By Payton Calati
Grand Rapids Community College is hosting its first common reading program since the COVID-19 Pandemic.
This semester’s common reading book is “Ab(solutely) Normal: Short Stories That Smash Mental Health Stereotypes.”
Students, staff and faculty are able to pick up a free copy of this book at the Library and Learning Commons.
With 16 writers contributing to the mixed-genre collection of fiction, each short story is written from different perspectives and sheds light on a number of mental illnesses. The book contains different styles ranging from short stories and poetry to a comic. The committee that chose the book wanted to pick something that everyone might enjoy.
Samantha Minnis, Information Literacy and Outreach librarian, says that the committee didn’t want the program to feel like a chore to students.
“We wanted something that hopefully students would find enjoyable to read. Because we don’t want it to be a chore,” Minnis said. “We understand that our students are busy, they’re reading a lot for classes, and faculty and staff are busy, too.”
“‘Ab(solutely) Normal’ isn’t a book that has to be read cover to cover. Because it is built off of many different narratives, people are able to read whatever, whenever they want.
The goal of this program is for the community to have a shared experience and be a part of a conversation.
“It’s great when we have an opportunity to all sort of like, have a universal experience,” Minnis said. “The programs aren’t tailored, so much like fixing a mental health problem, but just sort of discussing those narratives around mental health, too. Allowing people to see their experiences reflected in a book, I think, can be really powerful.”
When the committee of staff and faculty were picking a book for this semester they focused quickly on the topic of mental health.
“We have a committee of faculty and staff that discussed several different book options. We focused in on the topic of mental health pretty quickly,” Minnis said. “ A lot of us who work with students have seen that be a really prevalent discussion.”
This Thursday, Jan. 25 will be the first event introducing the book with free copies available during a gathering on the second floor of the Library from 3-4 p.m.
There will be pizza, conversations about mental health and readings from the book.
The discussions are open to anyone in the community who would like to join, whether you read the books, picked up the book, or haven’t done anything. The program is designed to allow people to join in anytime during the semester.
“You can have not read any of the books and come to our programs and still enjoy them,” Minnis said. “We’ve specifically tailored them so that you could just suddenly discover this program halfway through the semester and decide to come to one of the programs.”
Discussion meetings are held about every three weeks and other programs will be added throughout the semester.
Upcoming dates:
Feb. 15 at 3 p.m.: discussion meeting
March 7 at 3 p.m.: discussion meeting
March 14 at 3 p.m.: Open Mic Social
March 28 at 3 p.m.: discussion meeting
April 18 at 3 p.m.: discussion meeting
The Open Mic Social enables students to share their own form of self-expression in a way like “Ab(solutely) Normal” does. Students can share poetry, stories, art and so much more if they would like to. It’s a way for students to showcase their talents and use their voice for a topic that they believe in strongly.
Keep an eye out for more events that will be announced later in the semester from the common reading program.
