34. A book with an academic setting or with a teacher that plays an important role

[Jackie, Solstitial Mod]

As the new school year approaches for many, we'll be turning to books that set the mood. If you go the academic setting route, you could choose a book set at a boarding school, college, or an arts conservatory, or a children's or young adult book where the characters spend a lot of time at school. If you go the teacher route, you could choose a book featuring a traditional school teacher or someone who is teaching in more of a mentorship way.

Some links for inspiration:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2...
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2...
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

Listopia:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

What are you reading? What would you recommend?

[Angie]

Right now, I have Truly Devious down.


Most of the ones I would recommend are probably the ones most people know. The Harry Potter series is wonderful. The Wayward Children series is well done. Magic for Liars is one I read a while back and really enjoyed. I highly recommend that one. A Discovery of Witches is also good. I haven't finished it yet, but so far, I'm enjoying it.

[Pearl]

I'm leaning toward
My Dark Vanessa
With the Fire on High

[Pam]

I have 1 option and it is Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis. I’ve been wanting to read it for years and it’s going to happen in 2022! It’s the perfect prompt for the book.

[Nancy]

Well if the Ninth House sequel doesn't come out by then, I don't know what I'm going to read! Maybe My Dark Vanessa?

[Sydney]

Right now I'm between A Lesson in Vengeance or The Foxhole Court. I'm most likely going to be less strict with myself on this one, since I've read a TON of campus/academic-set fiction in the past year or so.

That being said, here are a few that I've loved:
Possession
Dear Committee Members
If We Were Villains
A Deadly Education
The Call

[D.L.]

A Begonia for Miss Applebaum I guess Paul Zindel was something of an iconic writer for young adults in the 70's/80's and I want to see if his books are still relevant all these years later. Plus I needed a "Z" author for another challenge lol

[NancyJ]

A few options.
Possession,
Three Daughters of Eve,
The Secret of Clouds

I'm not sure these are for me, but they've been mentioned by many people
The Secret History,
Ninth House
If We Were Villains

I recommend:
Lab Girl
Educated
The Rosie Project
The Housekeeper and the Professor
Still Alice
Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows - great story
Transcendent Kingdom

Child protagonists:
The Little Princess (about children) set in the early 1900s
The Girl with all the gifts - IF you like horror
The Changeling by Molly Harper - very light, magic school, Victorian alt history

[Emily, Conterminous Mod]

NancyJ, I hadn't thought of Erotic Stories for this prompt, but it's a good fit!

[Kathy]

My choices so far are:
On Beauty - Zadie Smith
An Academic Question - Barbara Pym
Disgrace - J.M. Coetzee

I'd recommend:
Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers
The Secret Place by Tana French
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
Villette by Charlotte Bronte
The Secret Language by Ursula Nordstrom (children's book published in 1960 that I loved)
Daddy Long Legs - Jean Webster

[Marie]

I'm reading a couple of series that are set in a school, and I'm going with The Hand on the Wall by Maureen Johnson, as I can fit the next Harry Potter in elsewhere.

As for recommendations, I'd suggest All the Bright Places, Looking for Alaska and from the Discworld Equal Rites and Unseen Academicals.

[CrystalIsReading on StoryGraph]

I'm planning to read The Chandler Legacies. It's by a Stonewall Honor-winning author, and is a YA set at an elite boarding school, with a diverse group of characters.

[Karen]

Here are a few books I'm thinking of reading for this prompt:
Pnin bu Vladimir Nabokov
A Life In School: What The Teacher Learned by Jane Tompkins
The Amber Fury by Natalie Haynes, also published as The Furies
Reading with Patrick: A Teacher, a Student, and a Life-Changing Friendship by Michelle Kuo

[Jennifer]

I second the suggestion of Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher. She also wrote The Shakespeare Requirement, which is not an epistolary novel, but includes many of the same characters.

[Billie-Jo]

I'm going to read The Company of Fellows by Dan Holloway.

[LeahS]

I am going to read The Lying Life of Adults, where the MC's parents are teachers. Other books I would suggest:
The Rainbow (MC becomes a teacher), South Riding (MC is a headmistress), Notes on a Scandal, The Rehearsal, and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.

[Cassidy]

A Deadly Education
The Last Graduate
are both set in a fanasty school with some light romance. They are YA/NA, but please don't let that stop you. I hate YA/NA and love these books. They both end on a bit of a cliffhanger though.

[Joy D]

A few ideas:
(These are books I have read and enjoyed that fit the prompt.)

The Eternal Audience of One
Good-Bye, Mr. Chips
To Sir, With Love
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
The Ancient Nine
Madam

[Robin P, Orbicular Mod]

I like academic satires such as Nice Work by David Lodge, though it may be dated now, Straight Man, and Dear Committee Members. (I loved the TV series The Chair, as well.)

But thanks to Kathy for suggesting above Gaudy Night. I started rereading all the Lord Peter Wimsey detective books in 2021 and that one is up next, so I'll probably use it.

