The One Book, One U program offers an opportunity for the UM community to explore issues of diversity and inclusion through the reading of a selected text. One Book, One U is designed to engage the entire university community in dialogue about the human experience. Each year, we work with various campus partners and co-sponsors to offer a schedule of events related to the book’s theme, including a signature event with the author, traditionally held in the spring semester. Free copies of the book are often made available at select events and will be advertised in the below schedule as details become available. We encourage instructors to use the text in their classrooms whenever possible and for all UM community members to take advantage of the opportunity to connect with classmates, friends, and instructors.

Announcing the One Book One U selection for 2024-2025

The Kissing Bug: A True Story of a Family, an Insect, and a Nation’s Neglect of a Deadly Disease
by Daisy Hernández

The University of Miami has supported the One Book, One U program since 2017 when Professors Chantel Acevedo (English) and Osamudia James (Law) received a SEEDS grant to establish a common reading program. The Office of Institutional Culture then became a strategic partner, citing the program’s alignment with the Quad Report for the Culture of Belonging and the program continued its mission of promoting discussions of diversity, equity, and inclusion. In 2020, University of Miami Libraries announced their plans to become the official home for the One Book, One U program. As a central entity serving all members of the university community, the Libraries are uniquely positioned to ensure that the program continues to have a significant impact across our campuses.

Our selection for 2024-25 is Daisy Hernández’s The Kissing Bug, a top 10 best nonfiction book of 2021 – Time Magazine and selected for the National Book Foundation’s Science & Literature. Hernández’s own family story inspired the book. After watching her aunt endure a painful yet unnamed disease for decades, Daisy spent seven years researching and uncovering the facts of the invisible Chagas disease.

Through various activities and events in the 2024-25 academic year, we look forward to reaffirming One Book, One U’s mission to use shared reading and engagement to attend to the interrelated issues of climate change, structural racism, inequality, and other social justice concerns. As in the past, we will send an invitation to units on campus to submit ideas for programming related to the book’s themes and we will provide updates on the program as they become available.

Previous Selections

If I Survive You

by Jonathan Escoffery

The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World

by Jeff Goodell

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City

by Matthew Desmond

So You Want to Talk About Race

by Ijeoma Oluo

Brother, I’m Dying

by Edwidge Danticat

The Veins of the Ocean

by Patricia Engel

Make Your Home Among Strangers

by Jennine Capó Crucet