Previous Selections

2007-2008: "The Deep Dark" by Gregg Olsen

From Publishers Weekly: "The 1972 fire at Idaho's Sunshine silver mine was one of America's worst mine disasters, with 91 miners killed-some in mid-stride-by a "stealthy tornado" of smoke and carbon monoxide. True crime journalist Olsen (Abandoned Prayers) has the narrative chops for this story. His suspenseful account conveys the already hellish everyday atmosphere of the mine, the panic and chaos of the sudden catastrophe, the heroic efforts to evacuate, the ghastly deaths of victims, the (sometimes overdrawn) horror of their decomposing bodies and the ordeal of two miners trapped in an air pocket. But he goes further, embedding his chronicle within a social panorama of the macho subculture of the miners-whose disdain for safety precautions may have raised the body count even as their hard-bitten sense of fraternity held them together in the emergency-and of the larger working-class community that frayed and bonded in the face of the tragedy. Like Sebastian Junger's The Perfect Storm, Olsen's is a story of male workers engaged in a primordial resource-extraction occupation, battling natural elements-earth, fire and (poisoned) air-that overwhelm the ties of masculine solidarity. In his gripping treatment, stocked with vividly drawn characters, one finds a metaphorical elegy for America's doomed industrial proletariat."

2006-2007: "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder

For the first time Boise State launched a freshman reading program designed to create campus community between all new students. The book selected was "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder. The book documents the life of Dr. Paul Farmer and his work to eradicate infectious diseases in Africa. The dialogue centered around this read focuses on the theme "How One Person Can Change the World."

An array of events were planned and implemented during the academic year to help assist students in furthering their conversations and promote a campus-wide discussion surrounding issues within the book. Some of these activities included showing various films such as: "A Closer Walk", "Rx for Survival", followed by "And the Band Played On." The Director of Development for Partners, Ed Cardoza, was a featured guest and presented on the topic "Saving Lives, Transforming Communities, and Changing the World: A Call to be Bold." Several book discussions were offered during the year by various faculty and staff members of the University, including the University President Bob Kustra. The First Year Read program closed with a discussion lead by the author himself, Tracy Kidder.