Overview: The New York Times bestselling novel about a young man practicing magic in the real world. Like everyone else, precocious high school senior Quentin Coldwater assumes that magic isn't real, until he finds himself admitted to a very secretive and exclusive college of magic in upstate New York. There he indulges in joys of college-friendship, love, sex, and booze- and receives a rigorous education in modern sorcery. But magic doesn't bring the happiness and adventure Quentin thought it would. After graduation, he and his friends stumble upon a secret that sets them on a remarkable journey that may just fulfill Quentin's yearning. But their journey turns out to be darker and more dangerous than they'd imagined.

"Quentin Coldwater has been cast out of Fillory, the secret magical land of his childhood dreams. With nothing left to lose he returns to where his story began, the Brakebills Preparatory College of Magic. But he can't hide from his past, and it's not long before it comes looking for him. Along with Plum, a brilliant young undergraduate with a dark secret of her own, Quentin sets out on a crooked path through a magical demimonde of gray magic and desperate characters. But all roads lead back to Fillory, and his new life takes him to old haunts, like Antarctica, and to buried secrets and old friends he thought were lost forever. He uncovers the key to a sorcery masterwork, a spell that could create magical utopia, a new Fillory--but casting it will set in motion a chain of events that will bring Earth and Fillory crashing together. To save them he will have to risk sacrificing everything"--

The writers of the tremendously popular Web site CollegeHumor.com have prepared a hilarious, entertaining guide that dares young readers to make college the best and funniest four (or more) years of their lives. CollegeHumor.com is the National Lampoon of its generation. Since its creation in early 2000, the Web site has grown to become the nationÂ's most recognized comedy brand for young people. With eight million unique visitors a month, quarterly revenues surpassing $1.2 million, and a successful line of merchandise (from T-shirts to novelties)—not to mention a deal with Paramount to create and brand movies with CollegeHumorÂ's imprimatur—CollegeHumor is truly a franchise in the making. The CollegeHumor Guide to College is a laugh-out-loud depiction of the college experience. Written primarily by two of CollegeHumorÂ's most popular columnists, Ethan Trex and Streeter Seidell, this guide features all-new material not found on the Web site. It also includes helpful advice—the kind you probably wonÂ't hear from a college counselor—on an array of subjects, such as food, clothing, parents, dating, sex, drinking, and roommates. Filled with outrageous illustrations, this edgy and irreverent book will be indispensable to all present and future undergraduates.

"For fans of Donna Tartt's The Secret History, a propulsive literary novel about sexual obsession in which a meek Harvard freshman becomes dangerously infatuated with a classmate. David Federman has never felt appreciated. One of the most painfully forgettable members of his New Jersey high school class--yet the only one accepted to Harvard--shy, witty David arrives in Cambridge fully expecting to embrace, and be welcomed by, a new tribe of like-minded peers. But at first, beyond the friendly advances of a plain-looking girl named Sara, his social status seems devastatingly unlikely to change. Then he meets Veronica Morgan Wells. Instantly infatuated, struck by both her beauty and her brains, David falls feverishly in love with the woman he sees as a charismatic goddess. Determined to stop at nothing to win her attention and a coveted invite into her glamorous Upper East Side world, David begins compromising his own moral standards, tossing everything aside for this one, great chance at happiness. But neither Veronica nor David, it turns out, are exactly as they seem... A darkly comic and riveting portrayal of psychosexual obsession from one of the most acclaimed writers of his generation, Loner also turns the traditional campus novel on its head as it explores contemporary gender politics and class--and discovers just what we're capable of when our greatest enemies turn out to be ourselves"--

