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Common Reading Experience

Every first-year student receives a copy of the selected text at orientation to finish before the school year begins in August.

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The University of Mississippi Common Reading Experience. Are you reading?

What is the Common Reading Experience?

The Common Reading Experience began with the 2011-2012 school year, and continues in 2026-2027 with the selection of Thomas Fuller's The Boys of Riverside: A Deaf Football Team and a Quest for Glory.

  • Every first-year student receives a copy of the selected text at orientation to finish before the school year begins in August.
  • Instructors from the Department of Writing and Rhetoric, First-year Experience, and others then utilize the text in their classes.

The program aspires for an enriched sense of academic community through a communal reading of the text.

Please use this site to locate information about events, the author, or how the book will be used in the university as well as in the community. If you have any questions or would like to get involved, please email umreads@olemiss.edu

Local Community Involvement

If you would like to participate in a local discussion of the book or get your organization involved, please email Melissa Dennis, Head of Research & Instruction Services, University Libraries, at mdennis@olemiss.edu or call 662-915-5861.

Want to add the common read to your reading group? Visit the Lafayette County and Oxford Public Library for more information.

The 2026-2027 Common Read Book Selection: The Boys of Riverside by Thomas Fuller

The 2026-2027 Common Read book is The Boys of Riverside by Thomas Fuller, which follows the incredible story of an all-deaf high school football team’s triumphant climb from underdog to undefeated, their inspirational brotherhood, a fascinating portrait of deafness in America, and the indefatigable head coach who spearheaded the team, by New York Times reporter and San Francisco Bureau Chief, Thomas Fuller.

The Boys of Riverside is another example of how anyone can achieve their dreams, making what appears impossible, possible. —Marlee Matlin, Academy Award winner

In November 2021, an obscure email from the California Department of Education landed in New York Times reporter, Thomas Fuller’s, inbox. The football team at the California School for the Deaf in Riverside, a state-run school with only 168 high school students, was having an undefeated season.

Cover of the book The Boys of Riverside by Thomas Fuller

 After years of covering war, wildfires, pandemic, and mass shootings, Fuller was captivated by the story of this group of high school boys. It was uplifting. During the gloom of the pandemic, it was a happy story. It was a sports story but not an ordinary one, built on the chemistry between a group of underestimated boys and their superhero advocate coach, Keith Adams, a deaf former athlete himself. The team, and Adams, tackled the many stereotypes and seemed to be succeeding. Fuller packed his bags and drove seven hours to the Riverside campus.

The Boys of Riverside looks back at the historic 2021 and 2022 seasons in which the California School for the Deaf chased history. It follows the personal journeys of their dynamic deaf head coach, and a student who spent the majority of the season sleeping in his father’s car in the Target parking lot.

It tells the story of a fiercely committed player who literally played through a broken leg in order not to miss a crucial game, as well as myriad other heart-wrenching and uplifting narratives of players who found common purpose. Through their eyes, Fuller reveals a portrait of high school athletics, inspiring camaraderie, and deafness in America.

About the Author Thomas Fuller

Portrait of Thomas Fuller

Thomas Fuller is a Page One Correspondent for The New York Times.

Before moving to California, he reported from more than 40 countries for The Times and International Herald Tribune, mainly in Europe and Southeast Asia.

 

Courses Using the Common Read Selection

The following courses will integrate the common read into their curriculum this fall.

  • EDHE 105: Freshman Year Experience
  • EDHE 305: New Transfer Experience
  • WRIT 100: Introduction to College Writing
  • WRIT 101: First-Year Writing I
  • WRIT 102: First-Year Writing II
  • LIBA 102: First-Year Seminar

By reading, writing, and learning together through the shared experience of the UM Common Reading Experience, students:

  • Develop critical thinking, reading, writing, and research skills and abilities
  • Gain an emerging sense of confidence as learners, thinkers, readers, and writers
  • Develop a sense of community among peers, neighbors, and instructors
  • Develop connections among ideas, experiences, disciplines, and academic and personal goals
  • Relate the issues raised by the common book to their lives as new or returning students.

EDHE 105, the current academic component of the Freshman Year Experience Program at Ole Miss, was originally introduced in 1963 as Effective Study. EDHE 105 is designed to help our freshman students make a positive transition from high school to college, develop a better understanding of the learning process, enhance their academic skills , acquire essential life skills to ensure their success, and to begin their exploration of the career and major that are best for them.

The common reading book selection is used each year in EDHE 105 courses primarily as a framework for class discussions, projects, and writing assignments that explore social themes and/or issues from the book.  EDHE 105 instructors use the text (with a focus on those themes and issues) to teach students how to explore their personal reactions, to understand and appreciate both the things that make them different from their peers and the things that they have in common, and to effectively and respectfully voice their own opinions and viewpoints.

For more information, visit the Center for Student Success & First-Year Experience page on EDHE 105 and the DWR Common Read Resource Guide section for using the common read in EDHE 105.

Previous Book Selections

Browse our previous Common Reading Experience selections by year below.