Before I get to today’s post, I’m happy to report that I’ve turned in my book and I’m back from my summer online hiatus! I know it’s been quite the harrowing summer for us all, but I’m glad to be back to something “normal” —at least in some capacity. This lockdown has taught me that introverts like me are at high risk of becoming outright hermits if our “peopling” muscles aren’t exercised regularly. So even though this is online, blogging feels like peopling so *stretches unused muscles* let’s do this…
There are many kinds of readers. There are people who say they are readers but really only read that one giant bestseller ten years ago. There are casual readers who pick up a book on vacation or when they hear a lot of buzz about a book. Then there are Readers with a capital R. The ones who always have a TBR pile, who carry a book or e-reader with them everywhere, who think reading a book straight through is the perfect way to spend a Saturday night.
When you’re a Reader with a capital R, you often like to categorize and analyze your reading habits, preferences, and strategies. And we capital R Readers like to discuss those habits, preferences, and strategies with each other. As a proud and unrepentant book nerd, I am one of those people. And this time of year gets me to thinking about seasonal reading. Not everyone changes up their reading choices based on the season, but I definitely have that tendency.
Last week, my son started school, and that triggered my “end of summer, beginning of fall” reading mood—even though it’s still melt-your-face-off hot here. (The kids are in-person with masks in this school district, but I know many of you still have kiddos at home on virtual, so you may not be feeling the seasonal shift as acutely.) And when school starts, I find myself craving stories set at college or at boarding schools—what I think of as campus novels. I was someone who loved college. I can still remember that experience of moving onto LSU’s campus freshman year, that sense of shifting from childhood to adulthood, the fear of the unknown, the thrill of being on my own for the first time, the endless possibility of ALL THE NERDY CLASSES I COULD TAKE. Lol. So I love reliving that kind of experience in fiction.
Novels set on college campuses or at boarding schools can have all kinds of different tones. Rom coms. Dark thrillers. Thought-provoking literary fiction. Paranormal. But regardless of genre, they usually put me in the fall mood—leafy campuses, football games, late night studying. It’s just a cozy, insulated, or creepy (depending on the book) feeling that helps me get lost in another world. And with the world we’re currently living in, escape to a different one is highly appealing!
So this past week, I found myself scouring book recommendation lists featuring campus novels. I’ve already read one that I loved and have added more to my list that I’m going to share with you in case you’re in a similar mood. In addition, I’m going to include past campus novels I’ve enjoyed. Note: though there are lots of novels (particularly in the New Adult genre) that are about college students, a campus novel (to me) is one that evokes a strong sense of place. I want to *feel* like I’m on campus with the characters. So, that’s what my recommendation list will reflect.
I’d also love to hear if you have any recommendations for me! Anyone else in the fall mood?
Campus Novels I’ve Read and Loved
Finding Felicity by Stacey Kade
If ever there were a book meant for me in this moment, this is the one. Not only is this a starting-college, campus novel, the story is about a girl obsessed with the 90s show Felicity. I just did a binge watch of all the seasons a few months ago and was promptly obsessed, so this book was perfect. You do not have to watch Felicity to enjoy the book. (But if you love college-set stories and romances and haven’t watched Felicity, what are you even doing with your life? ;) )
About the book:
Felicity meets Fangirl in this contemporary novel about a young woman who must leave behind her fantasy life—inspired by her favorite WB show from the 1990s—and create a real one at college.
Caroline Sands has never been particularly good at making friends. And her parents’ divorce and the move to Arizona three years ago didn’t help. Being the new girl is hard enough without being socially awkward too. So out of desperation and a desire to please her worried mother, Caroline invented a whole life for herself—using characters from Felicity, an old show she discovered online and fell in love with.
But now it’s time for Caroline to go off to college and she wants nothing more than to leave her old “life” behind and build something real. However, when her mother discovers the truth about her manufactured friends, she gives Caroline an ultimatum: Prove in this first semester that she can make friends of the nonfictional variety and thrive in a new environment. Otherwise, it’s back to living at home—and a lot of therapy.
Armed with nothing more than her resolve and a Felicity-inspired plan, Caroline accepts the challenge. But she soon realizes that the real world is rarely as simple as television makes it out to be. And to find a place where she truly belongs, Caroline may have to abandon her script and take the risk of being herself.
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
This was one of my favorite reads of 2019. A dark story set at a supernatural version of Yale that hits that autumn sweet spot of great setting and creepiness. There was clever world-building (which took a while to set up in the story, but was worth the time) and I didn’t guess the mystery, which I always love. It did have a cliffhanger about one plot line but wrapped up the main one, so I didn’t get too frustrated with a partial cliffhanger. I am eagerly awaiting the next book in the series
About the book:
Galaxy “Alex” Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale’s freshman class. Raised in the Los Angeles hinterlands by a hippie mom, Alex dropped out of school early and into a world of shady drug dealer boyfriends, dead-end jobs, and much, much worse. By age twenty, in fact, she is the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved multiple homicide. Some might say she’s thrown her life away. But at her hospital bed, Alex is offered a second chance: to attend one of the world’s most elite universities on a full ride. What’s the catch, and why her?
Still searching for answers to this herself, Alex arrives in New Haven tasked by her mysterious benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale’s secret societies. These eight windowless “tombs” are well-known to be haunts of the future rich and powerful, from high-ranking politicos to Wall Street and Hollywood’s biggest players. But their occult activities are revealed to be more sinister and more extraordinary than any paranoid imagination might conceive.
