A novelist’s thoughts on storytelling, a geologist’s soil restoration strategy, an environmentalist’s memoir, a celebration of Latino music influences, a poet’s meditations on her changing city 鈥�

Yes, and a best-selling author’s latest work, a podcast reborn as a book, a collaboration of world-class violists and even tales of brave Icelandic seawomen 鈥� at this festive time of year, 91探花 faculty creations can make great gifts for the Dawg on your shopping list.

Here鈥檚 a quick look at some gift-worthy books and music created by 91探花talents in the last year or so 鈥� and a reminder of some perennial favorites.

Charles Johnson, “.” Johnson, National Book Award-winning author of “” and longtime professor of English, discusses his art in a book stemming from a year of interviews. “There is winning sanity here,” the New York Times wrote: “Johnson wants his students to be ‘raconteurs always ready to tell an engaging tale,’ not self-preoccupied neurotics.” Published by .

Marisol Berr铆os-Miranda, Shannon Dudley and Michelle Habell-Pall谩n, ““ An extraordinary exhibit at the Smithsonian and Seattle’s Experience Music Project (now Museum of Pop Culture) comes to life as a book, detailing Latino influence on American popular music from salsa to punk, Chicano rock to the Miami sound. Berrios-Miranda is an affiliate associate professor of ethnomusicology, Dudley an associate professor of music and Habell-Pall谩n an associate professor in the Department of Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies. It’s a dual-language volume 鈥� English on the right side, Spanish on the left. And as a bonus the authors have created an American Sabor on iTunes and Spotify; the book flags specific songs with a playlist icon. Published by 91探花 Press.

David R. Montgomery, “.” Montgomery, a professor of Earth and space sciences, won praise for his popular 2007 book “.” Several books later he returned in 2017 with this view of environmental restoration based on three ideas 鈥� “ditch the plow, cover up, grow diversity.” said Montgomery’s well-expressed views “will convince readers that soil health should not remain an under-the-radar issue and that we all benefit from embracing a new philosophy of farming.” Published by .

Margaret Willson, Willson is an affiliate associate professor of anthropology and the Canadian Studies Arctic Program. In her years working as a deckhand she came across historic accounts of a woman sea captain known for reading the weather, hauling in large catches and never losing a crew member in 60 years of fishing. “And yet people in Iceland told me there had been few seawomen in their past, and few in their present,” she said. “I found this strange in a country of such purported gender equality. This curiosity led to the research and all that came from it.” Published by .

Estella Leopold, “.” Leopold is professor emeritus of biology and the youngest daughter of , who wrote the 1949 classic of early environmentalism, “.” She returns to scenes of her Wisconsin childhood in this follow-up, describing her life on the land where her father practiced his revolutionary conservation philosophy. Published by .

David Shields, “.” Shields is a professor of English and the best-selling author of many books, starting with his 1984 novel “.” In 2017 he brought out this collection of essays that the New York Times called “a triumphantly humane book” and him “our elusive, humorous ironist, something like a 21^st century Socrates.” The paper’s praise continued: “He is a master stylist 鈥� and has been for a long time, on the evidence of these pieces from throughout his career. . . All good writers make us feel less alone. But Shields makes us feel better.” Published by .

Joseph Janes, “.” The year 2017 saw Janes’ popular podcast “” become a book under a slightly different title. Janes is an associate professor in the Information School who writes here about the origin and often evolving meaning of historical documents, both famous and less known. Some of his favorite “documents” are Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s fictional list of communists, the Fannie Farmer Cookbook and the backstory to what’s called the Rosie the Riveter poster. Published by .

Frances McCue, Well-known Seattle poet, teacher and self-described “arts instigator,” McCue is a senior lecturer in English. She was a co-founder of Hugo House, a place for writers, and served as its director for 10 years. Those experiences fuel this book of poems about the changing nature of the city. “This is Seattle. A place to love whatever’s left,” she writes. Published by .

Scott L. Montgomery, “.” Scientific research that doesn鈥檛 get communicated effectively to the public may as well not have happened at all, says geoscientist Montgomery in this second volume of a popular 2001 book. A prolific writer, Montgomery is a lecturer in the Jackson School of International Studies. “Communicating is the doing of science,” he adds. “Publication and public speaking are how scientific work gains a presence, a shared reality in the world.鈥澛� Published by .

