Being in a book club “forces” you to read books you might not naturally gravitate to. The same goes for the annual book in common that students read.

Chico State’s book in common is also a community event, with many non-students reading the same book and then attending the spring talk by the author. In the audience this year was at least one class from a local high school.

Author Hector Tobar was at Chico State on April 10 to talk about his book Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of ‘Latino’ (MCD Picador, 2023).

I attended the talk with a friend and a friend of hers. Two of us had either read or listened to the book and the other didn’t finish it. I was less than enamored with it, while the other thought it was great. That was our assessment of the talk as well, with the non-reader not that impressed.

The three of us are sympathetic to the plight of people of color, of immigrants as a whole, and those who are discriminated against simply because they are “different” based on someone else’s warped definition of “different” meaning lesser than.

This book seemed scattered, random and without a point. I found the talk to take this same route.

Still, what I’m most thankful for is the whole concept of book in common—where a community reads the same book and then comes together to hear from the author. Of the ones I’ve been to there has always been an opportunity to ask questions. This provides the opportunity for some readers to go deeper.

While I would not recommend this book, I like that book in common is a tradition here. It would be great if book in common were a concept that was part of every higher education institution or even at the high school level, with the community also involved.

At Chico State the book is part of the curriculum in several classes, with the author being on campus for more than the community-wide talk.