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.
“So often we think of reading as a solo activity, but with discussion it improves and elevates the experience.”
—Marilyn Conover Watt, ’76, ’81
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Now Reading:
“Bear: A Novel”
by Julia Phillips
Reading Period: Jan. 3–Mar. 7, 2025
Reader’s Choice! Two sisters living in the San Juan Islands are impatient to make better lives for themselves. Sam sells coffee on the Washington State Ferry while Elena tends bar at the local golf club. Both tend to their ailing mother in the run-down home in which they were raised. This grinding routine is shaken up when a bear appears in their front yard. Each sister has a very different reaction to the bear. Will the arrival of this wild animal knock their plans for the future (and their tight family connections) off course?
Julia Phillips has written for The New York Times, The Atlantic and The Paris Review. She is a Fullbright Scholar and a 2024 Gugenheim Fellow. She teachers creative writing at Randolf College in Virginia and lives in Brooklyn, NY. “Bear” is her second novel.
“A hypnotic, tense story, with the woodland scent of a dark fairy tale.”
— CBS News
Get your copy:
UW Alumni Book Club readers can save 20% on “Bear.” Use code UWAAPHILLIPS in-store and at online.
*Some restrictions apply. Visit ubookstore.com/disclaimer for full details. Coupon code must be given to cashier to receive discount in-store. Valid through March 15, 2025.
Author Insights:
How to Get Unstuck
In this interview with an online literary magazine, Julia Phillips discusses how the sense of feeling stuck during pandemic lockdowns inspired the main character’s point of view in “Bear.”
On the Writing Lessons of Fairy Tales
This short essay by Julia Philips explores the narrative structure of fairy tales and looks at why “happily ever after” was not always the approach that the Brothers Grimm would have taken.
Campus Connections:
UW School of Environment and Forest Sciences
How can we reduce run-ins between humans and bears? Carolyn Shores, ’14, explored how satellites can map huckleberry bushes, predicting bear movements around Glacier National Park.
Black bear goes island hopping around Puget Sound
This KUOW news report from 2019 features a real-life bear that swam around the San Juan Islands, visiting birdfeeders and trash cans. Was this the incident that inspired Julia Phillips to write her novel?
Up Next:
“There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension” by Hanif Abdurraqib
Reading Period: Mar. 14–May 16, 2025
This 1990’s basketball memoir thrums with a rich current of popular music, a heartfelt homage to family, a profound musing on the passage of time and a fierce loyalty to Cleveland, Ohio. Ultimately a homage to all underdogs, this wise and poetic book explores what it really means to “make it,” whether or not you happen to be LeBron James.
Two authors from this season’s book list will be speaking at Seattle Arts & Lectures this year —
Percival Everett on
Jan. 23 and
Hanif Abdurraqib on
April 9. UWAA members and UW Alumni Book Club participants
save 20% on subscriptions, tickets, and digital passes for all events in the Seattle Arts & Lectures 2024/25 season. UWAA members can find their discount code at the
member benefit page, and book club readers will find the info on the UW Alumni Book Club online forum.
2024-2025 Reading List
Reading Period:
Aug. 2–Oct. 4
Reading Period:
Oct. 11–Dec. 13
Reading Period:
Jan. 3–Mar. 7
Reading Period:
Mar. 14–May 16
Reading Period:
May 23–July 25
2024-2025 UW Alumni Book Club Archive
Reader’s Choice:
“Remarkably Bright Creatures”
by Shelby Van Pelt
New York Times Bestseller! Tova, a stubborn widow, is on the cleaning crew of her small town’s aquarium. Marcellus, a snarky octopus, is a keen observer of humanity. Set in Puget Sound, this quirky bestselling novel follows their cross-species friendship as it sends ripples across the community.
Campus Connections: “Remarkably Bright Creatures”
Campus Connections:
The Mysterious Mind of the Octopus
Oregon Public Broadcasting visited the UW’s Friday Harbor Laboratories in 2022. They interviewed Dominic Sivitilli, ’15, ’23, who researches how each tentacle of an octopus can think for itself. (The video also features Lizbeth, a giant Pacific octopus who is great at solving puzzles for shrimp snacks!)
Octopus Self-Destruct System
The lifespan of an octopus is surprisingly short. Z. Yan Wang of the UW Departments of Psychology and Biology studies the nervous systems of octopuses to better understand their death processes. She discusses her research in this 17-minute interview on the Science Friday radio show, recorded in 2022.
“James”
by Percival Everett
New York Times Bestseller! Revisit Mark Twain’s classic tale from the point of view of Jim, the enslaved man who escapes down the Mississippi River with Huck Finn. This audacious reimagining shows Jim to be a masterful code-switcher, navigating perilous situations with layers of nuance and insight. Funny, philosophical and terrifying by turns, Everett shines a light on the tactical brilliance that our hero uses to move through a dangerous world.
“James” was awarded the 2024 National Book Award!
Campus Connections: “James”
Campus Connections:
Free People Read Freely
“The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” which inspired “James,” was banned immediately after it was published in 1885. Since 2020, there has been a surge of attempts to ban thousands of books in schools and libraries. Tracie D. Hall, ’00, talks with UW Magazine about how her time at the UW iSchool equipped her to fight back against censorship.
“Ernest Hemingway famously said that all modern American literature comes from ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.’”
—John Griffith, Associate Professor Emeritus
Department of English, University of Washington
Past UW Alumni Book Club Archives
Curious what books we have read before? Use the links below to access our book club archives, which include recorded events and resource lists.
Share Your Book Ideas!
Have suggestions for upcoming book club titles?
Submit your ideas to our Book Club Suggestion Form.
Check out the books that have already been suggested.
The UW Alumni Book Club is a collaboration between UWAA, the UW Libraries, the University Book Store — and passionate readers like you.
