The Common Read is Northern State University’s largest academic event, promoting intellectual growth and meaningful dialogue within the campus and Aberdeen community. The Common Read culminates with the Larry and Julie Poeppel Family Lecture, funded in part by the Poeppel Family endowment with additional support from the Marlene and Clayton Olson Endowment.
Common Read lectures are free and open to all of campus and the Aberdeen community.
2025 Common Read Book
The fall 2025 Common Read book will be Loung Ung’s bestselling novel “First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers,” which chronicles her survival of the Cambodian genocide.
2025 Common Read Lecture
- 7:30 p.m. September 24
- Johnson Fine Arts Center
Ung will present the Larry and Julie Poeppel Family Common Read Lecture. Read more about the book and lecture.
Authors and Speakers
- 2024: I Must Betray You, by Ruta Sepetys
- 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