Start your college education with a common reading experience.
For decades, the Core Program has asked incoming Oxy students to engage with a Summer Reading before they matriculate in the Fall. In assigning this common reading, our goals have been to stimulate discussion and promote critical thinking on topics of contemporary relevance; to help introduce students to the Mission of the College; and to provide a way for new students to connect with one another through a common intellectual experience. In recent years, the Summer Reading Program has joined with the Community Book Program to allow the entire Occidental community to participate.
For 2024-25, we have selected The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett. A New York Times bestseller, The Vanishing Half centers on twin sisters, inseparable as children, who ultimately choose to live in very different worlds, one black and one white. Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family—from the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s—Bennett produces a story that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing. Looking beyond issues of race, The Vanishing Half considers the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person's decisions, desires, and expectations.
The Vanishing Half will be a required text for incoming first-year students. This book ties into themes that will be part of our programming during the 2024–25 academic year and the focal point of several community-wide events.
