<p>Does anyone have any recommendations for good summer reads that're relevant to Yale? I've heard William Buckley has a couple books worth reading but I'm not sure I want to fill my head with conservative propaganda . . . I just bought a copy of "The Standing One", a mystery set at Yale that someone recommended:
(The</a> Standing One by Jack Kelley (Book) in Literature & Fiction)</p>
<p>I just finished the Standing One and loved it! If Yale turns out to be anything like that, it's going to be crazy . . . Haven't read Chloe, but think it looks like a lame college sex in the city rip off . . . I also heard Prep was good, but haven't read that either.</p>
<p>Buckley only as conservative propaganda? AbbyR, you're about to enter Y. You must learn to not paint such broad strokes. Have you ever read "God and Man at Yale"? It's quite fascinating and one learns much about the US at that time.</p>
<p>If you can find a copy, you might be interested in Andrei Navrozov's The Gingerbread Race. Andrei was a classmate; we mutually despised and respected one another. He hated Yale in a way that only an infatuated lover could. I've never read his memoir, but I'm sure it's worth reading, and his perspective -- son of a famous Soviet dissident intellectual, respected literary scholar, and someone who claims that, "like the angels, I have a left and a right wing" -- would lend itself to some unique insights. Plus, you will doubtless meet self-involved asses like him (and may even be one yourself), so might as well get ready.</p>
<p>Chris Buckley, William Buckley's son, must have written stuff about Yale at one point or another.</p>
<p>Also -- they're not about Yale, per se, but two of the greatest college novels ever are Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited and Dorothy Sayers' Gaudy Night (which masquerades, somewhat, as a mystery novel).</p>
<p>I am enjoying reading "The Power of Privilege: Yale and America's Elite Colleges" by Joseph A. Soares published by Stanford U. Press. Interesting insight into the mind of how Yale has admitted students over the years, even if some of it remains speculative.</p>