Common Read

The First Year Seminar Program is pleased to announce that Ab(solutely) Normal: Short Stories That Smash Mental Health Stereotypes (2023), edited by Nora Shalaway Carpenter and Rocky Callen, will be the 2025-2026 Common Read.

Ab(solutely) Normal: Short Stories That Smash Mental Health Stereotypes is a mixed-genre anthology of writings by sixteen diverse authors who reflect on their own lived experiences with various mental health conditions. The short stories, poems, and graphic narrative present relatable characters from diverse backgrounds who defy stereotypes and break stigmas, highlighting that all people can thrive and that we are not defined by our mental health challenges. Each chapter includes important context from the author and is prefaced by a description, alerting readers to what diagnoses or issues will be explored in the story or poem that follows. Additionally, the book offers resources on mental health for readers. 

The mission of the Common Read program is to engage the entire Marist community in dialogues about relevant contemporary issues and to assist incoming first-year students with their transition to college by creating a common academic experience. Each year the Common Read committee, composed of faculty, staff, and students, makes a recommendation about a text that promotes interdisciplinary dialogues engaging with a different theme. This year’s theme is mental health and well-being. It is important to note that this theme was proposed by several Marist community members, including faculty and staff, as well as Marist’s Student Government Association which requested that the committee select a Common Read that addresses student mental health directly. 

The committee considered readability, relatability, and interdisciplinarity when choosing this year’s Common Read, and we believe that this book provides the university’s community with a unique opportunity to engage in important contemporary dialogues about mental health. This anthology offers works that explore the depth and breadth of mental health challenges while providing an uplifting and empowering message to all readers. 

Everyone in the Marist community is invited to read the book. The library has a guide with information about how to obtain a copy. All incoming students should choose at least 5 chapters to read from the 16-piece collection. The Core Assessment Essay, distributed within the first three weeks of the semester, will require students to refer to the text.

Ab(solutely) Normal: Short Stories That Smash Mental Health Stereotypes will be a dynamic and engaging Common Read that will resonate with the first-year students, as well as the Marist community as a whole, and will generate important and necessary discussion about mental health for students, faculty, and staff alike. 
 

Historical List of Marist Common Read Books:
 

2024-25    Kacen Callender, Felix Ever After

2023-24    Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants

2022-23    Clint Smith, How the Word is Passed 

2021-22    Emmanuel Acho, Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man

2020-21    Joshua Douglas, Vote for Us: How to Take Back Our Elections and Change the Future of Voting

2019-20    Naomi Alderman, The Power

2018-19    Jonathan Starr, It Takes a School

2017-18    Reyna Grande, The Distance Between Us

2016-17    Wes Moore, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates

2015-16    Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

2014-15    Steven Johnson, The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s MostTerrifying Epidemic and How it Changed, Science, Cities, and the Modern World

2013-14    Rebecca Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks