UC BerkeleyBerkeley's 2025 Welcome Reading
The UC Berkeley Summer Reading List is a decades‑long tradition, now in its 40th year, showcasing books recommended by Berkeley faculty, staff, and students. This year’s theme, generosity, brings together books that explore acts of kindness, magnanimity, and moments that can alter lives or communities. Selected works invite readers to reflect on how generosity shapes our decisions, relationships, and future, offering insights that resonate far beyond campus.
1. The Generous Gaze
Sensing the world with empathy and seeing the humanity in others' stories.
An Immense World
Recommended by Kim Freeman, College Writing Programs Lecturer
Solito
From Shannon Buckley-Shaklee, Program Advisor for Department of Sociology
Foster
Picked by Michael Larkin, College Writing Programs Lecturer
Stay True
Recommended by Alex Simpson, Environmental Science, Class of 2028
Everything Sad Is Untrue
From Nancy H. Liu, Associate Clinical Professor, Department of Psychology
2. The Weight of Generosity
Remembering the struggles and sacrifices that define our history and our capacity for good.
On Savage Shores
From Liladhar Pendse, Librarian for UC Berkeley Library
Spain in Our Hearts
From Claude Potts, Romance Languages Librarian
Patriot
From Lisa Goldberg, Professor of the Practice of Economics
The Nightingale
From Isabella Zintel, Media Studies & Public Policy, Class of 2022
Snow Falling on Cedars
From Ann Glusker, Librarian in the Social Sciences Division
The Grapes of Wrath
From Vesna Rodic, Lecturer in French Department
3. A Generous Future
Reimagining how we live and creating new spaces for kindness, reflection, and connection.
A Psalm for the Wild-Built
From Elizabeth Dupuis, Senior Associate University Librarian
Tropic of Orange
From Xiyue (Rachel) Qin, Legal Studies & Economics, Class of 2025
Small Things Like These
From Suzanne Wones, University Librarian
Coming of Age
From Linda Wilbrecht, Professor in Department of Psychology