Selecting the Book

KCC Reads

We are pleased to announce the KCC Reads

Common Reading Selection for 2016 - 2017 and for 2017 - 2018:

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption

by Bryan Stevenson

Note: The next new common reading will be selected for the 2018 - 2019 academic year. That work will  

begin in the Fall 2017 semester. Please continue nominating books. All nominations for 2018 - 2019 are

due by Monday October 16th, 2017.  We will hold the next Winter Book Club during the Winter 2018 module. See nomination details below.

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Selecting the KCC Reads Book

The KCC Reads program involves our campus community in a book selection process each year. It is managed through a series of cohort meetings and involves a Winter Book Club that reads and discusses nominated books. Nominations occur in the Fall term of the previous academic year and are solicited from the entire KCC community. Any member of our community may nominate a book by filling out the online form. Alternatively you may print the nominations form and send it via inter-office mail to Maureen Fadem, C-309.

We aim to select a book that

  • has been published recently, will garner student interest and course adoptions on a wide scale;
  • has the potential to serve as appropriate material for courses in multiple disciplines;
  • concerns issues of social, historical and political significance, and addresses social justice specifically;
  • introduces new themes, issues, genres or histories and does not unduly repeat themes or books from previous years of the program;
  • and, that a large number of KCC community members agree on and support our school's adoption of the text.

Once all nominations are received, the selection process begins. The full list of suggested texts is compiled and this long list is discussed and debated at a meeting of the cohort, usually in November of the previous year. Books are then considered with an eye toward their relevance to our campus community, especially our students, and the factors listed above. A vote is taken at this meeting to choose the top four books.

The book for the following year is ultimately chosen from this four-book short list. As a way toward making this choice, the four finalists are read and discussed by a Book Club, open to all members of the college, which meets during the Winter module. This group discusses the short-listed books, again with an eye to their usefulness in the classroom, their appeal to students, etc. (For the current list of books nominated for next year, click here.)

The work of the reading group culminates in a cohort meeting, the following March, at which participants discuss each of the short-listed books, pitches are made by various members of the cohort and by reading group participants, and rationales are offered choosing particular books. Then, a final vote is conducted which decides the KCC Reads text for the following year.

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Choosing the Book: The Nominations Process 

Is there a recent book you've read recently that you feel everyone should read or that you believe presented important truths of being human, of history, of the world at large, of the contemporary moment, etc. in a unique and profound way?

If so, please complete a nomination form for the book and explain why you feel it should be read and discussed by our KCC community and studied by students in Kingsborough classes next year. Complete the nominations form making it clear why the book you're recommending is important enough to warrant a year of work and study by our campus community.

Below, you will see a links to the nominations form used to officially nominate books for the KCC Reads program.

You may submit your nomination one of two ways: either complete the form online and submit it that way, or print the form (a PDF file), complete it by hand, and send it, inter-office mail, to: Maureen Fadem, English Dept., C-309.