What’s the Summer Read?

All incoming first-years will read a book together before coming to campus. You will discuss it together as part of your First-Year Seminar. This summer, we are reading Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower. 

Written in 1993, Butler’s dystopian novel takes place in the 2020s as its protagonist Lauren Oya Olamina undertakes a journey of self-discovery in a crumbling society. Lauren has to forge a new path for herself and others when the gated community near Los Angeles where she grew up becomes compromised. Butler raises many important issues–race, power, environmental destruction, corruption, public health–all of which are pertinent local, national and global concerns of our own time. The novel will present an opportunity to engage incoming students about topics that will almost certainly be at the forefront of their lives as they begin their first semester at Salem.

Incoming students who have their Salem account created should be able to access the novel as an e-book here. Please use the same credentials as your MySalem account to login. If you have trouble logging in, please click here.