Sherman Alexie, the featured author in 2014’s One Book Program, gave a lecture Thursday evening to a packed University Union Ballroom on topics ranging from his childhood on a Native American reservation to his newest book, “Blasphemy.”

The 7 p.m. lecture was one of several events surrounding Alexie’s work organized by One Book, a common reading program at Sacramento State that chooses an author and book each year for students, faculty, staff and community members to learn about and read.

Alexie’s book “Blasphemy” is an anthology of short stories drawn from his 20-year writing career.

“A gifted orator, he tells tales of contemporary American Indian life laced with razor-sharp humor, unsettling candor and biting wit,” the One Book Program’s bio of Alexie read.

Alexie spent much of his talk giving a one-liner filled retelling of a fight he had with a high school crush’s boyfriend and the understanding of intense, mature love he got from the experience.

A member of the Coeur d’Alene tribe, Alexie grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, Washington but attended high school 30 miles off the reservation, where he was the only Native American student.

When Alexie gave his crush a stuffed bunny for her birthday, her boyfriend, a senior on the football team, found out and attacked Alexie, pinning him against a wall and threatening to punch Alexie in the face.

“I didn’t know enough about the insanity of love to know that giving a bunny to a high school senior’s girlfriend could be a problem,” Alexie said.

Hellen Lee, an associate English professor and the faculty organizer for One Book, said Alexie’s stories show both the weaknesses and saving qualities of his subjects.

“He focuses on human frailties, but he always comes back and redeems the humanity. No matter how corrupt, disturbed, alienated the character might be, there’s always some sort of human redemption,” Lee said.

As Alexie continued his narrative, the football player wound up his punch. Then, Alexie’s crush yelled for him to stop. After a moment of conflict, he punched the wall instead of Alexie’s face, breaking his hand and the wall.

“I came back to school the next morning,” Alexie said, “And someone had painted a heart around the hole in the wall, and the bunny was shoved in it.”

Ashley Dahlstrom, a Delta College student who attended the talk, said Alexie’s life experiences were what she liked about his writing.

“I love his life story, all the struggles he went through and how he is still positive at the end,” she said.

Hellen Lee said the One Book Program is designed to be interdisciplinary, so one need not be an English major to benefit from it.

“It’s funny because some of our biggest fans of the program and most involved are from the sciences, because they understand this, too, right? That the sciences aren’t removed from humanities,” Lee said.

Despite being busy for most of the lecture, Lee said she was gratified to see the audience’s enthusiasm.

“I did notice that people were so immensely engaged and that was just fulfilling,” she said.

Alexie summed up his lecture with his own desire to engage people, linking his near miss with the high school football player to his goals when writing stories.

“I want these to be the bunnies in the wall. I want people to faint, and it’s happened to enough people that I can make a career out of it,” he said.