The University of Mississippi‘s 2024 Common Reading Experience will focus on Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier by Arthur C. Brooks and Oprah Winfrey.
Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier is an examination of philosophical advice and research-based strategies for navigating life’s challenges. Situated within the field of happiness studies, the book considers such areas as happiness, well-being, purpose, faith, and relationships. Authors Arthur C. Brooks and Oprah Winfrey include examples from individuals’ lives and careers, including their own, to demonstrate how philosophy and the findings from happiness research can be applied to readers’ lives. For students, the book provides the chance to reflect on their own goals and happiness as well as the chance to examine the roles that research and philosophy play in helping humans understand themselves and others.
Previous Common Reading Experience Selections
2023 – Callings: The Purpose and Passion of Work by Dave Isay
2022 – The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green
2021 – World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
2020 – What the Eyes Don’t See by Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha
2019 – Evicted by Matthew Desmond
2018 – Collected Stories by William Faulkner
2017 – Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
2016 – Ten Little Indians by Sherman Alexie
2015- The Education of a Lifetime by Robert Khayat
2014- The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Won World War II by Denise Kiernan
2013- The Unforgiving Minute: A Soldier’s Education by Craig Mullaney
2012- Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin
2011- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot