<p>Recently my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer in both breasts, and I was unable to read Sisters Keeper. Granted I shouldn't have saved it for August...I don't want to really tell anyone about the diagnosis, and it seems that freshman only have to discuss the book once for an hour and a half with their FAC and other students, so if I skip that meeting what will happen?</p>
<p>nothing...don't worry about it. i'd go ahead and go to to the discussion. Usually a bunch of people didn't read it and discussion will end up being something a bit bigger than just about the book.</p>
<p>yeah especially with this book (which I personally thought kinda blew)... the choice of this book was obviously just to use it as a springboard to talk about genetic engineering and medical ethics and whatnot.</p>
<p>not a big deal at all - there's just a group discussion with your FAC during orientation week. I guess it depends on your FAC but our group's last year was pretty chill about ppl. not having read it. Besides, theres not much they can do about it anyways to "penalize" you</p>
<p>^^^ I can totally agree with DrumNDukie, the book itself, as a novel, blew like a mofo, the only good part is the ethical debate part. I can already visualize how the discussion will go:</p>
<p>first 20 sec = discussing the book
next hour and a half minus 20sec = random discussions with a focus on genetic engineering/stem cell research/cloning (no prior knowledge required).</p>
<p>BTW: did anyone else find that "deus ex machina"-esque ending really cheesy and unnecessary?</p>
<p>as a freshman, i read 30 pages of my summer reading book. nothing happened to me. we had a discussion of it -- in which it was evident that about half of the people there did not read the book -- and the discussion morphed into discussing duke life. last year as a fac, i read the book, and i'd say most, if not all, of my faclets read our book. we talked about it for a bit-- people were quiet, so we talked duke, i showed them my room and we got a snack at the bc. </p>
<p>i'm so sorry about your mom, and don't feel the need to have to share anything you're uncomfortable with with your fac. they're just a year older than you and really won't mind that you didn't read. it's not worth it to skip the meeting -- your fac will check in on you to see why you didn't go.</p>
<p>haha my FAC didnt read it so we didnt even discuss it...</p>
<p>I doubt much will happen to you, but I really enjoyed the book, so I would recommend reading it at some point when you do have a chance, because it was actually good.</p>
<p>don't worry about the book. focus on your family. that's most important.</p>
<p>Don't worry about the book, instead, enjoy the first few days of orientation, make sure to keep in touch with your family.</p>
<p>Don't bother with the book discussion if it makes you uncomfortable - last year, my friend didn't read it, didn't go to the discussion, and his FAC didn't attend either.</p>
<p>You could bet that many of your fellow classmates didn't read the book and see what kind of fun you can have throwing out seemingly well-read and wise statements about some <em>other</em> book you like to see if people will just BS to seem like they are following you :)</p>