenty seconds—it's more lethal than AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined" (p. 30). He immediately began cartoon on his connections to host a party benefiting clean water initiatives. Within a month, he'd raised twelve thousand dollars.

  All of a sudden, Doc had to decide where information technology should get. "I never wanted Vino to Water to be similar ane of those bullshit nonprofits that used the majority of the donations to pay staff" (p. 37). After talking to a Samaritan'south Purse manager, he unexpectedly walked out with a twelve-month job assignment in Darfur—and the potency to distribute the money where he felt it was needed about.

  Nothing could fix Doctor for what awaited him. He had flown from verdant North Carolina into a arid desert landscape where average daytime temperatures hit 120-degrees and regime-sponsored Janjaweed soldiers had already killed a hundred thousand civilians and displaced more than a 1000000 more.

  While Physician had fantasized about "instantly morphing into some superhero water savior" (p. 55), the reality was infinitely more complex. Only equally inexperienced as he was in some means, Doc knew a lot nigh human nature: "It's not then much near how good and fast you are at making a Fuzzy Umbilicus; information technology'due south nearly developing a good relationship with the people sitting in front of you at the bar" (p. 111).

  So whether he was hiring staff, placating soldiers, or declining proffered brides, Doctor tactfully negotiated an unfamiliar culture to do his existent work. Slowly, Physician began repairing wells, installing water bladders, and teaching the locals how to maintain them—sometimes while the bullets were being aimed at him.

  In plainspoken and impassioned prose, Wine to H2o shares the story of Doc's unlikely transformation from a rough-and-tumble bartender to CNN Hero. As informative every bit it is harrowing and inspiring, Doc's account of our global water crisis and his continuing quest to provide stricken peoples with clean water resoundingly proves that one man is capable of changing the world.
  -Penguin.com

  Dickson "Doc" Hendley at FIU

  Whether he is describing existence shot at by the Janjaweed militia; the dedication of his who co-workers who pray five times a day; how to dig a grave in the desert; or children's excitement when a well starts pumping out water, he illuminates the facts of the crises in a very human way. Hendley's humanitarian work in Africa (and Haiti, where he headed after the 2010 earthquake) is inspiring, peculiarly considering how many lives he has influenced despite how fiddling he knew almost water problems before he started. At the core, however, is the story of Hendley himself: a coming-of-age tale about a beau who as a teen rebelled against his "preacher man" dad to get "the life of the party" only to effigy out that he "didn't have to be a perfect do-gooder to actually do some good in this world." – Publishers Weekly

  About the Author

  In 2003 Medico Hendley dreamed upwards the concept of Vino To Water while bartending and playing music in nightclubs around Raleigh, North Carolina. In January of 2004 he held his starting time fundraiser and by August was living in Darfur, Sudan installing water systems for victims of the authorities-supported genocide.
  When Doctor returned home in 2005, the haunting memories of what he had seen in Darfur drove him to go along growing the arrangement he had started only two years earlier. And in 2007, after working two jobs and volunteering his time for over three years, Wine To Water became an official 501 (c)(3) and Doc's dream finally became a reality.

  Hendley'southward work aims to help the 1.1 billion people worldwide who lack access to clean water, a effigy estimated by the Globe Health System. Nearly two-thirds of that group lives in Asia. In sub-Saharan Africa, 42 percentage of the population lives without yard taps, household connections or other improvements to sanitize water. Unclean water is the number one killer of children in the earth. Water borne illnesses kill far more children the HIV/AIDS and Malaria combined. Every fifteen seconds a child dies from unclean water.

  Physician Hendley was named i of the Top 10 CNN Heroes for 2009 (chosen by a panel of judges including Gen. Colin Powell, Whoopi Goldberg, Ted Turner and Sir Elton John).

  Interviews/Media

  • Penguin Random House Speakers Agency – Doc Hendley
  • Imbibe Magazine – Q&A with Doc Hendley
  • TEDxAsheville – Dr. Hendley – Extraordinarily Ordinary (YouTube video)
  • CNN – Heroes Tribute: Physician Hendley (YouTube video)
  • 2010 Update on Doc Hendley from CNN (YouTube video)
  • Eric Sander / Bob Buckley – WGHP – Doc Hendley Volume (YouTube video)
• "I'm Down" (2012-2013)

  About the book from 2012-2013

  I'chiliad Down is a humorous memoir nearly growing upwardly white in a black community and trying to fit into a family that is literally splitting down class and racial lines.

