Books with an academia or schooling focus or setting

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by issybird

You could always read the thread first!

Absolutely! But I was running late to get my son.

I don't think anyone was harmed that someone else might have posted about those books first.

-- By the way, how did you like 'Small World'?

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Absolutely! But I was running late to get my son.

I don't think anyone was harmed that someone else might have posted about those books first.

-- By the way, how did you like 'Small World'?

Oh, I loved it. I'm a huge David Lodge fan; I've read almost everything he's written. As a fan of Small World, you should read the first of his campus trilogy, Changing Places, which also is hilarious; the third book isn't quite up to the first two, IMO. It's not as flat-out funny, but then it's probably more realistic.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by issybird

Oh, I loved it. I'm a huge David Lodge fan; I've read almost everything he's written. As a fan of Small World, you should read the first of his campus trilogy, Changing Places, which also is hilarious; the third book isn't quite up to the first two, IMO. It's not as flat-out funny, but then it's probably more realistic.

Unfortunately, that's the only one by him that I've read, which actually strikes me as strange considering how much I, too, loved it. --- I'll certainly check out 'Changing Places.'

Have you read that Joyce Carol Oates novel I mentioned? Wonderful fun.

I love her work and was hoping she would win the Nobel Prize soon, but it's probably not likely

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Have you read that Joyce Carol Oates novel I mentioned? Wonderful fun.

I love her work and was hoping she would win the Nobel Prize soon, but it's probably not likely

I have not but I've already added it to the list. No ebook, unfortunately.

I can't keep up with JCO; she writes faster than I can read.

[GlenBarrington]

Originally Posted by issybird

I have not but I've already added it to the list. No ebook, unfortunately.

I can't keep up with JCO; she writes faster than I can read.

I have tremendous respect for authors like that, in the abstract. Though I wonder if they have ever heard of, or considered, taking some time off. and I wonder what that is doing to their physical and long term mental health.

[John F]

I've started A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik. First book in a new trilogy. It is currently set in a magical school.

P.S. Sorry for the thread resurrection.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by John F

I've started A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik. First book in a new trilogy. It is currently set in a magical school.

P.S. Sorry for the thread resurrection.

An excellent thread to revive; I love school/campus stories.

I’ll offer up J.I.M. Stewart’s Oxford quintet, A Staircase in Surrey and Edmund Crispin’s Gervase Fen mystery series, also set at Oxford, and look forward to seeing what others can add.

[LDB]

It's a stretch and then a reach but Danny Dunn and The Homework Machine was a favorite during school days if you want light entertaining.

[mitford13]

Frederic Raphael’ The Glittering Prizes starts out in Cambridge (plus there’s a vintage BBC series with a young Tom Conti)
A few of CP Snow’s Strangers and Brothers series are in Cambridge (The Masters being most well known I think)
Death in the Quadrangle by Eilis Dillon, Dublin

[issybird]

Originally Posted by LDB

It's a stretch and then a reach but Danny Dunn and The Homework Machine was a favorite during school days if you want light entertaining.

I loved Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine.

Originally Posted by mitford13

Frederic Raphael’ The Glittering Prizes starts out in Cambridge (plus there’s a vintage BBC series with a young Tom Conti)
A few of CP Snow’s Strangers and Brothers series are in Cambridge (The Masters being most well known I think)
Death in the Quadrangle by Eilis Dillon, Dublin

I loved the series as well as the book, but I do remember that the young Tom Conti was not quite young enough to be believable as a student in his secondary school before going to Cambridge.

I thought of The Masters, a wonderful book, and it absolutely stands alone. No need to have read the earlier books.

O/T: a personal connection with The Strangers and Brothers series is that I might not have realized what was happening when I suffered my first retinal detachment had I not read about it in S&B.

[taosaur]

Originally Posted by John F

A little bit of a stretch, but how about The Magicians by Lev Grossman?

Not sure why you would think it's a stretch - the school figures very prominently in several parts of the series. I really enjoyed these books - well written, great characters, and lots of commentary on the genre while still telling a proper story.

[John F]

Originally Posted by taosaur

Not sure why you would think it's a stretch - the school figures very prominently in several parts of the series. I really enjoyed these books - well written, great characters, and lots of commentary on the genre while still telling a proper story.

Thinking back, I'm not sure either.