[Pearl]

Project Hail Mary - This was on the Listopia, so I hope it fits.
I am Malala
With the Fire on High
My Dark Vanessa

[Dana]

Some possibilities:

Flawless by Sara Shepard
Into the Water by Paula Hawkins
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
Fallen by Lauren Kate
Looking for Alaska by John Green
Marked by P.C. Cast
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
American Panda by Gloria Chao
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire
Wilder Girls by Rory Power

[Jill]

What are you reading?
I read Village School by Miss Read
A year in a school in the English countryside, set in the 1950's.

[miss.mesmerized]

Percival Everett Erschütterung
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Tracy]

Later by Stephen King fits for this and it's a quick fun read! One of the characters is a literature professor who plays a huge role in helping out the MC. Recommended for SK fans, horror readers and maybe thriller fans (it's horror light?- I didn't think it was really scary, only a few descriptive passages)

[Guylian]

I read Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir.

[Severina]

I read The Call by Paedar O'Guilin

[Alexx]

I read The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

[Tiffany]

I read Looking for Alaska, set in a boarding school. I would recommend Anne of Green Gables, The Catcher in the Rye, and Americanah.

[Siobhan]

I went for Rebel by Beverly Jenkins

One of the main characters is a teacher (primarily of former slaves) just after the American Civil War!

[Kelly Sj]

I third (or fourth?) Julie Schumacher's books Dear Committee Members and The Shakespeare Requirement - I loved them so much I bought hard-cover copies! If you work in academia, you will appreciate the absurdity.

A friend recently recommended Straight Man by Richard Russo, and my library has a copy so I'll probably go with that. Otherwise I have The Devil and Webster on my bookshelf. Or, I like the movie of Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon, and would like to read the book.

[Joy D]

For this prompt, I read:
The Fall of a Sparrow by Robert Hellenga - 2* - My Review

[JessicaMHR]

I just finished The Love Hypothesis for this one.

[Samantha]

I read In My Dreams I Hold a Knife

I recommend:
The Love Hypothesis (romance)
Never Saw Me Coming (thriller)
They Never Learn (mystery)
Catherine House (not everyone's cup of tea)
Ninth House (fantasy)
The Nickel Boys (Historical bases on real events)
If We Were Villains (mystery)

[Anne]

I am reading Village Affairs by Miss Read and recommend any of the other books about the village schools by Miss Read.

[Andrea]

I read A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik for this challenge. If you are in the mood for a murder mystery, then The Maidens by Alex Michaelides would be another option.

[Barbara]

by J.K. Rowling

I wasn't very creative with this prompt, but I felt like reading something that brings me comfort.

[Wendy]

I'm finally getting around to The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark -- apparently, it's been on my Goodreads TBR for 11 years!

[LeahS]

I read The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett. A lesson in Remedial English and the possible disappearance of a teacher play a big part in the story. I enjoyed the author's first book, The Appeal which was a whodunit told in an original way. This also has an original way of story telling but I don't think it worked as well, and that the author was trying too hard for the twist. Shame as there was some good plotting in there.

Recommendations:
Notes on a Scandal; The Rehearsal; South Riding; The Rainbow.

[NancyJ]

I chose A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood, which I read for an LGTBQIA read.

I really wanted to use Project Hail Mary, about a teacher who goes to space. It's very entertaining and smart. I loved the non-human character so much, I have to use it for prompt #46.

[Nicola]

A bit of a deviation - when this book starts the main character is a school science teacher but he soon gets pulled away to work on saving the world. By the end though, he is back teaching again :-)

[Nicola]

NancyJ wrote: "I chose A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood, which I read for an LGTBQIA read.

I really wanted to use Project Hail Mary, about a teacher who goes to space. It's ver..."

I nearly did as well, but fortunately I had another delightful non human protagonist (a dog) that fitted in well. And I love dogs, so I adored Freddie de la Hay, the cleverest Pimlico terrier alive!

[Sherri]

I read The Secret History. It took me long enough to read this book. Every year I thought I would get to it but have been pushing it aside for awhile. I did enjoy it. 5 stars.

[Laurel]

I read The Fifteenth Minute, the fifth book in Sarina Bowen's Ivy Years series, which are set at the fictional Harkness College. It's a good new adult/sports romance series, but I'd start with the first one, The Year We Fell Down.

M. Louisa Locke has two excellent books in her Victorian San Francisco mystery series that fit the prompt, Scholarly Pursuits (set at UC Berkeley) and Bloody Lessons (teachers in San Francisco public schools). Fellowship of Fear by Aaron Elkins is a mystery with the main character (an anthropologist) taking a teaching fellowship in Europe.

For nonfiction, I'd recommend Educated or Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections of Race and Class for Women in Academia.

[Marta]

I have just discovered that Villette is about a teacher. For those wanting to read a classic.

[LeahS]

Another classic Bronte is Agnes Grey about a governess.

[KP]

I read Election by Tom Perrotta.

[Evelyn]

I read They Never Learn by Layne Fargo and recommend Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal.

[Marta]

LeahS wrote: "Another classic Bronte is Agnes Grey about a governess."

So is Jane Eyre :)

[LeahS]

How could I forgot Jane?

[Ana]

I Read The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️