Campus Community Book Project organizers say the UC Davis community should see itself in the 2008-09 selection: Mountains Beyond Mountains.

It is the story of Boston physician Paul Farmer, described in the subtitle as "a man who could cure the world." Tracy Kidder's 2003 book documents Farmer's Robin Hood-like fight against tuberculosis and the AIDS-causing human immunodeficiency virus in impoverished Haiti.

Similarly, the people of UC Davis are working hard on behalf of disadvantaged people and their health, treating them at medical clinics in the Sacramento area and keeping them safe from malaria in Africa, for example.

This kind of public service, not only in the medical and scientific fields, but in agriculture and the environment, and in education and the law and the arts, is being celebrated during the university's centennial year, 2008-09, which makes Kidder's book a good fit.

"Mountains Beyond Mountains is a superb choice for next year's book project as it reminds us about how people and universities can serve the world," said Karma Waltonen, a lecturer in the University Writing Program and a member of the book selection committee.

"If even a few of the students here were inspired by Paul Farmer's story, we would live in a better place."

The Campus Community Book Project, entering its seventh year, invites students, staff and faculty to read the selected volume around the same time, thus providing a common experience that can be the basis of community-building discussions.

"Reading and analyzing a book together offers the opportunity to share our insights and explore other perspectives," Interim Provost Barbara Horwitz and Associate Executive Vice Chancellor Rahim Reed, in charge of the Office of Campus Community Relations, said in announcing the 2008-09 book selection.

Mountains Beyond Mountains offers a lot to talk about, including these topics: health care and human rights, poverty and social justice.

In UC Davis' centennial year, Horwitz and Reed said, Mountains Beyond Mountains "provides a catalyst for exploring the mission of a land grant university — specifically, how multidisciplinary research can contribute to service dedicated to solving significant local and global problems."

Teachers are encouraged to incorporate the book into the curriculum. For example, Waltonen said, in a general writing class she would pair the text with other texts discussing humanitarian aid and the United States' relationships with other nations.

"I would ask the students to compare and contrast Kidder's writing style and form with other texts, to think through how to balance logos, ethos and pathos.

"In terms of Haiti specifically, Kidder has done a wonderful job getting people to care about issues they habitually ignore."

The Campus Community Book Project also normally includes a variety of panels and other programs in the fall quarter, culminating in the author's visit to campus. Kidder is scheduled to deliver a talk at the Mondavi Center the night of Dec. 1.

Kidder won the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction in 1982 for The Soul of a New Machine, an account of Data General's development of the Eclipse-MV minicomputer. His other works include Home Town, in which he explores life among the 30,000 people of Northampton, Mass., and Among Schoolchildren, a year in the life of a fifth-grade teacher in a racially mixed school in a poor district of Holyoke, Mass.

For Mountains Beyond Mountains, Kidder goes to Haiti's Central Plateau, the poorest region of one of the world's poorest countries, where Farmer founded his first clinic in 1985, in the village of Cange. Two years later, Farmer and others founded Partners in Health to support the Cange effort.

Twenty years later, Farmer is still at it, with expanded facilities in Haiti, and additional overseas clinics in Africa, Siberia and Peru.

"What's really inspiring is the impressiveness of what one person can accomplish … to set up health care systems in really poor countries," said Gary Sue Goodman, the University Writing Program's assistant director for Writing Across the Curriculum, who led the book selection effort.

People wising to participate in the planning process for Campus Community Book Project activities are asked to contact Tammy McNiff in the Office of Campus Community Relations, (530) 752- 2071 or tdmcniff@ucdavis.edu.