Each year Notre Dame selects a book to read and discuss as a community of students, faculty, alums and friends. Books are selected that explore and deepen our school's culture of Education for Justice and Leadership by engaging our community in academic scholarship and intentional dialogue that reflects our Catholic identity.
In addition to reading the book and discussing underlying themes throughout the integrated school program, students and the community typically meet the author during a campus visit in the fall. In the past fifteen years, through this ND Reads program, our school community has touched on many topics. We have traveled to Africa to study the Rwandan genocide, journeyed with a young monk seal and learned about climate change from his perspective, explored how to stand in kinship with gang members, and memorialized the 60th anniversary of integrating schools in Little Rock, Arkansas, just to name a few.
17th Annual ND Reads
For the 2023-2024 school year we are reading Reyna Grande's novel, A Dream Called Home. Thank you to Reyna for joining us for our annual ND Reads author talk with our students and again with our community.
From bestselling author of the remarkable memoir The Distance Between Us comes an inspiring account of one woman’s quest to find her place in America as a first-generation Latina university student and aspiring writer determined to build a new life for her family one fearless word at a time.
As an immigrant in an unfamiliar country, with an indifferent mother and abusive father, Reyna had few resources at her disposal. Taking refuge in words, Reyna’s love of reading and writing propels her to rise above until she achieves the impossible and is accepted to the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Although her acceptance is a triumph, the actual experience of American college life is intimidating and unfamiliar for someone like Reyna, who is now estranged from her family and support system. Again, she finds solace in words, holding fast to her vision of becoming a writer, only to discover she knows nothing about what it takes to make a career out of a dream.
Courtesy of Simon & Schuster
Reyna Grande is the author of the bestselling memoirs, The Distance Between Us and A Dream Called Home, where she writes about her life before and after she arrived in the United States from Mexico as an undocumented child immigrant. Her other works include the novels Across a Hundred Mountains, Dancing with Butterflies, and most recently, A Ballad of Love and Glory. She is also co-editor of the anthology Somewhere We Are Human: Authentic Voices on Migration, Survival and New Beginnings. Her newest book, published in May 2023, is her young reader’s adaptation of Spare Parts: The True Story of Four Undocumented Teenagers, One Ugly Robot, and an Impossible Dream, by Joshua Davis. Her books have been adopted as the common read selection by schools, colleges and cities across the country. Reyna is the recipient of several awards, including an American Book Award, the El Premio Aztlán Literary Award, a Luis Leal Award for Distinction in Chicano/Latino Literature, and a California Latino Spirit Award. In March 2023, she was honored with the Barnes and Noble Writers for Writers Award from Poets & Writers. Reyna is a proud member of the Macondo Writers Workshop, where she has also served as faculty.
2022/23
The Color of Air
by Gail Tsukiyama
2021/22
World of Wonders
by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
2020/21
A Place for Us
by Fatima Farheen Mirza
2019/20
by Richard Rothstein
2018/19
The Monk of Mokha
by Dave Eggers
2017/18
Lessons From Little Rock
by Terrence Roberts
2016/17
Stealing Buddha's Dinner
by Bich Minh Nguyen
2015/16
The Odyssey of KP2: An Orphan Seal and Marine Biologist's Fight to Save a Species
by Terrie M. Williams
2014/15
La Verdad
by Mary Jo Ignoffo & Lucia Cerna
2013/14
Tattoos on the Heart
by Gregory Boyle, S.J.
2012/13
I'm Not Leaving
by Carl Wilkins
2011/12
Enrique's Journey
by Sonia Nazario
2010/11
A Thousand Splendid Suns
by Khaled Hosseini
2009/10
The Distant Land of My Fathers
by Bo Caldwell
2008/09
Funny in Farsi
by Firoozeh Dumas
2007/08
Three Cups of Tea
by Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin