CFA Community Reading 2025

1.  Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson (ISBN: 978-0812984965)

In Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson offers a powerful, heart-wrenching memoir that chronicles his work as a young lawyer fighting for justice for marginalized prisoners, focusing particularly on his efforts to defend Walter McMillian, a Black man wrongfully convicted of murder on death row in Alabama. More than just a legal narrative, the book is a profound exploration of systemic racism, mass incarceration, and the profound inequities in the American criminal justice system, revealing how poverty, racial bias, and institutional corruption can destroy individual lives. Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, shares gripping personal stories that expose the human cost of a justice system that frequently fails its most vulnerable citizens—including children sentenced to life in prison, mentally ill defendants, and those unable to afford adequate legal representation. The memoir balances heartbreaking accounts of injustice with moments of extraordinary hope, compassion, and the transformative power of mercy, showing how individual commitment can challenge deeply entrenched systemic problems. While confronting difficult topics of racial injustice, wrongful conviction, and capital punishment, the book ultimately offers a message of human dignity, resilience, and the possibility of redemption. Winner of multiple humanitarian awards, Just Mercy provides a crucial, eye-opening perspective on social justice that challenges readers to think deeply about equality, compassion, and the true meaning of justice. 

2. The Martian by Andy Weir (ISBN: 978-0553418026)

Imagine waking up alone on a distant planet—abandoned, injured, and completely cut off from Earth. That’s what happens to astronaut Mark Watney when a violent storm forces his crew to evacuate their Mars mission, leaving him behind, presumed dead.

But Mark isn’t ready to give up. Armed with a stubborn sense of humor, serious science skills, and limited supplies, he sets out to do the impossible: survive on Mars long enough to be rescued. As Mark “sciences the heck” out of every challenge—growing food with Martian soil, fixing broken equipment with duct tape, hacking communications—NASA scrambles to figure out a way to bring him home.

Told through Mark’s log entries and a shifting Earth-based perspective, The Martian is a fast-paced, clever, and unexpectedly funny story about resilience, teamwork, and the global unity that forms around one person’s fight to stay alive. Perfect for fans of thrillers, sci-fi, or survival stories, this novel blends humor and heart with real science—and asks what it really means to be human when you're completely alone.

3. You Bring the Distant Near by Mitali Perkins (ISBN: 978-0525555377

Five women. Three generations. One unforgettable story of identity, family, and belonging.

Spanning decades and continents, You Bring the Distant Near follows the lives of a Bengali-American family as they navigate the shifting landscapes of immigration, adolescence, love, and legacy. From 1970s London and New York to present-day suburban America, the novel explores how each woman carves out her own place in the world—sometimes pushing against tradition, other times embracing it—in a beautifully woven narrative of cultural crossroads. With humor, heart, and hope, Mitali Perkins brings each character to life through vivid storytelling and emotional depth.

A National Book Award Longlist selection and a Walter Award Honor Book, this novel is perfect for readers interested in multicultural stories, strong female voices, and the ways identity can evolve across time and place. If you enjoy character-driven stories that explore both the tension and unity within families, You Bring the Distant Near might be your perfect summer read.

4. The Life Impossible by Matt Haig (ISBN: 978-1838855581)

When retired Maths teacher Grace Winters is left a run-down house on a Mediterranean island by a long-lost friend, curiosity gets the better of her. She arrives in Ibiza with a one-way ticket, no guidebook and no plan.

Among the rugged hills and golden beaches of the Balearics Grace searches for answers about her friend’s life, and how it ended. What she uncovers is stranger than she could have dreamed. But to dive into this impossible truth, Grace must first come to terms with her past.

Filled with wonder and wild adventure, this is a story of hope and the life-changing power of a new beginning.

5. Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid (ISBN: 978-0525541912) 

A striking and surprising debut novel from an exhilarating new voice, Such a Fun Age is a page-turning and big-hearted story about race and privilege, set around a young black babysitter, her well-intentioned employer, and a surprising connection that threatens to undo them both.

Alix Chamberlain is a woman who gets what she wants and has made a living, with her confidence-driven brand, showing other women how to do the same. So she is shocked when her babysitter, Emira Tucker, is confronted while watching the Chamberlains' toddler one night, walking the aisles of their local high-end supermarket. The store's security guard, seeing a young black woman out late with a white child, accuses Emira of kidnapping two-year-old Briar. A small crowd gathers, a bystander films everything, and Emira is furious and humiliated. Alix resolves to make things right.

With empathy and piercing social commentary, Such a Fun Age explores the stickiness of transactional relationships, what it means to make someone "family," and the complicated reality of being a grown up. It is a searing debut for our times.