<p>dbwes, you really MUST read the book to find out why it was sadly ironic that you (unintentionally!) misspelled Henrietta Lacks’s last name. Her name was misspelled many times over the years by journalists and scientists, which led to her family being utterly unaware for decades about her contribution to science. </p>
<p>I just finished “Reality is Broken”, and then found out it’s the U Penn book. Kudos to Penn, because the premise of the book is fascinating. Anyone who’s interested can get a flavor at the author’s website [Reality</a> is Broken](<a href=“http://realityisbroken.org%5DReality”>http://realityisbroken.org)</p>
<p>starbright, not sure why you think this is such a bad idea. Some schools have been doing it for years–Reed has certainly been asking incoming freshmen to read “The Odyssey” since forever. Cities do this. And religious communities. It’s like a big book club. It’s cheap, harms no one, and some of the students will actually read the book. What’s not to like? We can certainly rag on Stanford for the oneupsmanship of listing three books instead of one 
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<p>I do wish that D1’s school had asked “do you happen to have a copy of Zeitoun at home?” before sending one out. Because now we have two. Just what I want to be thinking about during tuition bill season. :mad: ;)</p>