Odai Johnson, “.” The true cultural tipping point in the run-up to the American Revolution, writes Johnson, a professor in the School of Drama, might not have been the Boston Tea Party or even the First Continental Congress. Rather, he suggests, it was Congress’ 1774 decision to close the British American theaters 鈥� a small act but “a hard shot across the bow of British culture.” Published by .

Here are some recordings from 2017 involving faculty in the 91探花School of Music:

Melia Watras, “.” Music professor Watras offers a collaboration from of world-class violists performing and sharing their own compositions with each other. Her own playing has been described in the press as “staggeringly virtuosic.” Richard Karpen, School of Music director, is among several guests. The title comes from the number of strings on the instruments used: two violas, one violin, and the 14-string viola d’amore. .

Cuong Vu 4-Tet, “.” A live collaboration between Vu, 91探花Jazz Studies chair, and renowned jazz guitarist Bill Frisell, who is an affiliate professor with the School of Music. Recorded in 2016 at Meany Theater, Vu and Frisell were joined by artists in residence Ted Poor on drums and Luke Bergman on bass. Released on .

Craig Sheppard, “.” Sheppard, longtime professor of music and a world-class pianist, plays sonatas and mazurkas by Frederic Chopin recorded live at Meany Theater in February 2017. The Seattle Times said of an earlier Chopin concert of Sheppard’s that his playing featured “exquisite details 鈥� it was playing that revealed layer after layer of music in each piece, as if one were faceting a gemstone. Released on .

Here are some other notable recent UW-authored books:

• Research on poverty and the American suburbs in “,” by Scott Allard, professor in the Evan School of Public Policy & Governance.
• Literature meets science to contemplate the geologic epoch of humans in “,” co-edited by Jesse Oak Taylor, associate professor of English.
• A popular science exploration of machine learning and the algorithms that help run our lives in “,” by Pedro Domingos, professor of computer science and engineering.
• A close look at four of America’s electoral adventures in “” by Margaret O’Mara, professor of history.
• A fully revised second edition of Earth and space sciences professor Darrel Cowan’s popular 1984 book, “.” This 378-page paperback is filled with details about Washington state geology.
• The story of a city’s transition from the Ottoman Empire to Greece in “” by Devin Naar, professor of history and Jewish studies.
• A city that “thinks like a planet” is one both resilient to and ready for the future that the changing Earth will bring, says Marina Alberti, professor in the College of Built Environments in “.
• Todd London, professor and director of the School of Drama, follows the professional theater experiences of 15 actors from the 1995 class of Harvard’s American Repertory Theater in “.”
• Dr. Stephen Helgerson, a 91探花School of Public Health alumnus and physician in preventive medicine for four decades, uses the novella form to tell of the influenza epidemic’s arrival in his state in “.”
• On the 500^th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, an exploration of faith that results in the common good in 鈥�,鈥� co-authored by Steve Pfaff, professor of sociology.
• Calm down from holiday 鈥� and tech-induced stresses 鈥� by thinking mindfully with “” by communication professor David Levy.

Finally, still-popular and pertinent books from a few years back include the second edition of “” by Jeffrey Ochsner, professor of architecture; “” by Randlett with Frances McCue; “” by Cliff Mass, professor of atmospheric sciences; and the ever-popular “” by Bill Holm, professor emeritus of art history. All of these were published by , which has many other great titles.

is a professor in the 91探花 and author of “,” published in January by Yale University Press. He answered a few questions about the book and his work.

You have for years now worked on issues of digital distraction and finding a good balance between technology and personal experience. In what ways does this book bring together and further those efforts?

This book draws upon more than a decade of research and teaching I’ve been doing at the iSchool. My interest has been in finding what I call contemplative balance 鈥� how to use our digital devices and apps to their best advantage and to ours.

Most immediately, the book draws upon a course I first created and taught 10 years ago called , which gives students (undergraduates, masters, and doctoral students) the opportunity to study and reflect upon their online lives, to write about what they’re discovering, to make helpful changes, and to discuss and share what they’re learning with their classmates.

The course has been very successful 鈥� students love it and learn a lot 鈥� and so I decided to make the exercises from the course, as well as the philosophy behind the exercises, available to a larger audience both within our educational system and beyond it.

Your writing and research on using technology mindfully come after many years as a Silicon Valley researcher. What caused your shift in professional interest, back then?

