First Year Book Program

First Year Book Info

The Ravaging Tide: Strange Weather, Future Katrinas, and the Coming Death of America's Coastal Cities by Mike Tidwell
check out the companion website for this year's selection

Information for Faculty: do you want to use the First Year Book in your class?

First Year Book Archives

books and activities from previous years

2005 Thurgood Marshal: American Revolutionary by Juan Williams

2004 The Stakes by Dr. Shibley Telhami

2003 Dead Man Walking by Sister Helen Prejean

2002 The Laramie Project by Moises Kaufman

2001 Blessing the Boats by Lucille Clifton

2000 Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson

1999 The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

1998 The Control of Nature by John McPhee & Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

1997 The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells

1996 Einstein's Dreams by Alan P. Lightman

1995 The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

1994 The Narrative of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass

1993 Lincoln at Gettysburg by Garry Willis

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ARCHIVES: The Things They Carried (1999-2000)

They carried malaria tablets, love letters, 28-pound mine detectors, dope, illustrated Bibles, each other. And, if they made it home alive, they carried unrelenting images of a nightmarish war that history is only beginning to absorb. Since it was first published, The Things They Carried has become an unparalleled Vietnam testament, a classic work of American literature and a profound study of men at war that illuminates the capacity, and the limits, of the human heart and soul.

A native of Worthington, Minnesota, Tim O'Brien graduated in 1968 from Macalester College in St. Paul. He served as a foot soldier in Vietnam from 1969 to 1970, after which he pursued graduate studies in government at Harvard University, then later he worked as a national affairs reporter for the Washington Post.

Mr. Tim O'Brien

O'Brien is now a visiting professor and endowed chair at Southwest Texas State University where he teaches in the Creative Writing Program.

For more on Mr. Timothy O'Brien:

* Mr.O'Brien Webpage

Events on Campus
"A Conversation with Tim O'Brien" Discussion and Q&A Tuesday, February 15 - 4 p.m. Special Events Room of McKeldin Library -- room 4100D Tim O'Brien, author of "The Things They Carried," this year's Terrapin Reading Society book selection for incoming students, will give a talk on campus about his novel, other works, and experiences. This will be followed and open to the entire campus community.
Tim O'Brien at UMD, Feb 2000

[ Last updated on November 7, 2007 ]