lifelong learning
UW Alumni Book Club
Personal stories, timely topics, transformative fiction… Let’s dig into some amazing books together! All curious readers are welcome at the UW Alumni Book Club.
Together, we read a book about every two months. Choose just one or all five — whatever works for you.
The free online forum has suggested timelines and prompts for online discussion. Join us for special events that take the conversation to the next level!
“So often we think of reading as a solo activity, but with discussion it improves and elevates the experience.” —Marilyn Conover Watt, ’76, ’81
Now Reading:
“Klara and the Sun” by Kazuo Ishiguro
Reading period: May 26–July 28, 2022
From the Nobel Prize-winning author of “The Remains of the Day” comes “Klara and the Sun” — a novel that hinges on empathy, mortality and love. This near-future world is interpreted through the eyes of Klara, a humanized robot who has an appetite for observing and learning. When she is chosen to serve as a child’s companion, her robotic interpretation of family dynamics and societal norms shines a light on the limits of our own human understanding.
“Ishiguro leaves us suspended over a rift in the presumptive order of things. Whose consciousness is limited, ours or a machine’s? Whose love is more true?”— The Atlantic
Get your copy:
UWAA Members save 20% on “Klara and the Sun!” Use code UWAAISHIGURO in-store and at ubookstore.com.
*Some restrictions apply; visit ubookstore.com/disclaimer for full details. Coupon code must be given to cashier to receive discount in-store; non-Pack Rewards members receive a 10% discount with this coupon code. Valid through July 28, 2022, in-store and at ubookstore.com.
Book events:
“Klara and the Sun” Book Chat
Wed. July 20, 2022 | 5–6 p.m. | online
Join the UW Alumni Book Club for a conversation about this thought-provoking novel of robots, family and loyalty. Get together online to talk about the book and your reflections while reading!
Campus Connections
Enjoy this 1995 interview with author Kazuo Ishiguro, recorded at the University of Washington. Learn more about the writing process of this acclaimed author and reflect on how the themes of his early novels relate to his most recent work.
2021-2022 Reading List
Reading Period:
Aug. 5–Oct. 7, 2021
Reading Period:
Oct. 14–Dec. 17, 2021
Reading Period:
Jan. 6–Mar. 10, 2022
Reading Period:
Mar. 17–May 19, 2022
Reading Period:
May 26–July 28, 2022
2021-2022 UW Alumni Book Club Archive
From celebrated national leader and bestselling author Stacey Abrams, “While Justice Sleeps” is a gripping thriller set within the halls of the U.S. Supreme Court — where a young law clerk finds herself embroiled in a shocking mystery plotted by one of the most preeminent judges in America.
“[Abrams] displays her considerable talent for fiction in this gripping legal thriller. Shadowy figures… earth-shattering consequences… [a] deadly knot of deception…” —Booklist
Recorded Event
Civics 101: The Judicial System
From Anthony Doerr, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “All the Light We Cannot See,” comes the highly anticipated “Cloud Cuckoo Land.” The characters include residents of fifteenth-century Constantinople, a library volunteer in present-day Idaho, and a little girl on a spaceship travelling between the stars — all of whom are connected by an ancient Greek fable.
“A wildly inventive novel that teems with life, straddles an enormous range of experience and learning, and embodies the storytelling gifts that it celebrates.” —New York Times
Recorded Event
From Charles Yu, screenwriter for HBO’s “Westworld” and author of “How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe,” comes “Interior Chinatown.” This darkly hilarious novel explores how pop-culture stereotypes impact our identities. Written as a screenplay, this playful and heartfelt book sends-up Hollywood clichés and explores what it could mean to break free. “Interior Chinatown” was the winner of the 2020 National Book Awards for Fiction!
