Since 1997, incoming first-year students at Appalachian State University have been asked to read a book as part of their orientation to the university. By participating in the Common Reading Program, students establish a common experience with other new students that will help develop a sense of community with their new environment and introduce them to a part of the academic life they are beginning at Appalachian. This program is an exciting facet in Appalachian's orientation of new students to life on campus.

The Common Reading Program at Appalachian State is proud to announce the 2024-2025 book selection: The Story of More: How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go from Here

From the publisher's website, "Hope Jahren is an award-winning scientist who has been pursuing independent research in paleobiology since 1996, when she completed her PhD at University of California Berkeley and began teaching and researching first at the Georgia Institute of Technology and then at Johns Hopkins University. She is the recipient of three Fulbright Awards and is one of four scientists, and the only woman, to have been awarded both of the Young Investigator Medals given within the Earth Sciences. She was a tenured professor at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu from 2008 to 2016, where she built the Isotope Geobiology Laboratories, with support from the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health. She currently holds the J. Tuzo Wilson professorship at the University of Oslo, Norway.."

In The Story of More, "she illuminates the link between human habits and our imperiled planet. In concise, highly readable chapters, she takes us through the science behind the key inventions—from electric power to large-scale farming to automobiles—that, even as they help us, release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere like never before. She explains the current and projected consequences of global warming—from superstorms to rising sea levels—and the actions that we all can take to fight back. At once an explainer on the mechanisms of global change and a lively, personal narrative given to us in Jahren’s inimitable voice, The Story of More is “a superb account of the deadly struggle between humanity and what may prove the only life-bearing planet within ten light years” (E. O. Wilson)."

The University Libraries offers the following digital and physical copies:

The Story of More: How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go from Here - physical copies available on the University Libraries Course Reserves shelf (1st floor of Belk Library, ask at the main service desk).

The Story of More: How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go from Here - two ebook copies available via Overdrive/Libby.

The Story of More: How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go from Here - one audiobook copy available via Overdrive/Libby.

Or for questions or access issues, please get in touch with a librarian!