Round Two Matchups

NORRIS DIVISION – Round 2

MATCHUP

The Other Wes Moore

Click to view on Goodreads

Book title: The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates

Book author(s)/editor(s): Wes Moore

Paperback price: $10

250 pages

Other formats available:

  • Audible audiobook: Yes
  • CD audiobook: Yes
  • Kindle: Yes

Used as common read elsewhere?

Yes, 65+ colleges/universities; Guides available

Why do you think the LSSU Campus should read this book? How will it build community? start conversations? encourage social engagement? empower critical thinking?

This book tells the story of a generation of boys trying to find their way in a hostile world. If adopted the story will really point out how our life decisions can really make a difference in the direction our lives can take. That is what happened to these two men. While having similar upbringings, being similar ages, and having both dealt with difficult childhoods. At various stages of their young lives they faced similar moments of decisions, yet their choices would lead them to astonishingly different destinies. One (the author) becomes a Rhodes Scholar and the other a convicted murder serving a life sentence.

What kinds of campus programs do you imagine could be offered if this book was chosen as the LSSU Campus Read?

Again I have not read the book but feel it would be a good starting point to have students reflect or look at their own lives and how decisions they make have and will affect the rest of their lives. This may be more of a social science, psychology oriented book. However other things like criminal justice, psychology, science discussions about biology vs environment discussions may be possible. Maybe also data oriented discussions about how fair or unfair our justice system is, etc.

Anything else you would like to add to support choosing this book as the next LSSU Campus Read title?

I think the book could be inspiring and thought provoking for our students and give them, at least most of them, an new perspective on their own lives and help them become more understanding of those people not lucky enough to have the advantages and choices they have.

VERSUS

Hillbilly Elegy

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Book title: Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

Book author(s)/editor(s): J. D. Vance

Paperback price: $10

288 pages

Other formats available:

  • Audible audiobook: Yes
  • CD audiobook: Yes
  • Kindle: Yes

Used as common read elsewhere?

Yes (13+ colleges/universities); Teaching guide

Why do you think the LSSU Campus should read this book? How will it build community? start conversations? encourage social engagement? empower critical thinking?

As the first person in his family to go to college, Vance, who went on to graduate from Yale Law School, describes in an engaging first person narrative ,his struggle between two social worlds. While moving into a different educational and professional world from his family, Vance describes how the values of his grandmother  and his extended family in rural West Virginia, remained with him even though they often conflicted with the values to which he was exposed in the university. Vance also describes the underlying tensions in values and beliefs between differing cultures that have emerged in the form of political polarization in today’s America.

What kinds of campus programs do you imagine could be offered if this book was chosen as the LSSU Campus Read?

Lectures, discussion groups, bring the author to campus; I believe a film is being made based on the book

Anything else you would like to add to support choosing this book as the next LSSU Campus Read title?

Having recently completed research on first generation college students that reportedly comprise 60% of LSSU’s student body, Vance’s experience has a number of similarities with those described by participants in our research.


CISLER DIVISION – Round 2

MATCHUP

The Circle

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Book title: The Circle

Book author(s)/editor(s): Dave Eggers

Paperback price: $10

250 pages

Other formats available:

  • Audible audiobook: Yes
  • CD audiobook: Yes
  • Kindle: Yes

Used as common read elsewhere?

Yes (25+ colleges/universities); Guide available

Why do you think the LSSU Campus should read this book? How will it build community? start conversations? encourage social engagement? empower critical thinking?

Current theme. The uses vs. the abuses of technology for every aspect of life makes it a good read for almost any field, so it has a lot of cross-disciplinary appeal.

What kinds of campus programs do you imagine could be offered if this book was chosen as the LSSU Campus Read?

Debates, scholar lectures related to uses/abuses of access to digital information from the perspective of various disciplines, showing the film, activities presented through social media.

VERSUS

 

The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe

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Book title: The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe: How to Know What’s Really Real in a World Increasingly Full of Fake

Book author(s)/editor(s): Steven Novella, et al.

Paperback price: $23 (used copies from $18)

512 pages

Other formats available:

  • Audible audiobook: Yes
  • CD audiobook: Yes
  • Kindle: Yes

Used as common read elsewhere?

Unknown

Why do you think the LSSU Campus should read this book? How will it build community? start conversations? encourage social engagement? empower critical thinking?

Current events, accusations of “fake news,” the polarization of ideas, the labeling and classification of people based upon those ideas, social constructs such as “tribalism,” increased reliance upon social media, and overall critical thinking are important considerations across disciplines.  Potential conversations will range from discussing the place of social media, to known problems in scientific research, and the ability to consider the opinion or position of others without demonizing. As the book lays out the “tools” of critical thinking, it will encourage conversations about most any topic that people could discuss, agree upon, or disagree upon.  The Skeptics’ Guide is literally about the ability to utilize critical thinking, first and foremost, when considering one’s own opinion while also learning the best evidenced based strategies for communicating points of view with others.

What kinds of campus programs do you imagine could be offered if this book was chosen as the LSSU Campus Read?

