US Santa Barbara selects ‘Crying in H Mart' for 2026 common book program

Next year, booklovers at UC Santa Barbara (UCSB) will be encouraged to read “Crying in H Mart,” a bestselling memoir about cultural identity and grief, the university announced this week.

As the university’s community-reading initiative, UCSB Reads, which invites students and faculty to read the same book for discussions every year, has selected “Crying in H Mart” as the 2026 book.

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In “Crying in H Mart,” its author Michelle Zauner (also the frontwoman of the indie pop band Japanese Breakfast) explores grief and losing her Korean mother to terminal cancer.

Zauner, a biracial Korean American who grew up in Oregon, stayed connected to her roots through Korean food, especially after her mother’s death. In her New York