“One of the funniest books of the year… a delicious, ambitious Hollywood satire.” —The Washington Post
Recorded Event
Shawn Wong is the author of two novels, “Homebase” and “American Knees.” He is also the co-editor and editor of six Asian American and American multicultural literary anthologies including the pioneering anthology “Aiiieeeee! An Anthology of Asian American Writers.” The award-winning film version of “American Knees” will be released soon. In 2019, he started his own book series at the University of Washington Press, reissuing notable Asian American books such as “Eat a Bowl of Tea” by Louis Chu, “Awake in the River” and “Shedding Silence” by Janice Mirikitani, and a new work, “Uncle Rico’s Encore: Mostly True Stories of Filipino Seattle” by Peter Bacho. Wong is Professor of English and the Byron and Alice Lockwood Professor in the Humanities at the University of Washington.
Michelle Liu is a Teaching Professor in the Department of English and Associate Director of Writing Programs at the University of Washington. She specializes in teaching writing and exploring ideas about identity, history, emotion, and storytelling in courses such as Asian American Literature. She has taught for almost 20 years, all with the goal of helping people interconnect their hearts, minds, and experiences in their learning. She currently is part of the Humanities Washington Speakers Bureau with a talk on Asian Americans and comedy. Liu earned her PhD in American Studies from Yale University.
Xin Peng is a Society of Scholars fellow at the Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities at the University of Washington and the former Managing Editor of Feminist Media Histories: An International Journal. Her dissertation examines the ways in which racial and orientalist thinking informed the development and conception of media technologies in the interwar period of American cinema. She is the winner of the 2020 Transnational Cinemas Scholarly Interest Group Graduate Essay Award at the Society for Cinema and Media Studies and the 2021 Nancy C.M. Hartsock Prize for Best Graduate Paper in Feminist Theory. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Screen, Camera Obscura: Feminism, Culture, and Media Studies, the Women Film Pioneers Project, and New Review of Film and Television Studies.
From Natalie Baszile, author of the novel “Queen Sugar,” comes “We Are Each Other’s Harvest” — a vivid collection of interviews, photographs, essays and poems that celebrate African-American farmers, land and legacy. From untold histories to profiles of modern farmers, Baszile assembles a chorus of voices that explore food justice, land stewardship and intergenerational wealth. At the core of each of these stories, beyond the mouth-watering musings on food itself, is an exploration of the courage and strength it takes to look after each other.
“This insightful, eye-opening collection helps to reimagine what it means to be dedicated to the land.” —Alice Waters
Recorded Event
Reily Savenetti, who worked as UW Farm staff in 2019, is a fourth-year undergraduate student from Tacoma, Washington. Reily is studying Political Science and Environmental Studies with a focus on labor rights and food justice. Over the past few years, Reily has gained experience growing food on a diverse range of farms in Costa Rica, Guatemala and all over the Puget Sound region. During her time on the UW Farm staff, she helped get the 
Dannette Lombert, the incoming Food Security Lead/Americorps Volunteer for UW Farm, was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Danette has been learning about and working on different types of urban farms such as community gardens, indoor vertical growing systems and aquaponics farms since high school. In 2020, Dannette was able to enroll into the NYC Farm School, where they not only learned about growing practices and how to implement them but also how food justice is inherently tied into these practices. Dannette’s experience has led them to have a social justice centered approach to food systems. When they aren’t farming, Dannette really enjoys being outdoors, hiking and exploring new areas.
Sarah “Sarai” Mayer, the Food Sovereignty Liaison for wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ – Intellectual House/UW Farm, is a third year transfer student double majoring in Plant Biology and Anthropology with a minor in American Indian Studies. Born to a Thai mother and Washoe Indian father, Sarah stands proudly in her identity as both a Thai and a descendant of the Washoe people. Raised between Nevada and Minnesota, she moved to Seattle nine years ago. After graduating, she plans to pursue a doctorate in ethnobotany to study plants through a cultural lens. In her spare time, she enjoys painting, hiking, dancing, swimming, paddle boarding, snuggling her cat and caring for her many house plants.Share Your Book Ideas!
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The UW Alumni Book Club is a collaboration between UWAA, the UW Libraries, the University Book Store—and passionate readers like you.
