Penn State Reads is looking for volunteers from the Penn State community to help screen and review books to select the common book for the 2016-2017 Penn State Reads program. Started in 2013, Penn State Reads offers all incoming first-year students the chance to read a book over the summer, and practice critical thinking and engagement throughout their first year.

This year, there are eight books vying to be the 2016 Penn State Reads choice:

— “The Good Food Revolution” – Will Allen

— “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking” – Susan Cain

— “The Circle” – Dave Eggers

— “The Invisible Man” – Ralph Ellison

— “Far From the Tree” – Andrew Solomon

— “Paul Robeson: A Life of Activism and Art” – Lindsey Swindall

— “Warmth of Other Suns” – Isabel Wilkerson

— “Covering” – Kenji Yoshino

If you decide you want to help choose the 2016-2017 common book and mold the minds of incoming Penn Staters, you can check out a copy of one of the contenders on the fifth floor of Paterno Library, or in 417 Old Main. After reading the book, you’ll need to take a short online survey to review it before Aug. 1.

Each year, Penn State Reads looks to choose a book that helps students build a sense of community and practice critical thinking, as well as one that appeals broadly to first-year students, can be utilized across disciplines, and connects to Penn State’s mission and core values. (Can’t remember the mission and core values of your favorite, most ethical, and healthily-cultured university? Here’s a handy refresher.)

Previous book selections were “Beautiful Souls: The Courage and Conscience of Ordinary People in Extraordinary Times” by Eyal Press in 2013, “Americanah” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in 2014, and “The Boom: How Fracking Ignited the American Energy Revolution and Changed the World” by Russell Gold in 2015. Incoming first-year students are already picking up their copies of “The Boom” this week during New Student Orientation, and some may have already begun writing an entry for the essay contest.

If you have ideas for books to be considered for the 2017 common book selection, you can email a nomination to [email protected].