MU Reads, Marshall University libraries’ book club, celebrated Women’s History Month Tuesday with a “book tasting” event. The event organizers set up eight tables, each with a different genre, such as poetry, nonfiction and graphic novels, for a theme and included various books by or about women at every one.

Participants were escorted to a table and had one minute to choose a book and five minutes to read as much of it as they could. After the time allotted expired, they moved to a different table until each person visited and explored each section and the books they had to offer. The event was free and open to students, faculty and community members.

Jesten Richardson, first year print journalism major, said she heard about the event on Herd Happenings and is a member herself of MU Reads. Richardson said one book at the book tasting caught her eye.

“I really like Kate Chopin’s ‘The Awakening and Other Stories,’” Richardson said. “I have that book at my house, I haven’t read it completely yet, but I really like ‘The Story of An Hour.’ It’s very interesting, and ‘The Awakening’ itself is very interesting, but ‘The Story of An Hour’ I read for an English class in high school, and I really liked it.”

The event was eye opening and was a creative way to celebrate Women’s History Month, Richardson said.

“I usually don’t pay attention to the sex or gender of the author, but I thought it was interesting to see that women have so many wonderful books that they could fill a whole room with,” Richardson said.

Tera Henry and Leeann Hesson, MU Reads staff members, said they had a lot of fun picking books for this event, and they carefully planned it.

“We definitely wanted to do something to celebrate Women’s History Month and book tasting, and we felt this would be a good opportunity to look at different genres by or about women,” Hesson said. “So, it was a good match.”

Amanda Larch can be contacted at [email protected].