Set in College

I recently read Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, which is a charming novel about finding and standing up for oneself. I loved it, and if you haven't discovered Ms. Rowell yet, get to it! Great characters, witty dialog and lots of jokes, and real dilemmas getting in the way of love.

So anyway, Fangirl... somewhere on the web (because I tend to obsess and stalk favorite authors and books) another reader noticed that it's one of the few novels set in college. Which is weird when you think of it -- such a period of personal change seems like it would be cluttered up with books.

I haven't done any kind of systematic search yet (like a subject heading search on "college--fiction" in a library catalog because that would just be too easy), but here are the titles I could remember reading and enjoying:

Tam Lin, by Pamela Dean, is a classic in the genre of fairy-tale retellings. Set in the '70s in a small mid-western liberal arts college, Janet explores love and friendship as she comes to understand what's really going on in the legendary drama department.

The Art of Fielding, by Chad Harbach, was published just a couple years ago. Henry Skrimshander is the unlikely hero -- lower class, with no college aspirations, Henry just wants to play baseball. When a player from a small college sees him in action and recruits him to join their team, his unrealistic hopes begin to seem entirely possible. This is a beautifully written story about ordinary people facing their demons and staying upright.

Everything You Want, by Barbara Shoup, is a charming YA novel about a young woman who is miserable in college -- her old friends have cut her off and she's seemingly unable to make new ones -- when her parents win the lottery. What if everything you want can't be bought?

And of course, Fangirl, in which a college freshman, more comfortable writing and interacting in the fandom of a Harry Potter-type world than our own, learns to write and live her own story.

What can you come up with? What college stories have resonated for you?