Albany Public Library discussion

Hello readers!

Today starts Week 2 of our Winter Reading Challenge. The theme for this week is Dark Academia! For those who are unfamiliar with Dark Academia, I was able to find the perfect description courtesy of Celadon Books:

"...these books are moody and mysterious narratives that usually take place within the confines of an esteemed university or boarding school. Think: darkened libraries, cloak-and-dagger campus societies, looming Gothic towers, and college quads buzzing with intrigue."

Below is a recommended reading list courtesy of APL staff members who love this genre. If you are already a fan of mysteries and thrillers, then you will love these titles! Comment below if you read any of these books or other books for this week. We look forward to reading everyone's comments!

Ghosts of Harvard: A Novel by Francesca Serritella
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
The Orchard: A Novel by David HopenFor Your Own Good by Samantha Downing
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
Bunny by Mona Awad
The Divines by Ellie Eaton
Vicious by V. E. Schwab
The Library of the Unwritten by A. J. Hackwith
Real Life by Brandon Taylor
Trust Exercise by Susan Choi
The Maidens by Alex Michaelides
Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas
Black Chalk by Christopher J. Yates
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Happy reading everyone!

What a great winter-reading theme... super atmospheric! Piranesi and Plain Bad Heroines were a couple of my favorite books last year. This past fall, I read a pulpy thriller adjacent to dark academia: Conjure Wife. A few others I've enjoyed are The Scapegoat and Melmoth.

Oh, Dark Academia! These days academics might say that is all day, every day. Just finished reading The Maidens. I have never been to Cambridge University, but my husband has, and I enjoyed the setting which sounded a lot like what he told me about the wild special dinners and rooms and stuff there that he got to experience when he gave a talk there. A lot different than UAlbany, that's for sure!

Heather wrote: "Hello readers!

Today starts Week 2 of our Winter Reading Challenge. The theme for this week is Dark Academia! For those who are unfamiliar with Dark Academia, I was able to find the perfect descri..."

Hi Diana,

Glad you like the theme!

I could not put down Piranesi! It was also one of my favorite books of last year. Have you read Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell also by Susanna Clarke? It has been on my list of reads, but I have yet to read it because I am intimidated by the amount of pages!

I just read Where the Drowned Girls Go - new, short, and fits the theme!

Diana wrote: "What a great winter-reading theme... super atmospheric! Piranesi and Plain Bad Heroines were a couple of my favorite books last year. This past fall, I read a pulpy thriller adjacent to dark academ..."

Hi Susan,

I recommended The Maidens to my mother who reads mysteries and she really enjoyed it as well. That's really cool that your husband got to visit the Cambridge campus- I'm sure it made reading the novel even more interesting!

Kathleen wrote: "I just read Where the Drowned Girls Go - new, short, and fits the theme!"

Hi Kathleen,

That's a great addition to our list! Thanks for sharing!

Diana wrote: "What a great winter-reading theme... super atmospheric! Piranesi and Plain Bad Heroines were a couple of my favorite books last year. This past fall, I read a pulpy thriller adjacent to dark academ..."

I think Plain Bad Heroines is my next read, I've been putting it off for too long!

Susan wrote: "Oh, Dark Academia! These days academics might say that is all day, every day. Just finished reading The Maidens. I have never been to Cambridge University, but my husband has, and I enjoyed the set..."

Susan, I also recently finished The Maidens--which, I found out, people HATE (many, many scathing reviews!)--but I enjoyed! I was so captivated that I even requested a copy of Alfred Lord Tennyson's Selected Poems so that I could read In Memoriam! (It arrived today, hooray!)

Anne C wrote: "Susan wrote: "Oh, Dark Academia! These days academics might say that is all day, every day. Just finished reading The Maidens. I have never been to Cambridge University, but my husband has, and I e..."

Anne- You are the Dark Academia queen...if you liked The Maidens then it must be good!