You’ve Got the Back-to-School Blues, Part 2

Remember to submit your Bingo card!

Hi friends,

I hope those of you in the U.S. had a great Labor Day weekend.

Two important announcements:

• Congrats to Joti for winning a copy of Alicia Thompson’s Love in the Time of Serial Killers. She said she’d write her pop culture dissertation on literary podcasts and newsletters. I have some more fun giveaways lined up for this fall — so stay tuned.

• Bingo cards are due FRIDAY (the 9th). You can get a copy of the card here and submit it here. 

Moving on, as I wrote last year, “One of the things that most surprised me about adulthood is how that back-to-school feeling extends to grownups. Come September, the summer is over, and it’s time to focus.”

With that in mind, it’s time for the second annual back-to-school edition of What To Read If.

So, without further ado, what to read if …

The Idea of Going Back to School Scares You

Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

When I first heard about Ace of Spades, Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé’s debut YA novel, it was pitched as “Get Out” meets “Gossip Girl.” That is a high bar to clear, but Àbíké-Íyímídé pulls it off with this fast-paced, propulsive thriller set at an elite prep school.

At the beginning of their senior year, Devon Richards and Chiamaka Adebayo, the only Black students in their class, start to receive mysterious, threatening text messages from an unknown number. The texter, who goes by Aces, then begins to send photos and videos of their worst moments to the entire school. After Devon and Chiamaka team up to expose Aces, what they believe is a disturbing prank turns out to be much more sinister.

I listened to Ace of Spades (the audiobook features two narrators — you all know I love dual narration) and was so caught up in the story I ended up borrowing the e-book from the library so I could finish it quicker.  It’s a strong debut — delivering both page-turning twists and pointed social commentary — and I’m eager to see what Àbíké-Íyímídé’s does next.

You Spent a Lot of Time in the Library

The Library Book by Susan Orlean

It will come as no surprise to any of you that I spent a lot of time at my school library (and the public library) as a student. The stacks offered a peaceful break — surrounded by books and other bookish people — from busy classrooms. The Library Book by Susan Orlean is a celebration of libraries, the books they hold and the people who love them.

In 1986, the Los Angeles Public Library caught on fire. Over seven hours, the fire destroyed 400,000 volumes and damaged 700,000 more. Decades later, Orlean, a New Yorker journalist, heard of the fire and set out to investigate: was it arson, and if so, who lit the match?

The Library Book is the result of her inquiry, but it’s so much more than a straight true crime read. Orlean incorporates the history of libraries and librarians, explores the critical role they play in communities, recounts her own attempt to burn a book and reflects on the weekly trips she took to the library with her mother as a child.

Orlean is a gorgeous, lyrical writer. This is a book that can be enjoyed on the sentence level, as well as on its whole. I break out facts I learned from it all the time (For instance: movie studio executives used to direct employees to steal books from the library instead of borrowing them to avoid due dates. The library sent an employee to collect them.) Truly a must-read for library lovers.

Reminder rec: Sara Nisha Adams’ The Reading List is a love letter to all things books and libraries.

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You Want a Fresh Take on the Campus Novel

Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher

As Dear Committee Members opens, English professor Jason Fitger is at a loss. He’s never managed to publish a book as successful as his first novel, a thinly veiled depiction of his time at an infamous writing seminar. The English department is losing the little funding it has while the university builds the economics department a palatial new facility. And no one will recognize how brilliant his prized student’s work in progress, a retelling of Melville's Bartleby set in a bordello, is.

As he attempts to navigate these challenges, Jason churns out hundreds of letters of recommendation. Their text and countless other emails make up the book. It’s a clever structure that gives readers a distinct understanding of how the professor interacts with others and why his relationships all seem so fraught. The emails also demonstrate that the curmudgeonly professor secretly has a lot of love for his students, colleagues and even the university he works for.

Julie Schumacher wrote some laugh-out-loud lines for Dear Committee Members. Take a letter of rec he’s bullied into writing for a student he doesn’t know: “I have known Ms. DeRueda for eleven minutes, ten of which were spent in a fruitless attempt to explain to her that I write letters of recommendation only for students who have signed up for and completed one of my classes.” I found the book funny, and I bet academics will find it doubly so.

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Now, for the shameless self-promotion part of this newsletter: I wrote a piece for 730DC about D.C.’s role as a “hive" of the romance community and a list for Parade pairing book recommendations based on the TV show you’re most excited for this fall.

You can catch up last week’s recs here and my Q&A with literary critic and publishing industry journalist Bethanne Patrick here.

That’s it for me today. One last reminder to submit your Bingo card here by Friday.

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What to Read If is a free weekly book recommendation newsletter. Need a rec? Want to gush about a book? Reply to this email, leave a comment or find me on Twitter @elizabethheld.

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