<p>They've narrowed it down to four choices. I'm not familiar with any of them. </p>
<p>King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild
My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman </p>
<p><a href="http://orientation.studentaffairs.duke.edu/%5B/url%5D">http://orientation.studentaffairs.duke.edu/</a></p>
<p>tha namesake is really good. do you just read one of these during the summer?</p>
<p>They'll mail you the book (whichever of the four they eventually pick). You read it over the summer, and then you discuss it with your FAC during Orientation.</p>
<p>My Sister's Keeper is really good book but the ending is horrible-completely unexpected.</p>
<p>I REALLY REALLY REALLY (x 1000) hope they pick the NAMESAKE.
That is SUCH a good book, with so few flaws that I absolutely loved it.</p>
<p>The Namesake is UNC's c/o 2010 summer reading.</p>
<p>MY SISTER'S KEEPER is very good -- the ending made me cry so much. I think she's a very entertaining author, and quite insightful...have you read THE PACT?</p>
<p>Totally separate topic -- how do you guys get the book titles to show up in italics?</p>
<p>ive heard of namesake and my sister's keeper</p>
<p>King Leopold's Ghost is a good one about the Belgian occupation of the congo. We read it after Heart of Darkness in my 20th C. African Lit. class last year.</p>
<p>Why do we have to read a summer reading book!!!!!!!! This isn't high school anymore!</p>
<p>Chances are good you can blow it off and no one will care. Just read the spark notes! ;)</p>
<p>King Leopold's Ghost is actually quite good. One of the few books I've read for my own interest.</p>
<p>well actually if it is only one book I don't think it would be that bad, plus, it's not like classical literature so I think it'd be more entertaining</p>
<p>J Ho - The Namesake is UNC's c/o 2010 summer reading ? Are you serious? I KNEW I SHOULD HAVE APPLIED THERE - ahahahha lol</p>
<p>They chose My Sister's Keeper. Luckily, that was one of the two books out of the four that Barnes and Noble actually had. I started that about a week ago, and I'm almost done. It's really pretty good but sad.</p>
<p>I read The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down in anthro. It was a good, cultural novel. Now if I only I get in off the waitlist..................</p>
<p>Wait, so will they mail us the book for sure or should we buy it?</p>
<p>they'll mail it to you, don't buy it</p>
<p>i suggest forgetting about it if you don't like it 50 pages in...basically you just listen to a panel discussion on the book as one of your orientation activities, plenty of people never touch the book, never matters...</p>
<p>it is going to be My sister's keeper, and you don't need to buy it but last year, I remember them not sending it to me until late july early august and i was going on vacation so I had to buy the book before. But don't worry about it, like mike said it is just an orientation activity, nothing really is being counted against you</p>
<p>I know a lot of people would say that you should make every effort to complete the reading and participate during orientation. Honestly, if you don't want to participate in summer reading you definitely don't have to - it's college and no one can make you do something especially when it's not for a grade! I found the whole summer reading thing to be completely pointless. Basically when you discuss the book with your FAC group, everyone will have just arrived at Duke - where they are a small fish in a big pond which is often not what they are used to. Some students initially react to this by trying to show that they are the smartest - they will probably make really annoying, pseudo-intellectual comments about the book. It takes everyone a few months to become secure in their academic abilities and relax a little. So yeah, after our first discussion I thought it was kind of pointless and didn't go to the second discussion. That's just me though! I bet a lot of people found it engaging. I kind of skipped a lot of orientation, actually, and I had a great first year!</p>
<p>I wish this thread had started two days ago...the April Fools potential is HUGE.</p>