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K-State Today

Division of Communications and Marketing
Kansas State University
128 Dole Hall
1525 Mid-Campus Drive North
Manhattan, KS 66506
785-532-2535
vpcm@k-state.edu

November 28, 2023

Help K-State First Book select the common reading book for 2024

Submitted by Karin Westman

K-State First Book logo

We started with "The Hunger Games" in 2010, we met "The Other Wes Moore" in 2015, and we learned from George Takei with "They Called Us Enemy" in 2023: What will be the common read in 2024?

K-State First Book, or KSFB, the all-university reading program, selects a common book for the academic year and coordinates classroom and campus activities to correspond with the reading. As part of K-State First, KSFB provides incoming students with a shared academic experience that they can discuss with professors, staff, administrators and other students when they arrive on campus.

The 2024 First Book Selection Committee — composed of 26 students, staff, administrators and faculty from two campuses — spent the last six months reading 31 books on the theme of radical hope: books that take readers from inspiration to action.

The committee has narrowed the list down to four finalists:

"Deaf Utopia: A Memoir — And a Love Letter to a Way of Life" by Nyle DiMarco.

"What the Eyes Don't See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City" by Mona Hanna-Attisha.

"Solito: A Memoir" by Javier Zamora.

"A Man Called Ove: A Novel" by Fredrik Backman. 

We would like your help selecting the 2024 university common book.

Visit the First Book webpage to read about these four finalists that have been chosen for consideration, and offer your feedback by the end of the day — 11:59 p.m. CT — on Friday, Dec. 15.

The Book Selection Committee looks forward to your response. 

For more information about K-State First Book, including a list of past book selections, visit the K-State First Book homepage. For more information about K-State First, visit the website for the university's first-year experience program.