The Larry and Julie Poeppel Family Common Read Lecture unites students from all majors in reading the same book during fall semester of their first year.
Each fall, the NSU Honors Program hosts a Common Read lecture, supported by the generous endowment of the Larry and Julie Poeppel family. The speaker is either the author of the Common Read book or a person with expertise on the central theme of the book.
Common Read lectures are free and open to all of campus and the Aberdeen community.
2024 Common Read Book
The fall 2024 Common Read book will be Ruta Sepetys' historical fiction novel “I Must Betray You,” which was awarded the Yoto Carnegie Shadowers’ Choice Medal.
2024 Common Read Lecture
7:30 p.m. September 25
Johnson Fine Arts Center
Sepetys will present the Larry and Julie Poeppel Family Common Read Lecture. Read more about the book and lecture
Authors and Speakers
- 2023: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot
- 2022: Send, by Patty Blount; Speaker: Patty Blount
- 2021: Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century, by Alice Wong; Speaker: Alice Wong
- 2020: Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America by Chris Arnade; Speaker: Chris Arnade
- 2019: Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Productive and Creative Self by Manoush Zomorodi ; Speaker: Manoush Zomorodi
- 2018: The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas; Speaker: Angie Thomas
- 2017: Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys; Speaker: Ruta Sepetys
- 2016: Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson; Speaker: Anthony Ray Hinton
- 2015: Without You, There is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea's Elite by Suki Kim; Speaker: Suki Kim
- 2014: Ready Player One by Ernie Cline; Speaker: Ernest Cline
- 2013: Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls; Speaker: Jeannette Walls
- 2012: Outcasts United by Warren St. John; Speaker: Warren St. John
- 2011: 1491 by Charles Mann; Speaker: Charles Mann
- 2010: The Routes of Man by Ted Conover; Speaker: Ted Conover
Members of the Lacks family are pictured with author Rebecca Skloot. (Photo courtesy of the Lyceum Speakers Agency press kit.)