8 back-to-school-themed books to read this fall

Black Chalk by Christopher J. Yates

Critics are buzzing about this just-released thriller set at Oxford University. Six students embark on a dangerous game, told in flashbacks by a drunk and unreliable narrator. Loaded with suspense and unpredictable plot twists, the first-time author has been likened to Stephen King and called the new "master of college-age psychology."

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews

This 2012 YA bestseller became a Sundance-winning film that will be released this month. But pick up the book for a note-perfect, non-melodramatic, teenager-dies-of-cancer story that's funny, irreverent and full of high-school angst.

Little Big Lies by Liane Moriarty

This first-day-of-kindergarten novel zeroes in on three moms who are dealing with bullying kids, abusive husbands and murder plots. Moriarty's bestseller — which is heading to HBO with Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon — is a page-turner with a keen understanding of schoolyard politics. 

Bee Season by Myla Goldberg

Lovable but ordinary 11-year-old Eliza is the black sheep in a family of Jewish intellectuals — until she surprisingly wins her school's spelling bee and is headed for the national competition. But the "bees" are only a backdrop for bigger themes of language, religious extremism, class — and, of course, family dysfunction.

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

You don't have to have studied Greek mythology to love Donna Tartt's 1992 novel, but it helps. This high-brow murder mystery is set at a fictional Vermont university and follows a group of tragedy-obsessed students. 

Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

Forget all those books where boarding schools are cold, lonely places. Who wouldn't want to go to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, with its secret passageways, transfigurations classes and rousing games of quidditch? While the school was founded in 990 A.D., Harry arrives in the hallowed halls in 1991. The rest is literary — and wizardry — history. 

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

In this dystopian boarding school novel, Ishiguro takes up the plight of genetically engineered children — arguing that they need love, and education, too.

On Beauty by Zadie Smith

After her stint as a fellow at Harvard, Zadie Smith wrote this campus novel about two rival academics at a fictional Massachusetts university. She tackles race in America, the culture wars and even skewers glee clubs — all while paying tribute to E.M. Forster's Howards End.

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