Click here to learn more about We’re Listening: Whiteboard Conversations and find out how you can participate! We want to hear from YOU!
The UWT community has spent the last two weeks writing, on our We’re Listening whiteboard at the SNO entrance, answers to the question:
What book would you bring to a deserted island?
We loved reading all about our fellow huskies’ most treasured books! Here, we’ve compiled a selection of your answers. We hope everyone gets to learn more about their community, and possibly find a new story to keep in their back pocket in case they ever find themselves marooned!
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Released from prison, Shadow finds his world turned upside down. His wife has been killed; a mysterious stranger offers him a job. But Mr. Wednesday, who knows more about Shadow than is possible, warns that a storm is coming — a battle for the very soul of America . . . and they are in its direct path. American Gods is a kaleidoscopic journey deep into myth and across an American landscape at once eerily familiar and utterly alien. (from the author)
Checkout American Gods through UW Libraries, available as a print book and an audiobook!
The Selection by Kiera Cass
For 35 girls, the Selection is the chance of a lifetime. The opportunity to be swept up in a world of glittering gowns and priceless jewels. But for America Singer, being Selected is a nightmare. It means turning her back on her secret love with Aspen. Then America meets Prince Maxon. Gradually, she starts to question all the plans she’s made for herself—and realizes that the life she’s always dreamed of may not compare to a future she never imagined. (from the author)
Checkout The Selection through UW Libraries!
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
Louisa Clark is an ordinary girl living an exceedingly ordinary life. She takes a badly needed job working for ex-Master of the Universe Will Traynor, who is wheelchair bound after a motorcycle accident. Will is acerbic, moody, bossy — but Lou refuses to treat him with kid gloves, and soon his happiness means more to her than she expected. When she learns that Will has shocking plans of his own, she sets out to show him that life is still worth living. (from the author)
Checkout Me Before You through UW Libraries, available as a print book and an audiobook!
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman’s glorious poetry collection, first published in 1855, which he revised and expanded throughout his lifetime. It was ground-breaking in its subject matter and in its direct, unembellished style. Whitman wrote about the United States and its people, its revolutionary spirit and about democracy. He wrote openly about the body and about desire in a way that completely broke with convention and which paved the way for a completely new kind of poetry. (from GoodReads)
Checkout Leaves of Grass through UW Libraries, available as a print book, ebook. and an audiobook!
The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
Fighting the prejudice of rival classmates, Rin discovers that she possesses a lethal, unearthly power– an aptitude for the nearly-mythical art of shamanism. Exploring her gift with the help of a seemingly insane teacher, Rin learns that gods long thought dead are very much alive, and that mastering these powers could mean more than just surviving school. While most people calmly go about their lives, a few are aware that a Third Poppy War is just a spark away. (from the publisher)
Checkout The Poppy War through UW Libraries!
No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai
The protagonist of Osamu Dazai’s No Longer Human narrates a seemingly normal life even while he feels himself incapable of understanding human beings. Without sentimentality, he records the casual cruelties of life and its fleeting moments of human connection and tenderness. The novel has come to “echo the sentiments of youth” (Hiroshi Ando, The Mainichi Daily News) from post-war Japan to the postmodern society of technology. (from the publisher)
Checkout No Longer Human through UW Libraries!
The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin
After her best friend dies in a drowning accident, Suzy is convinced that the true cause of the tragedy must have been a rare jellyfish sting–things don’t just happen for no reason. Retreating into a silent world of imagination, she crafts a plan to prove her theory–even if it means traveling the globe, alone. (from the publisher)
Checkout The Thing About Jellyfish through UW Libraries!
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
Criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can’t pull it off alone. . . A convict with a thirst for revenge, a sharpshooter who can’t walk away from a wager, a runaway with a privileged past, a spy known as the Wraith, a Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums, a thief with a gift for unlikely escapes. Kaz’s crew are the only ones who might stand between the world and destruction—if they don’t kill each other first. (from the author)
Checkout Six of Crows through UW Libraries!
A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
A Series of Unfortunate Events is a series of thirteen children’s novels by Lemony Snicket. If you have not read anything about the Baudelaire orphans, then before you read even one more sentence, you should know this: Violet, Klaus, and Sunny are kindhearted and quick-witted, but their lives are filled with bad luck and misery. All of the stories about these three children are unhappy and wretched and will most likely fill you with deep despair. (from the author)
We have all 13 books of A Series of Unfortunate Events available through UW Libraries! Get yourself started by checking out Events #1: The Bad Beginning, available as a print book and an audiobook.
Mad Libs
We have Mad Libs available to play on the first floor of TLB!
