Book for 2008 Carolina Summer Reading Program Announced
The 2008 Summer Reading Program Book Selection Committee has chosen Covering: The Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights, by Kenji Yoshino, for the 2008 Carolina Summer Reading Program. Read more about the selection.
 "Charlie Parker’s Favorite Painting" by Gertrude Abercrombie, 1946. Ackland Art Museum collection. Reprinted with permission. |
Coming Events Still...Life |
Overview
The Carolina Summer Reading Program is designed to provide a common experience for incoming students, to enhance participation in the intellectual life of the campus through stimulating discussion and critical thinking around a current topic, and to encourage a sense of community between students, faculty and staff.
This year’s reading is The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions by Sister Helen Prejean.
The Book for Summer 2007
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The Death of Innocents is a compelling narrative, told calmly and with tolerance for differing sides of the contentious issue of the death penalty in the United States. The author, Helen Prejean, describes her relationships with two death-row convicts, family members, legal officials, and pro- and anti-death-penalty activists. To the extent that she can, she tells us what death, and the months and years leading up to death, are like for the men in the book and others on death row. In highlighting the issues involved, Prejean focuses primarily on two realities: the probability that innocent people have been and will be put to death in the United States, and the details of the legal and physical machinery of capital punishment. Although the text reflects the author’s stance against the death penalty, she lets these two realities tell their own story. Purchasing Information: The Death of Innocents by Sister Helen Prejean (Vintage, 2006) is available in paperback at the Bull’s Head Bookshop in the UNC Student Stores for $11.20 (a savings of 20% off the publisher’s price of $14.00). The book will also be available at CTOPS and TSOP summer orientation sessions. If you purchase the book at CTOPS or TSOP you can eliminate shipping charges. Books may be ordered now at www.store.unc.edu. |
The Author
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Sister Helen Prejean travels extensively, giving, on average, 140 lectures a year, seeking to ignite public discourse on the death penalty. She has appeared on ABC’s World News Tonight, 60 Minutes, Oprah, NPR, and an NBC special series on capital punishment. She is a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Medaille and lives in Louisiana. |
Related Resources
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Death Penalty Fact Sheet |
Other UNC-Chapel Hill First Year Initiatives
Previous Carolina Summer Reading Program Selections:
Resources for Book Discussion Leaders
Guidelines for Discussion Leaders
The Carolina Summer Reading Program developed from recommendations made by the 1997 Chancellor’s Task Force on Intellectual Climate to improve the first-year student orientation experience. For questions/comments, send email to newstudents@unc.edu.
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Last revised: February 26, 2008.