Books That Make the Grade

August signals the approaching end of summer and a return to schools and universities. In keeping with the school theme, I compiled a list of books set in a campus environment, ranging from elementary through medical school. Oxford is clearly a popular setting for authors with four of these books taking place there. I hope these reads will help prepare you for the start to a new school year.  

The Bookbinder by Pip Williams, 2023 (historical fiction) – Lovers of literature will find this historical novel utterly engaging. Williams blends fact and fiction while celebrating words, books themselves, and the power of the written word. The story is set in Oxford amidst the backdrop of World War 1 as men are slowly drafted and recruited to fight. Since age 12, twin sisters Peggy and Maude Jones have worked as bindery girls at Oxford University's Clarendon Press where they bind the books but are explicitly told to not read, just bind. As the war rages, Peggy is wrapped into a secret project as well as volunteering with wounded soldiers, both of which open up her limited world. The true beauty of the book is how Williams captures this historical period from a woman’s perspective, the unprecedented and catastrophic impact of the war, and the arrival of the Spanish Flu. I was completely invested in the characters and their lives and was delighted with the focus on words and books, which are at the heart of this tale. 

Class Mom by Laurie Gelman, 2017 (fiction) – Class Mom is an entertaining book that kept me laughing out loud the entire time I was reading it. Laurie Gelman’s writing is witty and spot on as she tackles the politics of being a class parent in elementary school. The emails the main character Jen sends out to her kindergarten class are hysterical; Jen’s tactics to require participation included logging response times and calling out those individuals who always feel entitled to special consideration; no topic was safe from her sarcasm (however, she was not mean-spirited, which saved the book). Gelman creates a unique, hilarious novel with authentic characters that readers will recognize from their own experiences as a parent today. I also enjoyed the fact that several issues were not wrapped up until the end with surprising resolutions (which I always love). This is a great one to read as school looms on the horizon. There are two sequels that I have not read.

The Eights by Joanna Miller, 2025 (historical fiction) – Oxford, 1920. Oxford has admitted female students for the first time in its 1,000-year history. Exuberant about attending this historic university, four young and very different women move into rooms on the same hall and slowly develop an unlikely friendship. This compelling debut chronicles what it was like for these women to make history at Oxford while enduring hardship and pushback from men and women alike. Miller brings Oxford and the 1920s vividly to life as well as the suffrage movement. The women embrace the rapidly changing fashions of the time period, bob their hair, wait for Agatha Christie’s latest novel, and more. The Eights is an engrossing snapshot in time that highlights an important moment in women’s history set against the backdrop of World War I’s aftermath. 

HIT THE BOOKS The Faculty Lounge by Jennifer Mathieu depicts life at a contemporary high school, set in Houston. (Photo: Cindy Burnett)

The Faculty Lounge by Jennifer Mathieu, 2025 (contemporary fiction) – Houstonian and high school teacher Jennifer Mathieu’s adult debut is a timely and relevant glimpse at today’s issues in schools and a tribute to educators. The story follows a large cast of teachers, administrators, and staff at Baldwin High School, a Texas high school that feels remarkably like Bellaire High School. Infused with heart and hilarity, The Faculty Lounge addresses what it is like to teach at a high school these days – helicopter parents commenting on curriculum choices, school shootings and lockdown drills, social media, book bannings, and more. I really enjoyed the format of The Faculty Lounge; each chapter is told from the point of view of someone working at the school. It was a delight to see how their lives connected as the story unfolds. (Read a Q&A with the author in a Page Turners article; see thebuzzmagazines.com.)

In My Dreams I Hold a Knife by Ashley Winstead, 2021 (thriller) – This dual-timeline psychological thriller toggles between present day and 10 years prior when a woman was murdered in her dorm room, a crime that remains unsolved. The murder broke apart a close group of friends, and, in the present day, the individuals are returning to campus for the first time since graduation. But while some people are happy to leave the past behind, someone else wants to catch the killer. This page turner by Houstonian Ashley Winstead kept me up late into the night, madly reading to get to the end.

