School seems to start earlier and earlier in California, doesn’t it? August is the perfect time to read campus novels and academic satires, expansively defined. These exciting books range from a psychologically tense mystery featuring classics students to a sci-fi romance set on a fictional Northern California college campus, and from funny send-ups of academic politics to gothic tales of darkness in girls’ private schools.•
AS SHE CLIMBED ACROSS THE TABLE, BY JONATHAN LETHEM
THE MARRIAGE PLOT, BY JEFFREY EUGENIDES
MOO, BY JANE SMILEY
BLUE ANGEL, BY FRANCINE PROSE
REAL LIFE, BY BRANDON TAYLOR
DISORIENTATION, BY ELAINE HSIEH CHOU
NORMAL PEOPLE, BY SALLY ROONEY
WHITE NOISE, BY DON DELILLO
TRUST EXERCISE, BY SUSAN CHOI
MAKE YOUR HOME AMONG STRANGERS, BY JENNINE CAPÓ CRUCET
I HAVE SOME QUESTIONS FOR YOU, BY REBECCA MAKKAI
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THE SECRET HISTORY, BY DONNA TARTT
THE IDIOT, BY ELIF BATUMAN
OLD SCHOOL, BY TOBIAS WOLFF
WONDER BOYS, BY MICHAEL CHABON
THE SECRET PLACE, BY TANA FRENCH
ON BEAUTY, BY ZADIE SMITH
SWEET DAYS OF DISCIPLINE, BY FLEUR JAEGGY, TRANSLATED BY TIM PARKS
JAPANESE BY SPRING, BY ISHMAEL REED
THE INCENDIARIES, BY R.O. KWON
UNPRECEDENTED TIMES, BY MALAVIKA KANNAN
Anita Felicelli is Alta Journal ’s books editor and the author of How We Know Our Time Travelers, Chimerica, and Love Songs for a Lost Continent.
