UCSF Alumni Virtual Book Club

After over five years, this program will end December 2025; thank you for your engagement!

What have you read?
In our inaugural year of 2019, we started with The Telomere Effect by Elizabeth Blackburn and Elissa Epel, followed by Bad Blood by John Carreyrou; Dopesick by Beth Macy; Irresistible by Adam Alter; and 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari.

Throughout 2020, we read Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb; Elderhood by Louise Aronson; a “choose your own” option (Lifespan by David A. Sinclair; The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle; and/or Range by David Epstein); The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert; and The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander.

In 2021, we studied Brief Answers to the Big Questions by Stephen Hawking; The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai; The Beauty in Breaking by Michele Harper; Factfulness by Hans Rosling with Ola Rosling and Anna Rosling Rönnlund; and A Good Provider Is One Who Leaves by Jason DeParle.

For the duration of 2022, we discussed An Elegant Defense by Matt Richtel; Cultish by Amanda Montell; Never Home Alone by Rob Dunn; The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson; and Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker.

2023 began with Ten Tomatoes that Changed the World by William Alexander before we explored The Stress Prescription by Elissa Epel; The Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston; The Memory Thief by Lauren Aguirre; and The Secret Life of Groceries by Benjamin Lorr.

2024 comprised of Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez; A Tattoo on my Brain by Daniel Gibbs; Chatter by Ethan Kross; How the Other Half Eats by Priya Fielding-Singh; and The Song of the Cell by Siddhartha Mukherjee.

What is the projected timeline for reading in 2025?

Do you have a list of books written by UCSF-affiliated authors?
We do have a list of recent books written by UCSF-affiliated authors, which is updated typically in January and July each year, to highlight and celebrate. If you have written a book recently, tell us about it!