<p>My son, a rising HS senior, is in a book club and his turn is coming up. My wife thought maybe a book having to do with (going to) college would be appropriate.</p>
<p>Any ideas?</p>
<p>Most “going to college books” are in list form…not necessarily novels. I think I gave my s 1001 Things You Need to Know About Going to College. It has good sound realistic advice presented in a fun way. The college essay books can also be somewhat interesting if you get the lighthearted good/bad example ones. My s lenjoyed reading Freakonomics and now there is Super Freakonomics. I just read that it was on the best seller list at a college bookstore…he read in high school and now wants to read the latest one this summer before his Freshman year.</p>
<p>I am a senior going on to college next year, and I must say that Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf is a great book for people my age. It warns of losing one’s spark in life and it is really a beautiful work of literature, a work that arguably is the first novel to “split the atom” by illustrating the consequential through everyday synecdoches.</p>
<p>I’m going to recommend Getting In, by Jennifer Finney Bolan, a novel written in 1998, when the author was James Bolan, a Colby College professor. It is a quite hilarious account of a college road trip from the point of view of one of the students. It covers a number of northeast colleges and captures somewhat the angst of being a kid faced with this decision, but with humor. There are some tips woven in for interviewing, and the schools are also quite accurately described. It has been reissued with the author’s new name, but your library may have it under her old one.</p>
<p>Acceptance by Susan Coll is a fiction book about the overall drama, suspense, and hilarity of the college admissions process. Good read and really good characters. </p>
<p>Also for non-fiction, Acceptance: A Legendary Guidance Counselor Helps Seven Kids Find the Right Colleges- and Find Themselves by David L. Marcus is a really nice, uplifting non-fiction account of the former (I think he retired after this chronicled year but I’m not sure…) Oyster Bay High School (Long Island) guidance counselor Gwyeth “Smitty” Smith. I liked this one too and found to be full of good advice as well as a good story.</p>
<p>I really liked “Three Cups of Tea” (Greg Mortenson).
[Three</a> Cups of Tea: Summary and book reviews of Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson.](<a href=“Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson, David O. Relin: Summary and reviews”>Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson, David O. Relin: Summary and reviews)</p>
<p>I first heard of the book when visiting Northeastern (in Boston) a few years ago. It was the book they had all Freshman read, and then author was a professor in residence. Ironically I read an extensive review in the paper the next week. </p>
<p>The book as nothing to do with US college life, but is surely give an appreciation of US freedoms and the opportunity for education. </p>
<p>If they are looking for something lighter, “Cheaper by the Dozen” could be a fun way to cap off childhood.</p>
<p>The Naked Roommate: And 107 Other Issues You Might Run Into in College by Harlan Cohen</p>
<p>Deals with some serious issues for college student with some humor thrown in…</p>
<p>It’s probably too creepy for the purpose, but you could read The Secret History by Donna Tartt.</p>