I’m a Chicago-based writer whose novels explore the triumph of the underdog, and nobody is more underdoggy than a teenage self-loathing loner. I am proud that my novel, Permanent Record, was selected by Library Services for Youth in Custody for their 2014 “In the Margins” Book Award, a list that highlights literature with appeal for youths who are in restrictive custody and youths from street culture. I love the academic setting of the books on my list because it reminds me of when my own possibilities were limitless, when I was free to imagine who I would be outside the confines of my school.
Lucky Jim is the hysterical book that made me fall in love with the academic novel. It’s a perfect example of how setting functions as a character. In an academic novel, it’s not enough that a character attends or is employed by a school; the setting of the school must be so integral to the plot and the protagonist’s arc that the story could not be set anywhere else. Lucky Jim’s protagonist is a university lecturer who has fallen into his job and first inwardly, then outwardly, rebels against the provincial, class-bound values of the school and 1950s British society. It’s both socially significant and deeply comical.
Penguin Decades bring you the novels that helped shape modern Britain. When they were published, some were bestsellers, some were considered scandalous, and others were simply misunderstood. All represent their time and helped define their generation, while today each is considered a landmark work of storytelling.
Kingsley Amis's Lucky Jim was published in 1954, and is a hilarious satire of British university life. Jim Dixon is bored by his job as a medieval history lecturer. His days are only improved by pulling faces behind the backs of his superiors as he tries desperately to survive provincial bourgeois society, an unbearable…
What school doesn’t have at least a couple of skeletons in the closet? The venerable St. Oswald’s is no different. What I love about this psychological thriller is that it pulls no punches about the dark side of boarding school. It explores my favorite literary themes: class warfare, family secrets, and identity, and masterfully unravels a complicated plot. The setting of St. Oswald’s, like all the best academic novels, functions as a looming, dangerous character in itself.
Perfect for fans of Ann Cleeves, Susan Hill, Nicci French and Val McDermid, this is an astute and intelligent psychological thriller centring around obsession and rage from international multi-million copy seller Joanne Harris. Fast paced with unexpected twists and turns, it will get right under the skin...
'[A] gripping psychological thriller... Harris is one of our most accomplished novelists and Gentlemen & Players, with its pace, wit and acute observation, shows her at the top of her form' -- DAILY EXPRESS '[A] delicious black comedy ... the plot is so cleverly constructed, the tension so unflagging, you'd think she'd been…
If you haven’t read The Chocolate War by age 25, there may be something seriously wrong with you. Jerry Renault is a regular kid, struggling through adolescence at his Catholic high school; for reasons both simple and complex, hinted at but never fully explained, he refuses to sell chocolate bars for his school’s annual fundraiser. He is then targeted by a teacher and a secret society headed by a sinister sociopath. An all-out war is waged on three fronts: between Jerry and his conscience, the school at large, and the secret society. The brutal ending upset many readers (particularly parents and school administrators), but this story, after all, is a tragedy. It presents an unsettling but accurate portrayal of human cruelty and conformity within the confines of a Catholic school.
The bestselling controversial novel about corruption and misuse of power in an American boys' school. The headmaster of Trinity College asks Archie Costello, the leader of the Vigils, a secret society that rules the school, to help with the selling of 20,000 boxes of chocolates in the annual fund-raising effort. Archie sees the chance of adding to his power - he is the Assigner, handing out to the boys tasks to be performed if they are to survive in the school. Freshman, Jerry Renault, a newcomer to the corrupt regime, refuses to sell chocolates. Enormous mental and physical pressure is…
Complicated relationships often exist between teachers and students, but many novels paint one or the other as the enemy. In Wonder Boys, we have a joyous but still complicated friendship between Grady Tripp, a pot-smoking English professor who has lost his way, and his student James Leer, a budding writer who is emotionally troubled. I can relate to both the “going nowhere” middle-aged Grady and the troubled teen, James. The plot devices of the tuba, dead dog, and snake (most of it) that end up in Grady’s trunk somehow provide both gravitas and humor.
