2020 Nominees

Read the descriptions below to learn more about the six book candidates!

NOTE: We have only selected books that the library can purchase as eBooks; the selected eBook will be purchased in August of 2020.

A Student of History by Nina Revoyr
ISBN: 1617756644
Publication Date: 2019
GENRE: Noir fiction
PAGES: 204
DESCRIPTION: Rick Nagano is a graduate student in the history department at USC, struggling to make ends meet until he lands a job as a research assistant for the elderly Mrs. W, the heir to an oil fortune. Putting aside his half-finished dissertation, Rick sets up office in Mrs. W's grand Bel Air mansion and begins to transcribe her journals - which document an old Los Angeles not described in his history books. A Student of History explores both the beginnings of Los Angeles and present-day dynamics of race and class. It offers a window into the usually hidden world of high society, and the influence of historic families on current events.
Always Running by Luis J. Rodriguez
ISBN: 0743276914
Publication Date: 2005
GENRE: Memoir
PAGES: 274
DESCRIPTION: Always Running is the searing true story of one man's life in a Chicano gang--and his heroic struggle to free himself from its grip. By age twelve, Luis Rodriguez was a veteran of East Los Angeles gang warfare. Lured by a seemingly invincible gang culture, he witnessed countless shootings, beatings, and arrests and then watched with increasing fear as gang life claimed friends and family members. Before long, Rodriguez saw a way out of the barrio through education and the power of words and successfully broke free from years of violence and desperation. Achieving success as an award-winning poet, he was sure the streets would haunt him no more--until his young son joined a gang. Rodriguez fought for his child by telling his own story in Always Running, a vivid memoir that explores the motivations of gang life and cautions against the death and destruction that inevitably claim its participants.
Becoming Ms. Burton by Susan Burton and Cari Lynn
ISBN: 1620972123
Publication Date: 2017
GENRE: Memoir
PAGES: 336
DESCRIPTION: In this “stirring and moving tour-de-force” (John Legend), Susan Burton movingly recounts her own journey through the criminal justice system and her transformation into a life of advocacy. After a childhood of immense pain, poverty, and abuse in Los Angeles, the tragic loss of her son led her into addiction, which in turn led to arrests and incarceration. During the War on Drugs, Burton was arrested and would cycle in and out of prison for more than fifteen years. When, by chance, she finally received treatment, her political awakening began and she became a powerful advocate for “a more humane justice system guided by compassion and dignity” (Booklist, starred review). Her award-winning organization, A New Way of Life, has transformed the lives of more than one thousand formerly incarcerated women and is an international model for a less punitive and more effective approach to rehabilitation and reentry.
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
ISBN: 9781571313560
Publication Date: 2015
GENRE: Non-fiction; Nature Writing; Nature Essays
PAGES: 410
DESCRIPTION: As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowledge together to take us on "a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise" (Elizabeth Gilbert). Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, and as a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings--asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass--offer us gifts and lessons, even if we've forgotten how to hear their voices.
Southland by Nina Revoyr
ISBN: 1936070480
Publication Date: 2008
GENRE: Crime Fiction
PAGES: 350
DESCRIPTION: Southland brings us a fascinating story of race, love, murder and history, against the backdrop of an ever-changing Los Angeles. A young Japanese-American woman, Jackie Ishida, is in her last semester of law school when her grandfather, Frank Sakai, dies unexpectedly. While trying to fulfill a request from his will, Jackie discovers that four African-American boys were killed in the store Frank owned during the Watts Riots of 1965. Along with James Lanier, a cousin of one of the victims, Jackie tries to piece together the story of the boys' deaths. In the process, she unearths the long-held secrets of her family's history.
An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon
ISBN: 1617755885
Publication Date: 2017
GENRE: Science Fiction
PAGES: 349
DESCRIPTION: For generations, the Matilda has ferried the last of humanity to a mythical Promised Land. On its way, the ship's leaders have imposed harsh moral restrictions and deep indignities on dark-skinned sharecroppers like Aster, who they consider to be less than human. When the autopsy of Matilda's sovereign reveals a surprising link between his death and her mother's suicide some quarter-century before, Aster retraces her mother's footsteps. Embroiled in a grudge with a brutal overseer and sowing the seeds of civil war, Aster learns there may be a way off the ship if she's willing to fight for it.

Selection Process and Criteria

Each year, the University Library forms a One Campus, One Book Committee. In the Spring, the committee reaches out to students, staff, and faculty across campus to create a list of nominated books.

The committee, along with campus volunteers, meets to create a short-list of books.

Books may include fiction, non-fiction, hybrid forms, poetry, and any genres. Books are selected using the following criteria (in no specific order):

The Book:

Is written by a local author
Includes relevant and/or local social themes
Includes diverse characters
Has cross-disciplinary applications
Is an appropriate length and reading level for freshmen
Is affordable for the committee and for students
Is available in a needed format (i.e., paper vs. hardback, unlimited vs. limited access eBook)*
Is not too similar to last year's selection

*Please note that publishers and vendors provide eBooks for academic libraries to purchase in varied formats, ranging from 1-user eBooks to Unlimited access eBooks. To plan OCOB during the pandemic uncertainties and to ensure access for all students, the OCOB Committee selects only ebooks that are available in Unlimited access format. Librarians will check if suggested book(s) are available, but if you do not see your suggestion in the campus-wide vote, it is likely unavailable as an Unlimited eBook.

Once the OCOB Committee compiles a short list of books, we send it out to all students, staff, and faculty for a vote.

The book with the most votes is selected and announced to the campus before the Fall semester begins.