Browsing Collection
The Browsing Collection area offers students and staff comfortable seating in a quiet spot where they can enjoy recently published books and current top-quality magazines.
Books are drawn from the Libraries’ regular acquisitions flow and include fiction and poetry, plus a wide selection of nonfiction in subject areas such as biography, current events, education, the social sciences, and science and technology. The approximately 800 titles in the collection are arranged according to Library of Congress classification which allows easy browsing by subject. New books are added regularly and remain in the browsing area for three to four months.
Magazines are selected from the general journal collection and provide readers with up-to-date information in the arts & popular culture, news & current events, and science & technology. Magazines are updated weekly.
The browsing area is located in the Current Periodicals reading room, lower level, west wing and is open all posted library hours. Browsing Collection books can be checked out at the Main Circulation desk and circulate under standard library policies.
Recent Additions to the Browsing Collection
Learn More About Writers and How to Find Book Reviews
How to Find Book Reviews
Books in Print Current; consists of bibliographic records for over 5 million book, audio, and video titles. Selected titles have author biographies and full-text reviews. Also includes data on publishers, awards, and upcoming titles.
Contemporary Authors Biographical and bibliographical information and references on more than 120,000 U.S. and international authors. Guide
Keep up with New and Award Winning Books
These publications are good sources for new books and are available in Current Periodicals:
Online access only:
Note: Some of these websites may have limited access. A subscription or registration may be necessary for full content.
Major book awards:
Prize Winners in the Browsing Collection*
2008 BCALA Literary Award Winners
- Nonfiction
Ralph Ellison: A Biography, Arnold Rampersad
(Winner)
Supreme Discomfort: The Divided Soul of Clarence Thomas, Kevin Merida (Honor Book)
2007 International IMPAC DUBLIN Literary Award
- A Long Long Way, Sebastian Barry (Finalist)
- Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer (Finalist)
- The Short Day Dying , Peter Hobbs (Finalist)
- No Country for Old Men, Cormac McCarthy (Finalist)
- Shalimar the Clown, Salman Rushdie (Finalist)
2007 Man Booker International Prize (awarded every two years for a body of work)
2007 Man Booker Prize for Fiction
- The Gathering, Anne Enright (Winner) - on order
- On Chesil Beach, Ian McEwan (Finalist)
- The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Mohsin Hamid (Finalist)
2007 National Book Awards
- Fiction
Tree of Smoke, Denis Johnson (Winner)
Then We Came to the End, Joshua Ferris (Finalist)
Like You'd Understand, Anyway, Jim Shepard (Finalist)
- Nonfiction
Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA, Tim Weiner (Winner)
Brother I'm Dying, Edwidge Danicat (Finalist)
God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, Christopher Hitchens (Finalist)
Ralph Ellison: A Biography, Arnold Rampersad (Finalist)
- Poetry
Time and Materials, Robert Haas (Winner)
Magnetic North, Linda Gregerson (Finalist)
The House on Boulevard St., David Kirby (Finalist)
Old Heart, Stanley Plumly (Finalist)
Messenger, Ellen Bryant Voight (Finalist)
2007 National Book Critics Circle Awards
- Fiction
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz (Winner)
Sacred Games, Vikram Chandra (Finalist)
In the Country of Men, Hisham Matar (Finalist)
General Nonfiction
Medical Apartheid, Harriet Washington
(Winner)
American Transcendentalism: A History, Phillip Gura (Finalist)
Legacy of Ashes: A History of the CIA, Tim Weiner (Finalist)
The World Without Us, Alan Weisman (Finalist)
- Biography
Stanley, the Imposssible Life of Africa's Greatest Explorer, Tim Jeal
(Winner)
Ralph Ellison: A Biography, Arnold Rampersad (Finalist)
The Life of Picasso: The Triumphant Years, 1917-1932, John Richardson (Finalist)
- Autobiography
Brother I'm Dying, Edwidge Danticat (Winner)
The Journals of Joyce Carol Oates, 1973-1982, Joyce Carol Oates (Finalist)
Russian Diary: A Journalist’s Final Account of Life, Corruption and Death in Putin’s Russia, Anna Politkovskaya (on order)
- Poetry
Elegy, Mary Jo Bang (Winner)
Modern Life, Matthea Harvey (Finalist)
The Ballad of Jamie Allan, Tom Pickard (Finalist)
Sleeping and Waking, Michael O'Brien (Finalist)
- Criticism
The Rest is Noise, Alex Ross (Winner)
Twenty-Eight Artists and Two Saints: Essays, Joan Acocella (Finalist)
Once Upon a Quinceañera: Coming of Age in the USA, Julia Alvarez (Finalist)
2007 Nobel Prize in Literature
2005 Noma Award for Publishing in Africa
- The Amputated Memory (La Mémoire Amputée), Werewere Liking, Cameroon
2008 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction
- The Great Man, Kate Christensen (Winner)
- The Gateway Stories, T.M. McNally (Finalist)
- The Indian Clerk, David Leavitt (Finalist)
2008 Pulitzer Prize Winners
- Fiction
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz
- Drama
August: Osage County, Tracy Letts
- History
What Hath God Wrought, Daniel Walker Howe - on order
- Biography
Eden's Outcasts, John Matteson
- Poetry
Time and Materials, Robert Hass and Failure, Philip Schultz
- General Nonfiction
The Years of Extermination, Saul Friedlander
*Check PantherCat for call number and current location information. Some books may have been returned to the Main Collection
Book-related Blogs and Pages
Suggestions and Recommendations
The Libraries browsing area was developed in response to student requests for comfortable seating and study areas and a place where they could find “something to read.” Comments and recommendations from the campus community are welcome and appreciated. Please use our online suggestion form.
