books
December 23, 2024
Cozy up with UW alumni
Need a reason to stay inside this winter? Check out our media recommendations for books, games, music and TV by UW alumni.
June 14, 2024
Summer reads (and more!)
Whether you need a book to dive into on your next plane ride, a podcast for a long walk or a TV show for a rainy day, UW alumni are ready to keep you company this summer.
February 23, 2024
Beware the hollow horse
Words of caution from 2,000 years ago are relevant today as our country experiences an alarming escalation in efforts to censor books.
June 4, 2023
Down to earth
Blending her own story with tales of climate crisis negotiations, Brianna Craft shows us the world in her memoir.
A KKK ‘monster’ story
Timothy Egan’s latest book, “A Fever in the Heartland," centers on the rise and undoing of D.C. Stephenson, a grand dragon of the KKK
May 28, 2023
A walk down ‘Skid Road’
Nurse, professor and advocate Josephine Ensign walks readers through the history of Seattle's "Skid Road."
Creative flow
The Chihuly Workshop has produced a photo-rich book, “The Boathouse: The Artist’s Studio of Dale Chihuly,” to tell the story of a building with UW ties.
November 26, 2022
Treasure in feces
Bryn Nelson followed his love for animals and science to become both a microbiologist and the writer of a book on human feces.
September 9, 2022
Story of Black Seattle
Quintard Taylor tells the stories of Seattle’s small, but influential Black community.
March 5, 2022
The voice of Yakima Valley
While working on her doctorate, Monica De La Torre, ’16, studied the Yakima Valley's Radio Cadena. She shares their stories in “Feminista Frequencies."
March 4, 2022
Autism in the spotlight
Actor Mickey Rowe's book chronicles his journey from a legally blind self-described outcast to the hero of his own story.
January 31, 2022
From puck steals to book deals
Player-turned-agent Ryan Minkoff’s second book, “Nora’s Hockey Dream,” pays homage to his sister and all the girls who love hockey.
December 4, 2021
The midcentury view
A new book finally shines a spotlight on Paul Hayden Kirk, ’37, who set the standard for Northwest modernist architecture.
November 19, 2021
From pain to poetry
Poet Jane Wong isn’t afraid to lay her emotions bare as she explores ways beyond the written page to reach audiences.
September 4, 2021
The Nisei story
‘Boys in the Boat’ author Daniel James Brown’s new book depicts the heroism of World War II-era Japanese Americans.
Meals & memories
Two decades after Tom Stockley and his wife, Peggy, perished in a plane crash, their daughters curate a new book of his eating pleasures.
August 31, 2021
Unbeatable, unforgettable
The national champion ’91 football team inspires the first UW Press book on Husky sports.
June 10, 2021
Less can be more
Compared to changes that add, those that subtract are harder to think of. The removal of a bridge in the Bay Area illustrates how sometimes, less is more.
June 3, 2021
Reliving ’91
The story of the greatest coach in Husky football history and how he led the 1991 team to the national championship is the subject of a new book.
‘A child’s eye view’
By the time of her death at the age of 104, Beverly Cleary’s books had sold more than 85 million copies.
March 4, 2021
Private-eye inspiration
Instead, Thoft uses the P.I. skills she learned to write her award-winning detective novels featuring hard-nosed private eye Fina Ludlow.
March 3, 2021
Soul of Seattle
With the city changing rapidly, Ron Chew set out to write about one of its beloved communities. It’s a story only he could tell.
January 11, 2021
Books and conversation
To date, more than 1,600 readers have joined the UW Alumni Book Club, representing alumni from every college and school across all three campuses.
December 16, 2020
Emerging from pain
Britt East’s book “A Gay Man’s Guide to Life” provides realistic ways for gay men to deal with homophobia and live a good life.
December 9, 2020
Healing words
Norman B. Rice’s timing couldn’t have been better for his new book, “Gaining Public Trust: A Profile of Civic Engagement.”
September 16, 2020
Book takes honors
A book by UW Tacoma Assistant Professor Emily Thuma won the 2020 Lambda Literary Award for LGBT Studies.
August 4, 2020
Stars in her eyes
Astronomer Emily Levesque’s new book shares the wonder of stargazing—and the adventures it’s taken her on.
June 10, 2020
Book Store stays essential
A quick trip through the University Book Store’s 120 years.
Stranger than fiction
A writer faces frustration with the release of her first work of fiction during a pandemic.
Seafood stories
In "Salmon Sisters," Emma Teal Laukitis, ’18, and Claire Neaton share stories from their father's fishing vessel and their clean, elegant approach to food.
June 4, 2020
The joy of rereading
Like a good friendship, your relationship with a book can become richer as you get to know it better.
March 10, 2020
After the ashes
Scientists knew Mount St. Helens would come back to life after the 1980 eruption, but as a new book shows, its resilience still blew them away.
December 26, 2019
Inside the peace
No one else could have written "Surviving the Peace," a new book by Peter Lippman, ’95, after decades of grassroots connections to the people of the Balkans.
September 28, 2019
Bedtime reading
Charles Johnson rounded up 11 of his “Bedtime Stories” from more than a decade—and added a new one—for a collection titled “Night Hawks: Stories.”
June 2, 2019
World of worry
A new book by UW faculty explores anxiety-provoking topics ranging from food safety to mobile phones and bedbugs.
January 7, 2019
Barbara Bailey, 1943-2018
Two things mattered most to Barbara Bailey: reading and serving the community.
November 30, 2018
Safe travels
Author and traveler Chris Sanford shares 10 bits of wisdom from his book, “Staying Healthy Abroad: A Global Traveler’s Guide.”
June 4, 2018
Rethinking drugs
Ingrid Walker wants to change the way media and government frame our perceptions about illicit drugs, and the people who use them.