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
You’ll see this one pop up on almost all the campus reads book recommendation lists. It was a huge book when it released in the early 90s, and it is now considered a modern classic. I didn’t read it back then (I was 12) but I read this one about ten years ago. Because it’s been a while, I don’t remember a lot of details, but I remember this being one of the first novels that I read that made me fall in love with that closed-society campus feel. This book is literary, most of the characters aren’t very likable, and the mood is bleak. That’s usually not what I go for in my books, but it worked for me here.
About the book:
Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality they slip gradually from obsession to corruption and betrayal, and at last - inexorably - into evil.
Of these three, if you want light and fun—go with number one, if you want dark but modern and fast-paced, go with book two, if you want to challenge yourself with a dense, literary mystery, go with book three. (And if all else fails, you can always just read Harry Potter again! Supernatural campuses count, lol.)
Campus Novels I’ve Added to My TBR
Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld
I’ve read Eligible by this same author and enjoyed it, so when I saw that her debut novel was set at a boarding school, I decided to add it to my TBR. This one is high school and not college, but I feel like boarding schools can give a lot of the same feel. The Goodreads ratings on this one are below 4, so your mileage may vary, but I think Sittenfeld tends to write unlikable characters which can get an author dinged in ratings. I don’t always have to like a character, but I need to be able to understand why they are that way and root for them on some level, so we’ll see.
About the book:
Curtis Sittenfeld’s debut novel, Prep, is an insightful, achingly funny coming-of-age story as well as a brilliant dissection of class, race, and gender in a hothouse of adolescent angst and ambition.
Lee Fiora is an intelligent, observant fourteen-year-old when her father drops her off in front of her dorm at the prestigious Ault School in Massachusetts. She leaves her animated, affectionate family in South Bend, Indiana, at least in part because of the boarding school’s glossy brochure, in which boys in sweaters chat in front of old brick buildings, girls in kilts hold lacrosse sticks on pristinely mown athletic fields, and everyone sings hymns in chapel.
As Lee soon learns, Ault is a cloistered world of jaded, attractive teenagers who spend summers on Nantucket and speak in their own clever shorthand. Both intimidated and fascinated by her classmates, Lee becomes a shrewd observer of–and, ultimately, a participant in–their rituals and mores. As a scholarship student, she constantly feels like an outsider and is both drawn to and repelled by other loners. By the time she’s a senior, Lee has created a hard-won place for herself at Ault. But when her behavior takes a self-destructive and highly public turn, her carefully crafted identity within the community is shattered.
Ultimately, Lee’s experiences–complicated relationships with teachers; intense friendships with other girls; an all-consuming preoccupation with a classmate who is less than a boyfriend and more than a crush; conflicts with her parents, from whom Lee feels increasingly distant, coalesce into a singular portrait of the painful and thrilling adolescence universal to us all.
Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl
This one sounds like an updated spin on The Secret History, so that’s what made me pick it up. Each chapter is named after a classic book. Plus, it’s a pretty cool cover.
About the book:
Marisha Pessl’s dazzling debut sparked raves from critics and heralded the arrival of a vibrant new voice in American fiction. At the center of Special Topics in Calamity Physics is clever, deadpan Blue van Meer, who has a head full of literary, philosophical, scientific, and cinematic knowledge. But she could use some friends. Upon entering the elite St. Gallway School, she finds some—a clique of eccentrics known as the Bluebloods. One drowning and one hanging later, Blue finds herself puzzling out a byzantine murder mystery. Nabokov meets Donna Tartt (then invites the rest of the Western Canon to the party) in this novel—with visual aids drawn by the author—that has won over readers of all ages.
Rush by Lisa Patton
This one has been on my shelf awhile and has a gorgeous cover. As you can tell by the title, this one is focused on a sorority. I wasn’t in a sorority, so I find books that peek inside that world interesting.
About the book:
Set in modern day Oxford, Mississippi, on the Ole Miss campus, bestselling author Lisa Patton’s RUSH is a story about women—from both ends of the social ladder—discovering their voices, courage and empowerment.
When Lilith Whitmore, the well-heeled House Corp President of Alpha Delta Beta, one of the premiere sororities on campus, appoints recent empty-nester Wilda to the Rush Advisory Board, Wilda can hardly believe her luck. What’s more, Lilith suggests their daughters, both incoming freshman, room together. What Wilda doesn’t know is that it's all part of Lilith’s plan to ensure her own daughter receives an Alpha Delt bid—no matter what.
Cali Watkins possesses all the qualities sororities are looking for in a potential new member. She’s kind and intelligent, makes friends easily, even plans to someday run for governor. But her resume lacks a vital ingredient. Pedigree. Without family money Cali's chances of sorority membership are already thin, but she has an even bigger problem. If anyone discovers the dark family secrets she's hiding, she’ll be dropped from Rush in an instant.
For twenty-five years, Miss Pearl—as her “babies” like to call her—has been housekeeper and a second mother to the Alpha Delt girls, even though it reminds her of a painful part of her past she’ll never forget. When an opportunity for promotion arises, it seems a natural fit. But Lilith Whitmore slams her Prada heel down fast, crushing Miss Pearl’s hopes of a better future. When Wilda and the girls find out, they devise a plan destined to change Alpha Delta Beta—and maybe the entire Greek system—forever.
That’s what’s on my list, I’d love to hear if you have any recommendations for campus novels. What are some of your favorites?
And are you a seasonal reader? What’s your favorite season to pair books with?
