Welcome back to school, Adults!
To welcome the WAC community back to campus, we would like to take a break from the regularly programmed Special Collections and Archives post and instead highlight some books from our circulating collections. These books encompass a range of genres- from memoir to dark fantasy- but all belong to my favorite made up category of “back to school books for adults”.
Top 3:
Real Life by Brandon Taylor- Diversions
This book was short-listed for virtually every major literary award, and prominently featured on every Best of 2020 List, for a good reason: Brandon Taylor is a powerful new voice and Real Life is a poignant and thought-provoking portrayal of one young Black queer man’s struggle for acceptance in a predominantly white academic institution. An oftentimes emotionally-charged character study, Real Life is an intense look at the ugliness of racism and homophobia, the pressures of academia, and the drama of young adult relationships.
Prep by Curtis Sittenfield- Print collection
Now considered a modern classic, Prep is the hilarious and heart-wrenching account of Lee Fiora, an intelligent and ambitious, yet naïve and sheltered teen, who leaves behind her family in Iowa to attend a prestigious boarding school on the East Coast. Lee’s new high school, Ault, is also her home for the next four years, and is the epicenter of a new world of wealth and privilege that she does not fully understand and to which she never quite belongs. At times laugh out loud funny and utterly heartbreaking, Prep is a singular account of the misery and enchantment of adolescence.
Secret History by Donna Tartt - Diversions
My favorite of the list, and what I would consider the OG “back to school for adults”, is the 1992 debut novel by Donna Tartt about a tight-knit group of Classics students at a small liberal arts school in New England. What begins as a straightforward story of a young California man encountering elitism at his new college eventually devolves into a thrilling detective story involving a bacchanal in the woods and, later, murder. This book is the epitome of dark academia and would be perfect to read as autumn begins to fall.
Honorable mentions:
Holler Rat by Anya Liftig- Diversions
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell- Diversions
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Ninth House by Leigh Bargudo- Diversions
The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon - Diversions
Yolk by Mary H.K. Choi- Diversions