March 7, 2018
A Rather uplifting experience
Our editor reflects on meeting one of his journalism heroes, Dan Rather, during the legendary newsman's visit to the UW.
November 8, 2017
The art of preservation
The Conservation Center repairs up to 12,000 items each year.
September 27, 2017
Life-changing documents
A quirky and thought-provoking new book from an iSchool professor.
December 19, 2016
From Betsy to Betty
Dropping out of college may be the best thing Betty MacDonald ever did. The irreverent author called it quits after studying design and drawing for one year at UW. A new book explores her outlandish life.
June 1, 2016
Nordic Noir
Scandinavian Studies Professor Andy Nestingen shares his research into the genre and how it contrasts with American Noir’s heroes and villains.
March 1, 2016
War is sexy. Huh?
David Shields, author, essayist and UW English professor, takes the New York Times to task in his book, "War Is Beautiful."
Author preserves memory of his great-grandfather, a slave
Carver Gayton, ’60, ’72, ’76, authors a gripping biography of his great-grandfather, Lewis G. Clarke, who escaped slavery and inspired a key character in “Uncle Tom's Cabin.”
September 1, 2015
UW Press at 100
The University of Washington's press dates back to Edmond Meany's 1915 book on the governors of the state and territory.
December 1, 2014
Film buff
Cinema Books owner Stephanie Ogle reintroduces classics, champions new treasures and plays a starring role in celebrating film.
September 1, 2014
Book store lifer
Louise Little is a University Book Store icon. She started 34 years ago as a cashier and is now CEO. But it all started when she read Nancy Drew as a kid.
Life on stage
Scott Magelssen has had more lives than an accident-prone cat, thanks to interactive simulations.
March 1, 2014
'Silence is a coping mechanism'
Teresa Tamura captures poignant stories of hardship from a World War II relocation center in her book "Minidoka: An American Concentration Camp."
June 1, 2013
Home of the freer
The state constitution provides more rights than the U.S. Constitution.
March 1, 2012
Surviving and thriving
Innovative management keeps University Book Store successful despite ongoing upheavals in the publishing industry
September 1, 2011
Common Book
To commemorate the University of Washington’s 150 years of discovery and inquiry, the 2011-12 Common Book is The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist by Richard Feynman.
June 1, 2011
Uncloaked
Books such as "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" are part of a crime novel tradition dating back to at least 1965 in Scandinavia—a tradition Andrew Nestingen, associate professor of Scandinavian Studies, has followed for years.
September 1, 2009
Books of revelation
Marilynne Robinson, ’68, ’77, has authored three novels, each of which is regarded as a major contribution to American letters.
March 1, 2009
Just call her a scholar
Ellen Dissanayake is working in a field she invented: evolutionary aesthetics, the study of art-making as an innate human behavior that helps us survive.
September 1, 2008
Stories for 'kids like us'
When a little boy from Yakima asked the librarian for books about “kids like us,” she couldn’t think of any. So Beverly Cleary decided to write them herself.
December 1, 2006
100 books by Huskies
To celebrate the literary achievements of our UW community, the editors of Columns asked 15 faculty, alumni and book publishing professionals to help choose 100 outstanding books by 100 UW authors.
The black TV book
Kathleen Fearn-Banks once worked in TV, and now has written the dictionary on an important part of its history.
Book report
For a long time we’ve wanted to celebrate the creative power of the University of Washington by presenting 100 top books by 100 UW authors. While the idea sounds great on paper, coming up with the final list was no easy task. What follows is an editor’s diary of the selection process.
September 1, 2006
Spreading the word
When they start classes this month, more than 6,000 new UW students will already have something in common — they’ll all have read the same book about a remarkable doctor trying to bring 21st-century medicine to the poorest corners of the planet.
June 1, 2006
‘Common book’
“Mountains Beyond Mountains” was named the UW's first-ever "common book." Every member of the incoming freshman class will be reading the book this summer, and thinking, talking and writing about it this fall.
March 1, 2004
Lessons to share
“Why don’t you write a book?” UW Football Coach Don James asked former Husky football player Andre Hayes, ’87, a decade ago.
December 1, 2003
Author's inspiration
Michele Torrey, '88, was having trouble finding books for her three teen-age sons. She decided to fix that problem by writing one herself.
March 1, 2003
Final countdown
Only 7.5 billion years from now, a burned-out cinder of a planet called Earth will be engulfed by its sun, a bloated red giant that will melt away any evidence that the planet ever existed.
June 1, 2002
Reversal of fortune
For more and more workers, the American Dream is just a mirage, say the authors of a new book.
June 1, 2001
She has answers
Taking the “if you want something done, do it yourself” mentality her parents instilled in her, Carol Bolt, ’94, a Seattle artist, wrote The Book of Answers.
December 1, 1998
Martyrs and myths
The early Christians weren't all martyrs and they weren't all poor, says a UW sociologist whose book sheds new light on the rise of the Christianity.
June 1, 1993
Tales of ‘Solidarity’
UW alumnus and retired UW lecturer Richard (Dick) Carbray, '44, '51, has written a new book titled "Prophets of Human Solidarity."
March 1, 1993
Insights on race
"The challenge for America is how to live in peace with its different people. If that's not solved, the country is really in trouble."
March 1, 1992
Top Dawg speaks
Excerpts from "James," the new autobiography of UW football coach Don James.
June 1, 1991
Literary fame
UW English Professor Charles Johnson, is holding steady through the months of accolades that have followed winning the 1990 National Book Award in fiction.
March 1, 1991
Johnson wins award
Charles Johnson, UW professor of English, received the 1990 National Book Award for Middle Passage.
June 1, 1990
Self-help or hoax?
Self-help books should be subject to the same rigorous testing as a new drug, a UW expert says.