Tarleton takes the stress away from book clubs

BY MICAELA SULLIVAN

Multimedia Journalist

Starting in the fall semester of 2025, Tarleton State University welcomed a new book club: The No Stress Book Club.

Created to do exactly as the name suggests, the book club creates a flexible and dynamic environment for both students and faculty to enjoy.

Melissa Cookson, who came up with the original idea for the club as something to support Tarleton students who enjoy reading and give them a chance to talk to others who enjoy reading, worked alongside Kimberly Gragg and Heather O’ Donnell to make this goal a reality.

Unlike most book clubs, the No Stress Book Club was designed specifically to give participants the flexibility to choose what books they want to read within a selected genre rather than focusing on one specific book.

“Dr. Quinnell, our dean of libraries, had been doing a push for more library programming offered for users. We needed to figure out options that were free or low-cost . . . I was involved in the Stephenville public library book club and I figured it would be nice for us to start one here,” Cookson said. “The main thing was coming up with one where students didn’t have to buy their own book and we didn’t have to buy multiple copies of a book . . . but it allows people to choose what they want to read.”

This allows flexibility and better accessibility to students, faculty and community members than a normal book club would. Depending on what is best, a participant can read a book that they own, borrow a book from a library, use an audiobook, use a digital book or even use comic books.

“We’ve had some people that have read books that haven’t necessarily met the genre, but they still want to talk about them. So it’s kind of exciting to see what people are into,” O’ Donnell said. “With having the genre guidelines on there, it gets you to try different things . . . some people are very into it and others aren’t so much. So it's interesting to see that dynamic between people who really like reading, say, horror and sci-fi, and people who are like, ‘This isn’t really my genre, but I was still able to find something cool that I really enjoyed.’”

Gragg said that it is nice to be able to offer different genres to readers and have them be “broad enough that usually somebody can find something.”

However, the toughest challenge to Cookson about the club is that participants can have a hard time understanding how the book club works because the group does not talk about just one book.

“Every meeting we’ve had so far, everyone has had a chance to talk about what they read, and either there have been folks who’ve found out books they want to read . . . or they’ll get recommendations from other people,” Cookson said.

Meetings with the No Stress Book Club are pretty casual, with chocolate occasionally provided by Cookson.

“It’s not meant to put you on the spot. . . We start it off so that people can be comfortable talking. But the main thing is we just want people to enjoy reading whatever it is they’re reading,” Cookson said.

The next meeting on Feb. 17 with a new genre.

During the week of Valentine’s, the book club is also offering a “blind date with a book.” Books will be wrapped and descriptions of that book will be attached to them so a participant can pick a book that may interest them.

The club is also expected to meet March 24 and April 21. You can find all the information including upcoming dates on the subject guide through the online university library.

Next time you find yourself wanting to read a book, get involved with the No Stress Book Club here at Tarleton .