Eden Norris
April 30, 2025
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (WMUL-FM) — The Well-Read and Undead Book Club is held monthly via a Teams meeting and is a place for both students and staff alike to come together to discuss the book of the month and anything book related.
Meghan Sexton-Harness, a research specialist at Drinko Library and founder of the book club, chooses the books each month through members’ recommendations and aims to keep the club environment a safe space for all members.
“I have a running list of suggestions, and then once a month I will send out a Google form and it has a link to the book, the synopsis, I try to get trigger warnings in there, but that’s not a perfect because not all books have that information available,” she said. “I never want somebody to vote for a book, and then it have something traumatic for them and they feel like they just can’t get into it.”
“‘Cause we’re a book club, but so many weeks, like either before or a little after we’ve had our book conversation, we’ll just vent and it’s so nice to have that space to just be like, ‘you know what? Everything’s not OK,'” Sexton-Harness said.
Dr. Missy Reed, a professor from the College of Education and book club participant, speaks the importance of students finding time for activities they enjoy.
Students I know feel like if they’re awake, they need to be working on something for class, but you know you need to do a little self-care and every now and then,” Reed said. “Even if you can just read whatever you like to do for fun, that’s relaxing, 20 or 30 minutes even. We would love to have students.”
Dr. Roxanne Aftanas, an associate professor in English at Marshall and another book club participant, speaks on how the Well-Read and Undead book club has expanded her ‘to be read’ list.
I just use people for their book recommendations,” she said. “This is the one that I consistently like our book recommendations and then can go down a rabbit hole.”
“If we read one book by an author then I’m often like, ‘oh, what else would I like from them?’ And then I end up reading other things, that does not always happen in other book clubs,” she continued.
For more information, students can follow their Instagram page @well.read.and.undead.book.club or find them on Libguides to join the mailing list.