  I'grand Down is a memoir by the American author Mishna Wolff, originally published past St. Martin's Press in 2009. In the volume she relates her experience of beingness white while growing up in a predominantly African-American neighborhood and having a different financial state of affairs and culture than the other white children than the ones at her upper course, individual school filled with mostly white kids. She fights for acceptance in her neighborhood as she is perceived equally "too white" while she struggles with acceptance (and accepting others) in her prestigious school. Mishna has problem dealing with bullying from her peers, coming together the expectations her male parent sets for her (no matter how unusual they seem), the pressure she puts on herself, and learning who she is while social club is pushing and pulling her into what they desire her to be. She competes with the children in her neighborhood to be the funniest, the meanest, and the toughest while she strives to be rich, successful, and seemingly carefree similar her school friends. When she returns home to her male parent and his whatsoever girlfriends and potential wives, she suppresses her school side to impress her father, while at her mom'southward business firm and at school she suppresses her neighborhood life to appeal to her female parent. The theme of the book is the conflict she faces as she discovers two very different cultures and how they clash in her own life while she is stressed to detect herself also. She spends the book (her life) trying to figure out which culture, which household, which side of the family unit she belonged to [Source: Wikipedia].

  Reviews

  • O Magazine – I'chiliad Down Book Review
  • The Washington Post – I'1000 Down Volume Review
  • Elle – Volume Release: I'm Downwards

  Mishna Wolff at FIU

  Virtually the Writer

  Mishna Wolff grew upwardly in a poor blackness neighborhood with her unmarried father, a white human being who truly believed he was black. "He strutted around with a curt perm, a Cosbyesque sweater, gold chains, and a Kangrol – telling jokes like Redd Foxx, and giving advice like Jesse Jackson. You couldn't tell my begetter he was white. Believe me, I tried." And so from early childhood on, her father began his crusade to make his white daughter down.

  Unfortunately, Mishna didn't quite fit in with the neighborhood kids; she couldn't dance, she couldn't sing, she couldn't double Dutch, and she was the worst histrion on her all-black basketball team. She was shy, uncool, and painfully white. And however when she was suddenly sent to a rich white school, she found she was too "black" to fit in with her white classmates.

  Interviews/Media

  • Details Q&A: lx Seconds with Mishna Wolff
  • NPR Story – White Author Says, I'm Downwardly'
• "The Carmine Umbrella" (2011-2012)

  Near the book from 2011-2012

  Cuba, 1961: 2 years later the communist revolution, Lucia still leads a carefree life, dreaming of parties and her showtime crush. But when the soldiers come up to her small town, everything begins to modify. Suddenly, the revolution hits home. Freedoms are stripped abroad. Neighbors disappear. Her friends experience like strangers. And her family is existence watched.

  Equally the revolution'south bear on becomes more oppressive, Lucia's parents make the center-wrenching decision to send her and her little brother to the U.s.a.…alone!

  Suddenly plunked down in Nebraska with well-meaning strangers, Lucia struggles to adapt to a new country, a new language; a new way of life. Will she ever see her home or her parents again? And if she does, will she exist the same daughter?

  Christina Diaz Gonzalez based this novel on the experiences of her parents, and of the over fourteen,000 other unaccompanied minors who came to the Usa to escape Castro'southward regime in a program known every bit Operation Pedro Pan.

  Christina Diaz Gonzalez at FIU

  Near the Author

  Christina Diaz Gonzalez practiced law for several years before returning to her childhood passion for stories and writing. The Ruddy Umbrella is her start novel. Christina lives in Miami, Florida, with her husband and 2 sons. To learn more, visit Gonzalez's website.

• "A Chant to Sooth Wild Elephants" (2010-2011)

  Almost the book from 2010-2011

  Six years ago at the age of 20-one, Jaed Muncharoen Coffin, a one-half-Thai American human being, left New England's privileged Middlebury College to be ordained equally a Buddhist monk in his mother'southward native village of Panomsarakram, thus fulfilling a familial obligation. While addressing the notions of displacement, ethnic identity and cultural belonging, A Dirge to Sooth Wild Elephants chronicles his time at the temple that rain flavour-receiving alms in the streets in saffron robes; bathing in the canals; learning to meditate in a mountaintop hut, and falling in love with Lek, a beautiful Thai woman who comes to represent the life he can have if he stays.

