Read: Books about School

Books set in the university or high school hold a special place in my heart. To celebrate one of the Most Wonderful Times of the Year, here's a round-up of some of my favorite novels that chronicle students, teachers, professors, or other academics.

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One.  Prep: A Novel by Curtis Sittenfield. Prep is set in a prestigious New England boarding school and chronicles the experiences of Lee Fiora, boarding school newbie and scholarship outsider. This is a fast, fun read with spot-on descriptions of the boarding-school elite (or at least how I imagine them). Plus, the characters have awesomely old-money East Coast names, like Cross Sugarman.

Two. Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl. This book is kinda bizarrely awesome. Also set in an elite boarding school (such a rich novelistic setting, boarding schools. A public school gal myself, I didn't even know they still existed outside of Switzerland until freshmen year of college when I discovered that something like 80% of my class had boarded), also has awesomely named characters (Blue van Meer), but this one contains a drawn out mystery and a mysterious clique. It got mixed reviewers for its obscure references and wordy prose, but I thought it was really clever and creative, a fresh take on the boarding-school trope.

Three. Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner. A classic! Written in 1987 but set in the Depression and post-Depression years, Stegner follows the long friendship of two couples, one rich, one poor, both entrenched in the surprisingly-still-relevant publish-or-perish world of academia.

Four.  Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami. Not technically about schools or university perse, but Murakami is my favorite so I had to include him. This novel (now a film too, which I need to see!) is a coming-of-age story of university student Toru and his long-lasting love for two women, set against campus political upheavals.

Five.  Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis. Another classic! First published in 1954, brilliantly funny and featuring another set of professors: Jim is a history professor navigating the bizarre, stuffy, quirky world of the ivory tower.

I also wanted to include the new novel Penelope  by Rebecca Harrington, set in Harvard, but I haven't read it yet. Have you? What else would you add to this list?