Common Reading

WE LOVE BOOKS

Connect with members of the Franke Honors community and expand your perspective. Led by Dr. Cheree Meeks, the Common Reading Program features a new book each year, chosen by Franke Honors students and meant to inspire critical thinking and meaningful conversations. While there will be numerous ways to interact with the book and its subject matter throughout the year, the program culminates with a keynote address from the author in the spring.

Within the pages of the Common Reading book you will find ideas, inspiration, and community with your Honors peers.

The W.A. Franke Honors College Common Reading Program is designed to facilitate learning among all honors students around a common experience. The program is designed to encourage community building, complement curriculum, and offer opportunities for self-reflection, critical thinking, and practical application of knowledge across disciplines. A unique component of the program is the intentional illumination of issues of social justice.

The Common Reading program is not required, but we encourage students to purchase and read the book. Throughout the academic year, the college will host discussions and activities connected to the book. You will have opportunities to think about what the book means and how it might affect the way you interact with others and see the world.

book cover of I never thought of it that way

The 2024-2025 Common Reading Book is I Never Thought of It That Way by Mónica Guzmán.

Partisanship is up, trust is down, and our social media feeds make us sure we're right and everyone else is ignorant (or worse). But avoiding one another is hurting our relationships and our society. In this timely, personal guide, Mónica Guzmán, the chief storyteller for the national cross-partisan depolarization organization Braver Angels, takes you to the real front lines of a crisis that threatens to grind America to a halt—broken conversations among confounded people.

She shows you how to overcome the fear and certainty that surround us to finally do what only seems impossible: understand and even learn from people in your life whose whole worldview is different from or even opposed to yours.

Drawing from cross-partisan conversations she's had, organized, or witnessed everywhere from the echo chambers on social media to the wheat fields in Oregon to raw, unfiltered fights with her own family on election night, Mónica shows how you can put your natural sense of wonder to work for you immediately, finding the answers you need by talking with people—rather than about them—and asking the questions you want, curiously.

In these pages, you'll learn:

* How to ask what you really want to know (even if you're afraid to)
* How to grow smarter from even the most tense interactions, online or off
* How to cross boundaries and find common ground—with anyone

Whether you're left, right, center, or not a fan of labels: If you're ready to fight back against the confusion, heartbreak, and madness of our dangerously divided times—in your own life, at least—Mónica's got the tools and fresh, surprising insights to prove that seeing where people are coming from isn't just possible. It's easier than you think.