  Function armchair travel, part coming-of-age story, this debut piece of work transcends the memoir genre and ushers in a dauntless new phonation in American nonfiction. "Jaed Coffin takes us on the eternal quest which Joseph Campbell described as the journey of the hero in search of enlightenment. But A Chant to Sooth Wild Elephants is also a touching memoir of growing up in dual cultures with a foot in both Showtime and Tertiary Worlds. Bury takes us inside those worlds and on that quest with such honesty, skill, humor and intimacy that we can't help but follow. A rare look into a civilization from an insider/outsider'southward signal of view." –Julia Alvarez, author of How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents.

  "A Dirge to Soothe Wild Elephants has the kind of hard, shimmering, uncomplicated prose that prepare Hemingway apart every bit a writer to watch in his first book of stories. Jaed Bury is not only a writer to watch, however. Equally he demonstrates in this lively memoir, he'south a writer who has already accomplished that rare thing: a singular voice, and one that satisfies the ear with its serenity music, that feeds the centre with image after image of life."-Jay Parini, author of Robert Frost: A Life

  Jaed Bury at FIU

  About the Author

  Jaed Coffin has worked as a boxer, sea-kayak guide, and lobsterman. He holds a BA in Philosophy from Middlebury Higher and a MFA from the University of Southern Maine'south Stonecoast Writing Program. He lives in Brunswick, Maine.

• "Funny in Western farsi" (2009 - 2010)

  About the book from 2009-2010

  In 1972, when she was seven, the Firoozeh Dumas and her family moved from Iran to Southern California, arriving with no firsthand knowledge of this country beyond Firoozeh's father's glowing memories of his graduate schoolhouse years here. In a serial of deftly drawn scenes, Funny in Farsi chronicles the American journey of Dumas's wonderfully engaging family; her engineer father, a sweetly quixotic dreamer who first sought riches on Bowling for Dollars and in Las Vegas; her elegant female parent, who never fully mastered English (or cared to); her uncle, who combated the effects of American fast food with an assortment of miraculous American weight-loss gadgets, and Firoozeh herself, who as a girl changed her name to Julie and who encountered a second moving ridge of culture shock when she met and married a Frenchman, condign part of a i-couple melting pot. An unforgettable story of identity, discovery and the power of family love,Funny in Farsi volition leave us all laughing…without an accent.

  Firoozeh Dumas at FIU

• "Breath, Eyes, Memory" (Pilot study 2008-2009)

  About the book

  "Breath, Eyes, Retentiveness" by Edwidge Danticat

  At an astonishingly immature age, Edwidge Danticat has get 1 of our most historic new novelists, a writer who evokes the wonder, terror, and heartache of her native Republic of haiti--and the enduring strength of Republic of haiti's women--with a vibrant imagery and narrative grace that bear witness to her people'southward suffering and courage.

  At the age of twelve, Sophie Caco is sent from her impoverished village of Croix-des-Rosets to New York, to be reunited with a mother she barely remembers. At that place she discovers secrets that no kid should ever know, and a legacy of shame that can exist healed but when she returns to Haiti--to the women who first reared her. What ensues is a passionate journeying through a mural charged with the supernatural and scarred past political violence, in a novel that bears witness to the traditions, suffering, and wisdom of an entire people.

Option Commission

• Amanda Niguidula, Director, Disability Resource Center
• Alexa Urra, Manager, Academic Support Services
• Douglas Jerky, Commencement Year Experience Librarian, FIU Libraries
• Rozeena Taylor, Program Manager, Part of Social Justice and Inclusion
• Jenna Levine, Plan Director, Centre for Student Engagement
• Amy Galpin, Principal Curator, Frost Fine art Museum
• Valerie Morgan, Managing director, Academic and Career Success
• Giovanna Tello, Director of Bookish Support Services, Academic and Career Success
• Jo-Anne Carrenard, Graduate Assistant, Bookish and Career Success

For additional data on the Mutual Reading Plan, please contact:
Valerie Morgan, Ed.D.
Director, Academic and Career Success
morganv@fiu.edu
(305) 919-5755

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Source: https://acs.fiu.edu/initiatives/common-reading/

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