OCC Common Read
The Common Read provides the campus community with one book and one common experience to bring everyone together.
Current Book Selection
Exhalation
By: Ted Chiang
Read a great book? Think it would be a fantastic Common Read selection for the upcoming year? Let us know!
Nominations can be any genre and should cover topics and themes that can be easily applied to multiple courses and disciplines. Nominations should also speak to you in a meaningful way and spark conversations that are valuable to the lives of our students and communities.
Common Read Events
Once a new book is selected, the committee develops events focused on the selected book and its themes!
Upcoming Common Read Events:
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
*More info to come from the S.O.L.E. office!
Past events:
2025-2026: Your Brain on Art by Susan Magsamen & Ivy Ross
2024-2025: Cultish By Amanda Montell
2023-2024: M is for Monster By: Talia Dutton
2022-2023:The Loneliest Polar Bear by Kale Williams
2021-2022: Biased by Jennifer Eberhart
2020-2021: Normal Sucks by Jonathan Mooney
2019-2020: Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat
2018-2019: The Handmaid’s Tale by Margert Atwood
2017-2018: God Grew Tired of Us by John Bul Dau
(an OCC Alum!)
2016-2017: Wild by Cheryl Strayed
- Chair: Michelle Malinovsky
- Pam Mullan
- Denise Valdes
- Lisa Hoff
- Melissa Hicks
- Nancy Carr
- Abby Klein
- Gerardo Cummings
Books are free for all students thanks to the generous support of the OCC Foundation.