51勛圖厙

She had always been a reader, taking after her late dad, David Grass ���67. Her first job was shelving books at the library and, while a DePauw student, she did that in summers too.

So Courtenay Grass ���02, who majored in English literature at DePauw and got a master���s in library science, was horrified a few years ago when, looking at the Goodreads app ��� what she calls ���social media for book lovers��� ��� she realized she had read only one book the previous year.

A friend ���was in the same boat,��� and together they resolved to read a book a month. That New Year���s resolution was ���the only one I���ve ever kept��� ��� and surpassed, said Grass, who rates books on Goodreads and posts about them on Instagram.

Grass, regional coordinator for a mortgage company, likes a variety of genres ��� thrillers, historical and contemporary fiction, nonfiction and memoirs. She usually uses the Libby app to borrow books from the library; binges on her Kindle on weekends (and loads the device before vacations); and recently bought a chair to furnish a dedicated reading spot in her home. ��

Books provide escapism for her, but one of her three book clubs has the serious mission of selecting books written by female authors with a focus on diversity. ���We need to expose ourselves intentionally to different people because that���s how you learn,��� she said.

���Caste��� by Isabel Wilkerson should be required reading, she said. She read ���Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret��� by Judy Blume ���over and over and over��� as a youngster and counts it among her favorites. Others are ���Unbroken,��� ���The Good Earth,��� ���Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine��� and ���Untamed.���