In the early-to-mid 1990s, I was a researcher at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, the famed Silicon Valley think tank. That was a time when the Internet was becoming a publicly available utility and when the public was beginning to use email regularly. Cell phones were coming into use, as well as answering machines and call-waiting.

I started noticing, first within myself, and later in others around me, a concern over information overload. It felt like life was speeding up, not always in helpful ways, and our exciting new information and communication tools seemed to be leading some of us, at least, to feel a bit overwhelmed by all we had to do and manage. So I began reflecting on this, wondering whether it was true, and if so, what could be done about it.

In 1995, I wrote my first reflection on the topic, called “I鈥檓 Not Here Right Now to Take Your Call: Technology and the Politics of Absence,” in which I wondered if these very tools, which clearly had a role in connecting us to one another, might not also be disconnecting us 鈥� from ourselves, from one another, and from the world.

Email remains the “common coin of the realm” of workplace communication, as you write, but it can be burdensome and distracting. You suggest the Email Observation Exercise, where participants observe their own movements and emotions while conducting an email session, then look for patterns. What can be learned from this, and what is the value of then discussing those observations with others?

The Email Observation Exercise is the first exercise I developed for my Information and Contemplation course when I created the course 10 years ago.

My idea was pretty simple: If we could notice the effects that email was having on our minds and bodies, we might discover ways to make improvements. If we could see, at the very moment we were using email, that something was stressing us out, for example, this might suggest ways to be less stressed out, or to manage that stress better.

I was delighted to discover that the exercise actually worked! By paying attention to how they were breathing (shallow or deep, holding their breath at times), to how their posture changed, to the quality of their emotions, and to the way their attentiveness varied, my students began to notice bottlenecks in their email practice, and this immediately suggested changes they could make.

I discovered that people learn a lot by doing their own, individual observations. And this learning is amplified when they get to talk about their discoveries with others. Group discussion helps individuals to solidify their own understanding (they hear how others perceive their discoveries). It also lets them hear what others have learned, which can suggest further changes they themselves might want to make.

We should be careful, you write, about the assumptions we make about people and their relationship with the digital world. You write, “I am convinced that our current story about the differences between digital natives and their parents and grandparents is wrong (although I certainly wouldn’t claim that I have the definitive proof).” Why do you feel this is a mistaken notion?

For the past 10 years, I鈥檝e been in conversation with undergraduates all over the country. When I’m invited to other campuses to give talks and lead workshops, I often ask if I can be a guest lecturer in one or more classes.

I use these visits as an opportunity to discuss with students their attitudes toward their digital devices and apps. And what I’ve found, consistently, is that students express a variety of reservations and concerns about their online lives that largely parallel what many adults also say, including a worry about being online too much and about getting too easily distracted. (To be clear, though, they definitely appreciate their digital tools. They鈥檙e not trying to get away from them, but rather are wanting to figure out how to use them in more balanced ways.)

So I think we’ve been fooled into thinking that those in the “born digital” generation, because they’ve grown up with digital devices from an early age, don’t have concerns about them.

How have interactions with your students over the years affected and informed your views about our relationship with the digital world?

None of the work in “Mindful Tech” could have been done without my students. I’m very grateful to them for their willingness to join me in exploring their relationship with their devices and apps. One major thing I’ve seen is how each student comes to his or her own discoveries, and no two people reach exactly the same conclusions. This is very important 鈥� it means that one size does not fit all, that there is no single set of universal guidelines. I’ve also seen how much additional learning comes not just from students’ own discoveries but from the discussions they have with one another.

This book, you write, is about “establishing a more intimate 鈥� a more careful and caring 鈥� relationship with and through our digital tools and devices.” That said, what would you like readers to take away from this book?

The main takeaway is that to a much greater extent than we’ve realized we can take charge of our digital lives. We have many more choices available to us about how to use our digital devices and apps than we realize, and by paying attention to how we use them now, we can discover how to use them in healthier and more effective ways, as well as when to abstain from using them.

What’s next in your work?

I put aside work on another book (working title “No Time to Think”) to write “Mindful Tech,” and now I鈥檇 like to finish it. The book is a historical and philosophical exploration of the acceleration and overload we’re all now experiencing. I also would like to give more workshops around the country in which I offer the exercises and teachings from “Mindful Tech.”

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For more information about Levy and his work, contact him at 206-616-2545 or dmlevy@uw.edu