Past Selections

I Will Always Write Back

by Caitlin Alifirenka and Martin Ganda

One of the best ways Villanova welcomes new students to campus is with a good book.  We are honored that for the 2019 - 2020 academic year year One Book Villanova selected, I Will Always Write Back: How One Letter Changed Two Lives. Making friends and opening yourself up to new people, new experiences, and new ideas is what a good college education is all about.  

This book was chosen because of the conversations we hope that were started on campus. These conversations are important not only to you as Villanova students but also as citizens of the world.  Conversations about generosity and kindness, interconnectedness of the world and the human race, who should be able to come into the United States, how to address issues of race and culture and most important, as young people what can you do.  

Just Mercy

by Bryan Stevenson

The 2018-2019 selection was Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson. Bryan Stevenson was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need: the poor, the wrongly condemned, and women and children trapped in the farthest reaches of our criminal justice system. One of his first cases was that of Walter McMillian, a young man who was sentenced to die for a notorious murder he insisted he didn’t commit. The case drew Bryan into a tangle of conspiracy, political machination, and legal brinksmanship—and transformed his understanding of mercy and justice forever. Just Mercy is at once an unforgettable account of an idealistic, gifted young lawyer’s coming of age, a moving window into the lives of those he has defended, and an inspiring argument for compassion in the pursuit of true justice.*

*Courtesy of Amazon Just Mercy book description. 

Acts of Faith

by Eboo Patel

The 2017-2018 selection was"Acts of Faith by Eboo Patel, a remarkable account of growing up Muslim in America and coming to believe in religious pluralism, from one of the most prominent faith leaders in the United States. Eboo Patel’s story is a hopeful and moving testament to the power and passion of young people—and of the world-changing potential of an interfaith youth movement."

The Sixth Extinction

by Elizabeth Kolbert

The 2016-2017 selection wasThe Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert. Over the last half a billion years, there have been five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. This time around, the cataclysm is us. In The Sixth Extinction, two-time winner of the National Magazine Award and New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert draws on the work of scores of researchers in half a dozen disciplines. Through these stories, Kolbert provides a moving account of the disappearances occurring all around us and traces the evolution of extinction as concept, from its first articulation by Georges Cuvier in revolutionary Paris up through the present day. The sixth extinction compels us to rethink the fundamental question of what it means to be human. 

The Distance Between Us

by Reyna Grande

The 2015-2016 selection wasThe Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande. Reyna Grande vividly brings to life her tumultuous early years in this compelling, unvarnished, resonant story of a childhood spent torn between two parents and two countries. As her parents make the dangerous trek across the Mexican border to “El Otro Lado” (The Other Side) in pursuit of the American dream, Reyna and her siblings are forced into the already overburdened household of their stern grandmother. When their mother at last returns, Reyna prepares for her own journey to “El Otro Lado” to live with the man who has haunted her imagination for years, her long-absent father.

Funny, heartbreaking, and lyrical, The Distance Between Us poignantly captures the confusion and contradictions of childhood, reminding us that the joys and sorrows we experience are imprinted on the heart forever, calling out to us of those places we first called home.

The Other Wes Moore

by Wes Moore

The 2014-2015 selection was The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates, by Wes Moore. The Other Wes Moore is not just a story of two young men who grew into two very different men but it is a story of the life circumstances they shared and the different choices made that destined one to become a Rhodes Scholar and the other to prison for the rest of his life. In this book, author Wes Moore tells the fascinating story of another Wes Moore—a man who shared his name and much of his personal history. About the same age and raised in the same neighborhood by a single mother, this "other Wes Moore" arrived at a starkly different fate: he now serves a life sentence without parole on murder charges. Compelled by their similar upbringings, Moore penned his book in an effort to discover how small choices make big differences in life.The committee selected this compelling story in the hope that it will lead students to ask important questions about choices they make

Good Kings Bad Kings

by Susan Nussbaum

Good Kings Bad Kings follows the lives of residents at ILLC, an institution for juveniles with disabilities, where friendships are forged, trust is built, and love affairs begin, all despite an atmosphere of neglect and abuse. In this alliance the residents of ILLC ultimately find the strength to resist their mistreatment and fight back. With humor and an authentic eye, Good Kings Bad Kings tells the story of their struggle for dignity and self-determination. 

Little Princes: One Man's Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal

by Conor Grennan

Grennan's book chronicles his journey to Nepal as a 29-year-old volunteer in the Little Princes orphanage, where he discovers that the children there are victims of human trafficking. Awakened to the children's dire circumstances, he commits to making a difference by reuniting them with their parents. Grennan's ambitions are complicated by the ongoing civil war and by the harsh mountain landscape of Nepal. The book is at once a gripping adventure narrative and a tale of deep personal transformation. Like other One Book selections, Little Princes will provide opportunities for discussion of many pressing contemporary issues.

The Unforgiving Minute

by Craig Mullaney

The Unforgiving Minute is the extraordinary story of one soldier’s singular education. From a hilarious plebe’s-eye view of the West Point experience to the demanding leadership crucible of Ranger School’s swamps and mountains, to a two-year academic whirlwind at Oxford, Mullaney’s winding path to the battlegrounds of Afghanistan was unique and remarkable. Despite all his preparation, the hardest questions remained. When the call came to lead his platoon into battle and earn his soldiers’ salutes, would he be ready? Was his education sufficient for the unforgiving minutes he’d face? The Unforgiving Minute is, above all, an unforgettable portrait of a young soldier grappling with the weight of his hard-earned knowledge while coming to grips with becoming a man. (Booklist Review).