One Book
2022-2023 Selection
Normal Sucks: How to Live, Learn, and Thrive Outside the Lines
Selected by a university-wide committee to be complimentary with the Campus Theme: Mental Health and Wellness: Awareness, Support, and Community Care, both the One Book program and Campus Theme provide a common intellectual experience defined by AAC&U as one of ten high impact practices.
About the 2022-2023 Campus Theme: Mental Health and Wellness: Awareness, Support, and Community Care
Image Credit: From NORMAL SUCKS by Jonathan Mooney. Copyright © 2019 by Jonathan Mooney. Reprinted by permission of Henry Holt and Company.
All Rights Reserved.
Confessional and often hilarious, in Normal Sucks a neuro-diverse writer, advocate, and father meditates on his life, offering the
radical message that we should stop trying to fix people and start empowering them
to succeed
Jonathan Mooney blends anecdote, expertise, and memoir to present a new mode of thinking
about how we live and learn—individually, uniquely, and with advantages and upshots
to every type of brain and body. As a neuro-diverse kid diagnosed with dyslexia and
ADHD who didn't learn to read until he was twelve, the realization that that he wasn’t
the problem—the system and the concept of normal were—saved Mooney’s life and fundamentally
changed his outlook. Here he explores the toll that being not normal takes on kids
and adults when they’re trapped in environments that label them, shame them, and tell
them, even in subtle ways, that they are the problem. But, he argues, if we can reorient
the ways in which we think about diversity, abilities, and disabilities, we can start
a revolution.
Read more about the book.
Jonathan Mooney’s work has been featured in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, USA Today, HBO, NPR, ABC News, New York Magazine, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe, and he continues to speak across the nation about neurological and physical diversity, inspiring those who live with differences and advocating for change. He is the author of The Short Bus and Learning Outside the Lines. Read more about Jonathan Mooney from the Publisher.
https://www.jonathanmooney.com/
IMAGE CREDIT: (c) Chris Mueller
CALENDAR of EVENTS for ONE BOOK 2022-2023
| Event/Program | Date | Location | Contact |
|---|---|---|---|
|
One Book Day! Mindfulness Yoga No prior experience required! |
September 27th | 11:15AM |
|
| The Way I'm Wired: Artist Reflections on Neurodiversity | 8/16-12/9 | Bardo Fine Art Museum | 828.227.ARTS (2787) |
| Taco 'bout It Tuesdays | 9/13, 10/10, 11/8 | ICA Lounge | ica@wcu.edu |
| Tunnel of Oppression | 11/15-11/16 | TBD | ica@wcu.edu |
| Human Library | March-TBD | Hunter Library |
|
| Neurodiversity Celebration Week | March- TBD | Various Locations |
|
| Spring Literary Festival Writing Competition | March- TBD | TBD |
|
Neurodiversity Celebration Week (in planning phase)
- One Book Movie Nights
- Dining Hall with Nutritionist
- Campus Rec Class Waivers
- Spring Literary Festival Writing Competition
- More to come!
Signature Programs
Connecting the Dots with the Campus Theme
Many programs are being designed to help students make the valuable connection between
the book and the theme, both flagship programs are defined as Common Intellectual
Experiences, one of ten High Impact Practices defined by AAC&U.
About the 2022-2023 Campus Theme: Mental Health and Wellness: Awareness, Support, and Community Care
One Book sponsered programs are designed to meet the requirements for Degree Plus
The mission of the One Book program is to engage first-year students, as well as the campus community, in a common intellectual experience that promotes critical thinking and interdisciplinary conversation. This experience will allow participants to strengthen academic skills, create connections with peers, instructors, and community members, and relate universal themes to personal experience and identity. The program seeks to reflect WCU’s core values and responsibilities as a regionally engaged university.
One Book committee members will serve as ambassadors who aid in integrating reading selection themes into course curricula, campus events, service learning opportunities, and departmental goals. The selection committee comprises individuals from across campus, ensuring that values and views of all academic units are considered and represented.
The One Book Experience Will:
- Introduce clear expectations of academic performance and engagement
- Create opportunities to reveal and explore notions of community
- Reflect the University’s mission and core values
- Integrate book themes into course curricula, particularly transition course curricula
- Encourage interaction among peers, instructors, campus and local community members
- Foster interdisciplinary discourse and partnership
- Offer diverse perspectives and cultural exploration
- Stimulate student self-discovery and personal development
- Inspire participation and support from faculty and administrators by clearly conveying the book’s relevance to the academic experience and student enrichment
Contact
Caroline LeBoeuf
Assistant Director of Retention; Student Transitions Coordinator
Phone: 828.227.2786
Email: cleboeuf@wcu.edu
Josh Rakower
Hunter Library Undergraduate Experience Librarian
Phone: 828.227.2190
Email: jrakower@wcu.edu
Upcoming Events