Campus programs could range from political, to scientific (anything from the recent problems of “‘p’ hacking” to bogus publications), to mathematical (interpretation of polls, evidence, and data), to computer science (algorithms that determine social media influence and how individuals are presented with information), to the arts (avenues of presentation including written fictional, social media videos, and dramatic presentations/comedy/movies), to history (how information is used and/or abused to present information and/or precedent), to sociology (tribalism, generational concerns, power constructs) and anything else that is touched upon by critical thinking (read: Everything).  The topic of critical thinking will allow for a broad range of faculty and staff interest and give ample opportunity for ongoing library presentations.

Anything else you would like to add to support choosing this book as the next LSSU Campus Read title?

This book is important.  It teaches critical thinking across disciplines, is cognizant of ones own bias, and teaches strategies that one can use to successfully improve critical thinking and recognize logical fallacies/cognitive distortions in one’s own thinking and those of others while also considering the most charitable interpretation of other’s ideas.  


FLETCHER DIVISION – Round 2

MATCHUP

Indian Horse

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Book title: Indian Horse: A Novel

Book author(s)/editor(s): Richard Wagamese

Paperback price: $11

240 pages

Other formats available:

  • Audible audiobook: Yes
  • CD audiobook: Yes
  • Kindle: Yes

Used as common read elsewhere?

Unknown

Why do you think the LSSU Campus should read this book? How will it build community? start conversations? encourage social engagement? empower critical thinking?

This book is about an Ojibwe man’s experience growing up in an Indian Boarding school in the 80s in Northern Ontario. This could start conversations about the Native American and Indigenous experience.

What kinds of campus programs do you imagine could be offered if this book was chosen as the LSSU Campus Read?

We live in an area rich with Ojibwe history. We could have a local Ojibwe story teller, Ojibwe artists, and other cultural experts come in. I would love to see a regular Pow-Wow at LSSU and this might be a good connection to the book. Indian school survivors could share their stories or we could show documentaries about the experience. We could have people talk about treaty rights. A couple years ago the Arts Center hosted a screening of “Our Fires Still Burn” with a panel discussion – we could do that or a similar film again.

Anything else you would like to add to support choosing this book as the next LSSU Campus Read title?

This book is short and heavily features hockey. It is a very powerful book but I feel I need to give a warning that it also details physical and sexual abuse that occurred in the schools. I worry that it would be triggering to some students but I also feel that it’s important to make sure people are aware of the truth of what happened at these places.

VERSUS

The Alice Network

Click to view on GoodreadsBook title: The Alice NetworkBook author(s)/editor(s): Kate Quinn

Paperback price: $11

560 pages

Other formats available:

  • Audible audiobook: Yes
  • CD audiobook: Yes
  • Kindle: Yes

Used as common read elsewhere?

Unknown

Why do you think the LSSU Campus should read this book? How will it build community? start conversations? encourage social engagement? empower critical thinking?

It’s fascinating to learn about the key role that female spies played in WWI. I think it will start conversations about female empowerment 100 years ago.

What kinds of campus programs do you imagine could be offered if this book was chosen as the LSSU Campus Read?

Not sure

Anything else you would like to add to support choosing this book as the next LSSU Campus Read title?

It’s a great read! But, there is some graphic sex in the book. Not sure if that’s a deal-breaker.


SHOULDICE DIVISION – Round 2

MATCHUP

Just Mercy

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Book title: Just Mercy

Book author(s)/editor(s): Bryan Stevenson

Paperback price: $12

368 pages

Other formats available:

  • Audible audiobook: Yes
  • CD audiobook: Yes
  • Kindle: Yes

Used as common read elsewhere?

75+ colleges/universities; Guides available

Why do you think the LSSU Campus should read this book? How will it build community? start conversations? encourage social engagement? empower critical thinking?

The book is about an idealistic, gifted young lawyer’s coming to age, a moving picture of window into the lives of those he has defended, and inspiring argument for compassion in the pursuit of true justice. The particular case discussed in the book, one of his first cases, was that of Walter McMillian, a young man sentence to die for a notorious murder he insisted he did not commit. The case transformed the author’s understanding of mercy and justice forever.

What kinds of campus programs do you imagine could be offered if this book was chosen as the LSSU Campus Read?

I have not read the book but I am guessing it could fit into a variety of classes offered on campus, criminal justice, political science, chemistry/forensics, social/society issues, and probably some others I have not thought of.

Anything else you would like to add to support choosing this book as the next LSSU Campus Read title?

The book would also probably  portray the great social divide we have in our country and how unfair it can be at times.

VERSUS

What the Eyes Don't See

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Book title: What the Eyes Don’t See

Book author(s)/editor(s): Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha

Paperback price: $12

384 pages

Other formats available:

  • Audible audiobook: Yes
  • CD audiobook: Yes
  • Kindle: Yes

Used as common read elsewhere?

Yes – 3 colleges/universities; Guide available

Why do you think the LSSU Campus should read this book? How will it build community? start conversations? encourage social engagement? empower critical thinking?

the flint water crisis and social engagement

What kinds of campus programs do you imagine could be offered if this book was chosen as the LSSU Campus Read?

water quality, Superior as a lake Superior as a University

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