Summer Reading

Start your college education with a common reading experience.

Cover image of When We Walk By

For decades, the Core Program has asked incoming Oxy students to engage with a Summer Reading before they matriculate in the Fall. In assigning this common reading, our goals have been to stimulate discussion and promote critical thinking on topics of contemporary relevance; to help introduce students to the Mission of the College; and to provide a way for new students to connect with one another through a common intellectual experience. In recent years, the Summer Reading Program has joined with the Community Book Program to allow the entire Occidental community to participate. 

For 2025-26, we have selected When We Walk By by Kevin F. Adler '07 and Donald W. Burnes. When We Walk By will be a required text for incoming first-year students. This book ties into themes that will be part of our programming during the 2025-26 academic year and the focal point of several community-wide events, including an author talk in October. First-year students will be able to request free ebook copies of the book. 

 

Request a free digital copy of When We Walk By.

First-year students will be able to download a free digital copy of When We Walk By by filling out the form below:

 

Past Summer Reading Selections

2024-25: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
2023-24: Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
2022-23: Your House Will Pay by Steph Cha
2021-22: The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee
2020-21: "The Struggle For/The Struggle Against" - an online multimedia collection of texts
2019-20: "Race, racism, white supremacy and intersecting forms of oppression" - an online multimedia collection of texts
2018-19: How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid 
2017-18: Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O'Neil 
2016-17: Chávez Ravine, 1949 by Don Normark
2015-16: The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert
2014-15: The Speech by Gary Younge
2013-14: The Big Thirst by Charles Fishman
2012-13: The Barbarian Nurseries by Héctor Tobar
2011-12: Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 by Anna Deavere Smith
2010-11: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
2009-10: Angels and Ages by Adam Gopnik 
2008-09: Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
2007-08: Choosing Civility by P.M. Forni and Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
2006-07: Flirting with Dan by Siobhan Darrow
2005-06: Carlo Santana's Supernatural (compact disc) and Robert Walser's "Popular Music Analysis: Ten Apothegms and Four Instances" (essay)
2003-04: Readings in the Liberal Arts, Summer 2003 (collection of essays) 
2002-03: Readings in the Liberal Arts, Summer 2002 (collection of essays)
2001-02: Human Values for Global Citizens: Readings in the Liberal Arts (collection of essays)

student reading on campus

The Community Book Program

More info
Contact the Core Program
coreprogram@oxy.edu
Brandon Lehr
Director, Core Program; Associate Dean for Curricular Affairs
lehr@oxy.edu
Phone: (323) 259-1322
Office: Fowler 217