UCSB Reads 2026 Book Giveaway to Students
UCSB students: Kick off UCSB Reads 2026 by getting your free copy of this year's book selection, Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner, while supplies last. Join your fellow Gauchos for this lively giveaway event in the Library's Paseo and celebrate the beginning of our shared exploration of Crying in H Mart and the 20th anniversary of UCSB Reads. It’s a great chance to pick up the book for coursework or recreational reading, mingle with other students, explore the new exhibition "Creating Community Through Books: 20 Years of UCSB Reads", and learn about upcoming UCSB Reads 2026 events.
UCSB Reads is UCSB's award-winning common book program that fosters a shared sense of belonging by bringing the campus and Santa Barbara communities together each year to read a common book that explores compelling issues of our time.
Crying in H Mart is a vibrant and sensory memoir exploring self-discovery, grief, and Asian-American culture through the celebratory lens of food and family. The book was a New York Times bestseller and received numerous awards and accolades. The New Yorker described it as “a book you experience with all of your senses: sentences you can taste, paragraphs that sound like music.”
Michelle Zauner is a young Korean-American musician, singer, songwriter, director, and author. She is the lead vocalist of acclaimed indie pop band Japanese Breakfast. The band’s third album, Jubilee (2021), charted on the Billboard 200, and was nominated for two Grammy Awards. TIME magazine named Zauner one of the 100 most influential people of 2022.
This event may be photographed or recorded.
