<p>Did anyone who went to a summer orientation hear about this or receive a book to read?</p>
<p>Yes, it is “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” by Junot Diaz. They gave the students copies of the book along with some guiding questions (which my D detests having ahead of time) and a schedule of speakers about the book, including the author. My understanding is it will be discussed in their TIDES classes.</p>
<p>I have no idea how they are handling this for students that did not attend orientation.</p>
<p>They will mail you a copy of the book if you did not go to or receive one at an orientation session. As for reading the book, unless you want to I would not bother. I was in business TIDES, and we did not go over the book at all. I’m pretty sure you won’t discuss the book in any other TIDES classes, though I could be wrong. We had an optional floor meeting in my dorm where a professor led a discussion about the book. At least last year, the author came to campus to speak about the book, I’d assume the same will happen this year. The reading project is really completely optional, and as a person who is not a fan of English (the subject), I did not get much out of it. I think you will miss little if anything if you choose not to read the book.</p>
<p>I did read the book and go to the floor discussion last year but I found it wasn’t worth my time because I’m just not into English. If you are, then you might get something out of it.</p>