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 Common Read lecture is free and open to all of campus and the Aberdeen community. The speaker is either the author of the Common Read book or a person with expertise on the central theme of the book.
2023 Common Read
The fall 2023 Common Read book will be “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” by Rebecca Skloot. Two members of the Lacks family will present the Larry and Julie Poeppel Family Common Read Lecture at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 27 in the Johnson Fine Arts Center. Learn more here.
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.)