Heaven Official’s Blessing by Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù
800 years after his mortal life, Xie Lian has ascended to godhood for the third time. Now only a lowly scrap collector, he is dispatched to wander the earthly realm to take on tasks appointed by the heavens to pay back debts and maintain his divinity. Graced with the company of a mysterious young man with whom he feels an instant connection, Xie Lian must confront the horrors of his past in order to dispel the curse of his present. (from the publisher)
Checkout volume one of Heaven’s Official Blessing through UW Libraries!
Evicted by Matthew Desmond
Matthew Desmond follows eight families in Milwaukee as they each struggle to keep a roof over their heads. Hailed as “wrenching and revelatory” (The Nation), “vivid and unsettling” (New York Review of Books), Evicted transforms our understanding of poverty and economic exploitation while providing fresh ideas for solving one of 21st-century America’s most devastating problems. Its unforgettable scenes of hope and loss remind us of the centrality of home, without which nothing else is possible. (from the author)
Checkout Evicted through UW Libraries, available as a print book, ebook, and an audiobook!
Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James
When literature student Anastasia Steele goes to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey, she encounters a man who is beautiful, brilliant, and intimidating. The unworldly, innocent Ana is startled to realize she wants this man and, despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her, too—but on his own terms. (from the author)
Checkout Fifty Shades of Grey through UW Libraries, available as a print book and an audiobook!
Wilderness Survival For Dummies by Cameron M. Smith & John F. Haslett
Wilderness Survival For Dummies takes a practical approach to teaching you the skills you need to stay alive outside. Learn survival skills the Dummies way, with helpful diagrams and illustrations, step-by-step instructions, and tips from the pros. With expert tips and easy-to-follow instructions in this book, you’ll know what to do to survive in the wild. Stay calm, deal with the elements, make fire, find drinking water, and navigate your way to safety, thanks to your newfound survival skills. (from the publisher)
Checkout Wilderness Survival For Dummies through UW Libraries!
Anything written by Thich Nhat Hanh
Thich Nhat Hanh was a global spiritual leader, poet, and peace activist. His key teaching was that, through mindfulness, we can learn to live happily in the present moment—the only way to truly develop peace, both in one’s self and in the world. He published over 100 titles on meditation, mindfulness, and engaged Buddhism, as well as poems, children’s stories, and commentaries on ancient Buddhist texts. (from the Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation)
Checkout the works, both print and ebooks, of Thich Nhat Hanh available through UW Libraries!
Calculus by Tom M. Apostol
An introduction to the Calculus, with an excellent balance between theory and technique. Integration is treated before differentiation–this is a departure from most modern texts, but it is historically correct, and it is the best way to establish the true connection between the integral and the derivative. Proofs of all the important theorems are given, generally preceded by geometric or intuitive discussion. (from the publisher)
Checkout Calculus through UW Libraries!
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
Five protagonists– Anna and Omeir, on opposite sides of Constantinople during the 1453 siege; Seymour and Zeno, in an attack on a library in present-day Idaho; and Konstance, on an interstellar ship bound for an exoplanet, decades from now– are dreamers and outsiders who find resourcefulness and hope in the midst of peril. The ancient Greek story of Aethon, who longs to be turned into a bird so that he can fly to a utopian paradise in the sky, provides solace and mystery to these unforgettable characters. (from the author)
Checkout Cloud Cuckoo Land through UW Libraries, available as a print book, ebook, and an audiobook!
Small Gods by Terry Pratchett
Religion is a competitive business in the Discworld. Everyone has their own gods, all fighting for faith, followers, and a place at the top. So when the great god Om accidentally manifests himself as a lowly tortoise, stripped of all divine power, it’s clear he’s become less important than he realized. In such instances, you need an acolyte, and fast. Enter Brutha, the Chosen One– or at least the only One available. He wants peace, justice and love– but that’s hard to achieve in a world where religion means power, and corruption reigns supreme. (from the author)
Checkout Small Gods through UW Libraries!
Have His Carcase by Dorothy L. Sayers
The great Dorothy L. Sayers is considered by many to be the premier detective novelist of the Golden Age, and her dashing sleuth, Lord Peter Wimsey, one of mystery fiction’s most enduring and endearing protagonists. Harriet’s discovery of a murdered body on the beach before it is swept out to sea unites her once more with the indomitable Lord Peter, as together they attempt to solve a most lethal mystery, and find themselves become much closer than mere sleuthing partners in the process. (from the publisher)
Checkout Have His Carcase through UW Libraries!
Did you write an answer, but don’t see it in this list? That’s probably because the book isn’t available to check out through UW Libraries. However, it will be added to a list of books for our librarians to review and consider purchasing!