Telling Tales in School

A sudden cool breeze, an early dusk, and ads for backpacks, pens, and notebooks everywhere hint at  what's coming: a new school year. Whether this change evokes a resigned sigh or sheer joy, reading some academic-themed fiction might just help us get in the mood for it.

Old favorites:

Moo by Jane Smiley - In urgent need of funds, Moo University, a huge midwestern agricultural college, and its male-dominated hierarchy search for a solution to their economic woes.

Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon - Grady Tripp, an obese, aging writer who has lost his way, and debauched editor Terry Crabtree struggle to rekindle their friendship, a sense of adventure, and purpose in their lives.

Starting Out in the Evening by Brian Morton - When graduate student Heather Wolfe sets out to meet the elderly novelist whose works have changed her life, she meets someone very different from her expectations. 

Straight Man by Richard Russo - Within one single week, Hank Devereaux, head of the the English department at the state university, has his nose slashed by a feminist poet, finds his secretary is a better writer than he is, and suspects his wife is having an affair. 

Been around a while:

The Shakespeare Requirement by Julie Schumacher - Newly appointed English Department Chair Jason Fitger navigates his wife's affair with his boss, budget cuts, a formidable department secretary who writes better than he does, and a Shakespeare scholar who refuses to retire.

By the Book by Julia Sonneborn - An English professor struggling for tenure discovers that her ex-fiance has just become the president of her college--and her new boss.

The Devil and Webster by Jean Hanff Korelitz - The first woman president of an elite progressive college responds to student protests about a popular professor's tenure denial before the group's controversial leader emerges and  shocking acts of vandalism begin to destabilize the campus.

Published recently: 

Talent: A Novel by Juliet Lapidas - An English graduate student struggling with her dissertation about the intellectual history of inspiration desperately searches for a case study to anchor her thesis, only to find it in the unlikeliest of places.

Trust Exercise: A Novel by Susan Choi - Falling in love while attending a competitive 1980s performing arts high school, David and Sarah rise through the ranks before the realities of their family dynamics and economic statuses trigger a spiral that impacts their adult lives.

The Study of Animal Languages by Lindsay Stern - a logic-driven professor of philosophy is forced by a series of crises to confront a growing estrangement in his marriage to his free-spirited, passionate biolinguistics pioneer wife.

Silver Girl: A Novel by Leslie Pietrzyk - Set against the backdrop of Chicago in the early 80s, the story follows a young college student who conceals her deeply troubled past and lives a new life that is not in any way her own.