Riot Headline The Best Beach Reads of All Time
Fiction

Favorite Campus Stories: A Reading List

year of the gadfly paperbackThis round of the Riot Recommendation is sponsored by The Year of the Gadfly by Jennifer Miller. Storied, fiercely competitive Mariana Academy was founded with a serious honor code; its reputation has been unsullied for decades. Now a long-dormant secret society, Prisom’s Party, threatens its placid halls with vigilante justice, exposing students and teachers alike for even the most minor infraction. Iris Dupont, a budding journalist whose only confidant is the chain-smoking specter of Edward R. Murrow, feels sure she can break into the ranks of The Devil’s Advocate, the Party’s underground newspaper, and there uncover the source of its blackmail schemes and vilifying rumors. Some involve the school’s new science teacher, who also seems to be investigating the Party. Others point to an albino student who left school abruptly ten years before, never to return. And everything connects to a rare book called Marvelous Species. But the truth comes with its own dangers, and Iris is torn between her allegiances, her reporter’s instinct, and her own troubled past. _________________________ We asked you to share your favorite stories of campus life, and you came up with quite the list.  Take a look, and let us know if we’re missing anything. Pnin and Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov The Secret History by Donna Tartt The Groves of Academe by Mary McCarthy The Rebel Angels by Robertson Davies Looking for Alaska by John Green The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart A Separate Peace by John Knowles Harry Potter Series by J. K. Rowling All That Sparkles Isn’t Real Sapphire by Daisy Jordan Tam Lin by Pamela Dean  Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis Straight Man by Richard Russo Moo by Jane Smiley Campus Trilogy by David Lodge The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides I am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld Skippy Dies by Paul Murray ________________________ Sign up for our newsletter to have the best of Book Riot delivered straight to your inbox every two weeks. No spam. We promise. To keep up with Book Riot on a daily basis, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, , and subscribe to the Book Riot podcast in iTunes or via RSS. So much bookish goodness–all day, every day.