October 2025 Reading Club: Health Literacy

Posted by liaison on October 2nd, 2025 Posted in: All Members, Opportunity to Participate

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Navigating the health care system can be overwhelming. From choosing the right health insurance to finding a compatible provider or understanding complex medical terminology, making informed decisions about your health isn’t always easy.

Since 1999, October has been recognized as Health Literacy Month, highlighting the importance of making health information clear, accessible, and actionable. This month’s selected readings focus on the vital role that clear, accessible health information plays in improving patient outcomes and reducing disparities. For those of us working in medical libraries, public health, and healthcare-related fields, this is an opportunity to reflect on how we support individuals in understanding and using health information effectively.

• Bibliotherapy in the Bronx by Emely Rumble, LCSW – Rumble shares her 14-year journey using literature as a powerful therapeutic tool to help clients heal, grow, and navigate trauma through the transformative power of reading.
• Graphic Public Health: A Comics Anthology and Roadmap by Meredith Li-Vollmer – Explores how graphic public health through the use of comics can effectively enhance health literacy, risk communication, promotion, and advocacy, offering medical professionals an engaging tool to inform and empower communities.
• How Medicine Works and When It Doesn’t: Learning Who to Trust to Get and Stay Healthy by Dr. F. Perry Wilson – Combining personal stories and historical insights to demystify modern medicine, Wilson provides readers with practical tools to navigate healthcare, assess medical information, and advocate effectively for themselves and others.

If you would like additional information, including related resources, check out our Reading Club – Health Literacy page.