A deft parody of the American fame factory and a piercing portrait of young and old desire, WONDER BOYS is a modern classic from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of THE ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY.
Grady Tripp is an over-sexed, pot-bellied, pot-smoking, ageing wunderkind of a novelist now teaching creative writing at a Pittsburgh college while working on his 2,000-page masterpiece, WONDER BOYS. When his rumbustious editor and friend, Terry Crabtree, arrives in town, a chaotic weekend follows - involving a tuba, a dead dog, Marilyn Monroe's ermine-lined jacket and a squashed boa constrictor.
Don’t let this book’s appearance on ninth-grade reading lists for the last 50 years convince you that it has no modern message for adults and teens. I toyed with putting a different title on my list here, something scathing and contemporary, but the truth is, few books have affected me as much as A Separate Peace. Yes, I read this in high school, and under duress, like most things I did in high school, but I was captivated by the trifecta of elements that have informed many of my favorite books: New England setting, boarding school, and complex feelings about friendship. I aspired to be like the well-loved all-around athlete Phineas, yet deep down I knew I was more like the defensive, lonely, and jealous Gene. I identified with this dark portrayal of adolescence and still do.
'A novel that made such a deep impression on me at sixteen that I can still conjure the atmosphere in my fifties: of yearning, infatuation mingled indistinguishably with envy, and remorse' Lionel Shriver
An American coming-of-age tale during a period when the entire country was losing its innocence to the second world war.
Set at a boys' boarding school in New England during the early years of World War II, A Separate Peace is a harrowing and luminous parable of the dark side of adolescence. Gene is a lonely, introverted intellectual.…
In post-9/11 America, a bullied Muslim teenager retaliates against his tormentors—with dangerous results.
For sixteen-year-old Badi Hessamizadeh, life is a series of humiliations. After withdrawing from public school under mysterious circumstances, Badi enters Magnificat Academy under a new name: Bud Hess. Grappling with his Iranian-American identity and clinical depression, Bud is an outcast who copes by resorting to small revenges and covert acts of defiance, but his home life, plummeting grades, and bullied status prime him for a more dangerous revolution. When strange school pranks arise, hinting at a future tragedy, suspicion falls on Bud, and he races to uncover the real culprit and clear his name. Permanent Record explodes with dark humor, emotional depth, and a powerful look at the ways the bullied fight back.
Writer, reader, editor, reviewer, publisher… those are all parts of me. With a lifetime of experience in the “words” industry, I have a pretty good handle on what makes a book not just good, but hot. I say this with the understanding that each reader brings their own histories to the reading experience, and what one person may like, another may not. Nonetheless, I offer you my professional and personal favorites in the mystery/thriller/suspense categories. It is my sincere hope that you find these books as addictive as I’d found them. Superb and clever writing, engaging characters, unpredictable plots—yes, please! Though I occasionally step outside my comfort zone, I'm consistently drawn back to these categories.
Liza O’Connell was a horror buff in every sense of the word. But there was one deadly nightmare she would never be able to talk about … her own. A friend murdered. A business in trouble. A marriage struggling to survive. And that’s just the beginning.
When salon owner Carrie King discovers Liza dead in the back room of her shop, everyone becomes a suspect, even her. As tensions in the community rise, so does the death toll, and now the local cops believe there’s a serial killer on the loose. The question is … are the two investigations connected?…
Liza O’Connell was a horror buff in every sense of the word. But there was one deadly nightmare she would never be able to talk about … her own.
A friend murdered.
A business in trouble.
A marriage struggling to survive.
And that’s just the beginning.
When salon owner Carrie King discovers Liza dead in the back room of her shop, everyone becomes a suspect, even her. As tensions in the community rise, so does the death toll, and now the local cops believe there’s a serial killer on the loose. The question is … are the two investigations connected?…
