University Novels

Summer is drawing to a close and now our minds turn back to academia. In just a week the fall semester will begin here at UW-Whitewater and our leisure reading time may dwindle. Here are a few bildungsromans to ease you back into University life.

  • Abroad (2014) by Katie Crouch
    A young English college student studying in Italy is murdered
    Browsing Books, 2nd Floor: PS3603.R683 A63 2014
  • The Accursed (2013) by Joyce Carol Oates
    This gothic tale full of shapeshifters and vampires, and perhaps the devil himself, is set at turn of the (last) century Princeton University
    Browsing Books, 2nd floor: PS3565.A8 A63 2013
  • College Girl (2008) by Patricia Weitz
    This coming-of-age story follows a working-class transfer student entering the University of Connecticut.
    Browsing Books, 2nd Floor: PS3623.E4616 C65 2008
  • Gate at the Stairs: A Novel (2009) by Lorrie Moore
    Shortly after 9/11 a Midwestern college student becomes a part time nanny
    Main Collection, 3rd Floor: PS3563.O6225 G37 2009
  • The Ghost in the Electric Blue Suit (2013) by Graham Joyce
    A suspenseful story of an English college student’s coming-of-age in 1976
    Browsing Books, 2nd Floor: PR6060.O93 G57 2013
  • Haunted Life: And Other Writings (2014) Jack Kerouac
    This lost (until 2002) unfinished novella takes place during the summer preceding the protagonist’s sophomore year at Boston College, shortly before the US enters World War II. Includes related sketches, notes, and letters
    Browsing Books, 2nd Floor: PS3521.E735 A6 2014
  • Invisible (2009) by Paul Auster
    This coming-of-age story of a poetry student at Columbia University in 1967 channels Heart of Darkness according to the critics
    Main Collection, 3rd Floor: PS3551.U77 I58 2009
  • Rule of Four (2004) by Ian Caldwell & Dustin Thomason
    Princeton students get involved in a Dan Brown style coming-of-age thriller
    Main Collection, 3rd Floor: PS3603.A435 R85 2004
  • Snow Garden: A Novel (2001) Christopher Rice
    Suspense and intrigue surround first year students at Atherton University when a professor’s wife dies
    Main Collection, 3rd Floor: PS3568.I2717 S66 2001

About Martha

Martha is a Reference & Instruction Librarian and the liaison to the Biological Sciences, Computer Science, Languages and Literatures, Mathematics, and Physics Departments
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