Like most avid readers, I'll read just about anything you put in my hands (I'll just read some things with a good bit more enthusiasm than others). But I have a preference for particular genres: YA literature is at the top of my list. So is urban fantasy -- at least, what *I* consider urban fantasy. It seems that paranormal fiction (stuff like Charlaine Harris, Kim Harrison, Jim Butcher, etc) has crossed over into that subgenre pretty heavily; it seems that what I consider to be urban fantasy has now been re-classified as mythic fiction, interstitial fiction, or even speculative fiction. (To be honest, I don't care what it's called, as long as I can find it on the shelves of my local bookstores.)
And then there are the sub-sub-genres, I guess you could call them. Categories of books that fall within a certain subgenre that share particular characteristics. For example, within children's literature, I love books that have the same nostalgic feel as the children's books I grew up reading. The Penderwicks is a great example of this; these books remind me of The Bobbsey Twins or the Shoes books by Noel Streatfeild.
One of my favorite sub-sub-genres of books are novels that are set on a college campus. I do prefer these to have an element of fantasy to them, but that's not completely required for inclusion in this list. I always come back to these novels in the fall, which is my favorite time to be on campus -- it just seems like a college-y time of year to me. Anyway, since I've been picking these up and reading bits and pieces of them over the past few weeks, I thought I would share my favorites with you here. I welcome suggestions for others to add to the list.
Fool on the Hill: A Novel by Matt Ruff
There is so much that is good about this. It blends together a number of almost surreal elements, but the overall story ends up being just perfect in my eyes. It's set of the campus of Cornell University and has an incredible cast of secondary characters. It makes me want to visit Cornell, but then again, not -- because I know the real Cornell could never match up with this "just-outside-the-borders-of-reality" Cornell in the novel.
Tam Lin by Pamela Dean (and I MUCH prefer the Thomas Canty Fairytale Series cover)
I always get a little nervous about recommending this novel. I adored it -- so much so that I reread it every year. But a lot of other people really don't like it. And I see why, I really do. After all, you have a young woman in the 70's on the campus of a small Midwestern liberal arts college, surrounded by like-minded Classics majors. So the novel follows her through four years of college, doing college-y things like writing papers and going to class and eating in the cafeteria and falling in love and making friends and getting along (or not) with roommates and attending plays and...Yes, it is exhausting to follow all of that, especially when much of what we really need for the main conflict of the story doesn't happen until the last 50 pages. But, but, BUT. Dean renders all of that college living so richly that I just love getting drawn into it over and over again each time.
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
This, for me, is the romanticized image of college that exists in my head, and that -- aside from the excellent character development and the exquisit prose -- is what brings me back to this book time and again.
The Likeness by Tana French
I liked French's novel a bit more than Tartt, but only because there seemed a hint of pretentiousness to Tartt that I didn't find in French. (I find Bret Easton Ellis to be overwhelmingly pretentious, by the way; thankfully Tartt isn't as bad).
Both Tartt and French establish that close-knit college friends atmosphere, but combine it with something suspenseful, moody, and intellectual.
The Magicians by Lev Grossman
Imagine a hipster version of Narnia. Grossman creates a literary novel that uses all of the devices of a typical genre novel, and it's easily one of my favorite reads. Don't miss the sequel: The Magician King.
A College of Magics by Caroline Stevermer
This novel combines an alternative Edwardian setting with a school of magic and excellent characters (in particular the main character). There's a sequel, too: A Scholar of Magics.
Boarding schools are a pretty popular plot device, both in fantasy and non-fantasy books; here's a great blog post that offers a number of suggestions. I didn't see any mention of Patrick Rothfuss's The Name of the Wind or Ursula K. LeGuin's A Wizard of Earthsea, nor were any of Patricia McKillip's books mentioned. For typical fantasy, these are all excellent novels that happen to be partly or fully set at some type of magical school.