Murder by Degrees by Ritu Mukerji, 2023 (historical mystery) – Set in 1875 Philadelphia, this stellar debut follows Dr. Lydia Weston, a professor at Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania. Anna, a patient Dr. Weston has been seeing in the college’s affiliated outpatient clinic, shows up one evening in a manic state and then disappears just as quickly. Lydia is dismayed to learn that Anna’s body was subsequently dredged out of the Schuylkill River, and her death deemed a suicide. Certain Anna’s death could not be a suicide, Lydia insists on participating in the postmortem, after which she is drawn into the investigation of her demise. Mukerji creates a strong sense of time and place as well as crafting realistic and authentic characters. She vividly depicts Lydia’s medical procedures and examinations as well as what it would be like to work as a female doctor during this time period. The crime will keep you guessing until the last pages – the best kind of mystery. 

Once Upon a Wardrobe by Patti Callahan, 2021 (historical fiction) – Callahan’s beautiful, magical, and captivating book, Once Upon a Wardrobe, delves into the question of what inspired C.S. Lewis to create Narnia. Megs Devonshire studies math and science at Oxford and relies on facts versus intuition. When her terminally ill brother, George, becomes infatuated with a new book, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and implores her to find out how Narnia came about, Megs finds herself visiting C.S. Lewis, an Oxford don, and his brother Warnie, hoping to answer George’s questions. Instead of providing her answers directly, however, Lewis tells her stories about his own life growing up, which she then relays each weekend to George. While Megs struggles to find the connections, George helps her understand the stories that Lewis relates and how they led to the creation of Narnia.  

Party Girls Die in Pearls by Plum Sykes, 2017 (mystery) – In Party Girls Die in Pearls, Plum Sykes crafts a clever tale filled with memorable and mostly likeable characters set at Oxford University in the mid-1980s. Sykes’ sly, witty, and occasionally tongue-in-cheek method of telling Ursula’s adventure makes Party Girls Die in Pearls a highly entertaining tale that kept me laughing and marveling at Sykes’ incredible storytelling skills. The mystery was well-done and realistic, and the resolution of the crime was highly satisfying and thankfully not easy to puzzle out. The many twists and turns added both suspense and at times humor to her story. I thoroughly enjoyed the many ’80s references including Gloria Vanderbilt jeans, tube tops, and huge hairstyles. Sykes also employed footnotes to explain or comment on certain references; these footnotes added greatly to the ingeniousness of the book.  

True Biz by Sara Novic, 2022 (contemporary fiction) – True Biz is set at a residential school for the Deaf and tackles American Sign Language and lip-reading, isolation and injustice, first love and loss, and most importantly, courage, daring, and joy. It is an absorbing and unforgettable journey into the Deaf community, and Sara Novic beautifully explores the ways language can include, exclude, or help forge an identity through the students who attend the River Valley School for the Deaf. I learned so much about how isolating it can be for those who cannot hear, American Sign Language versus British Sign Language, cochlear implants, the power of language, and the history of the Deaf community and Deaf schools.  

When We Were Young & Brave by Hazel Gaynor, 2020 (historical fiction) – In When We Were Young & Brave, Gaynor brings to life teachers and students at a British-operated missionary school in Chefoo, China. Inspired by a true story, the tale chronicles the group’s experience as captives of the occupying Japanese army during World War II. The Chefoo School educated the children of missionaries and diplomats, and in peaceful times, the teachers were tasked with not only educating but also serving as stand-in parents to children whose parents sometimes left them there for months or years. When Japan declared war on Britain and the United States, the Japanese forces (who had already invaded China) took control of the Chefoo School and eventually moved it to an internment camp, requiring the teachers to help their students weather unimaginable adversity. Alternating between two characters, teacher Elspeth Kent and student Nancy Plummer, Gaynor vividly portrays the horrors of war, life in captivity, the resilience of humans, and the importance of relationships.   

Editor’s note: Book reviewer Cindy Burnett also writes our monthly Buzz Reads column and weekly Page Turners column. She hosts an award-winning book podcast entitled Thoughts from a Page Podcast www.thoughtsfromapage.com, runs the Instagram account @thoughtsfrompage, and regularly speaks to groups about books