Hidden away in an Oxford back street is a crumbling Georgian mansion, unknown to any but the few who possess a key to its unassuming front gate. Its owner is the mercurial, charismatic Mark Winters, whose rackety trust-fund upbringing has left him as troubled and unpredictable as he is wildly promiscuous. Mark gathers around him an impressionable group of students- glamorous Emmanuella, who always has a new boyfriend in tow; Franny and Simon, best friends and occasional lovers; musician Jess, whose calm exterior hides passionate depths. And James, already damaged by Oxford and looking for a group to belong to. For a time the group lives in a charmed world of learning and parties and love affairs. But university is no grounding for adult life, and when, years later, tragedy strikes they are entirely unprepared. Universal in its themes of ambition, desire and betrayal, this spellbinding novel reflects the truth that the lessons life teaches often come too late. 'The naïve sense of indestructibility possessed by a close-knit group of students is expertly balanced with the suspense of what threatens to unfold.' Sophie Morris Saturday Independent 'Naomi Alderman's second novel examines the warping effects of wealth.' Joanna Briscoe, Observer 'Alderman's premise is familiar - trust-funder going to the bad - but this is, nonetheless, a dark spell of a book, with brooding disenchantment at its heart.' Eithne Farry. Daily Mail 'As the novel progresses, we are forced to look at how people are driven by impulses they're not even aware of, and the most brutal lesson of all- that love doesn't come without pain or sacrifice.' Alastair Mabbott, The Herald 'The Lessons is sturdily plotted and hooks you in- it's a good read if not unique.' Alice Fisher, Observer 'Alderman packs a punch with her opening line', Lianne Kolirin , Daily Express 'The Lessons has more insight into human nature than Martin Amis's The Pregnant Widow , and is more intellectually sustained. This is a second novel from a young writer of huge talent, ambition and energy.' Amanda Craig, Independent 'No one writes about pain better than Alderman. Lose yourself in 278 pages and you enter another world.' Liz Hoggard, Evening Standard 'Naomi Alderman is, evidently, not afraid of ghosts. She courts them and flirts with them and defies them in her darkly seductive second novel, The Lessons .' Damian Barr, Independent on Sunday 'Beautifully written . . . satisfyingly complex exploration of the characters and their relationships.' Samira Shackle , New Statesman 'This is a remarkable novel, which portrays with uncomfortable accuracy the feted world of the Oxford undergraduate. It reminds me a great deal of Donna Tartt's The Secret History in that it has the same brooding sense of menace and the same lightening characterisation. Naomi is a supremely talented writer.' Joanne Harris, 'Witty, dark and compelling.' Charlotte Mendelson 'Wise, compassionate and heart-rending, a novel that conveys all the cruelty and pain of gilded youth.' Liz Jensen author of Chocolat Praise for Disobedience - 'Rich, fresh, fascinating. A wonderful novel' Sunday Times 'Sharp, funny and poignant' Hilary Mantel

The debut novel from New York Times bestselling author Meg Wolitzer, a story of three college students' shared fascination with poetry and death, and how one of them must face difficult truths in order to leave her obsession behind. Published when she was only twenty-three and written while she was a student at Brown, Sleepwalking marks the beginning of Meg Wolitzer's acclaimed career. Filled with her usual wisdom, compassion and insight, Sleepwalking tells the story of the three notorious "death girls," so called on the Swarthmore campus because they dress in black and are each absorbed in the work and suicide of a different poet: Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, and Wolitzer's creation Lucy Asher, a gifted writer who drowned herself at twenty-four. At night the death girls gather in a candlelit room to read their heroines' work aloud. But an affair with Julian, an upperclassman, pushes sensitive , struggling Claire Danziger -- she of the Lucy Asher obsession -- to consider to what degree her "death girl" identity is really who she is. As she grapples with her feelings for Julian, her own understanding of herself and her past begins to shift uncomfortably and even disturbingly. Finally, Claire takes drastic measures to confront the facts about herself that she has been avoiding for years.

"The archetypal student-teacher romance is cleverly turned on its head for the post-#MeToo era in this striking new play by the acclaimed author of What a Young Wife Ought to Know and Bunny. Jon, a star professor and author, is racked with self-loathing after his third marriage crumbles around him when he finds himself admiring a student--a girl in a red coat. The girl, nineteen-year-old Annie, is a big fan of his work, and also happens to live down the street. From their doorways to his office to hotel rooms, their mutual admiration and sexual tension escalates under Jon's control to a surprising conclusion that will leave you wanting to go back and question your perceptions of power as soon as you finish."--

The internationally renowned novelist and poet creates a very contemporary version of the story of Romeo and Juliet set in the twin realms of college and national politics. In the prominent political family of the Dickensons, ambition comes first, and Melissa, the third child, has always felt she came last. Going away to college offers a chance at love and a life free from her brilliant mother's constant scrutiny. Blake, a child of mixed race and apparently unknown parentage, has been raised by lawyers whose defence of death row cases has brought them into fierce dispute with Melissa's father, now a senator, then governor of Pennsylvania. When Melissa meets Blake at College, their passion is immediate. Yet Blake is keeping a dangerous secret from Melissa, one that could destroy both them and their families. Dealing with themes of love, honesty, identity and the consequences of ambition, this thoughtful beautifully written story is a page turner with an edge.

Try to imagine not even knowing how to fall, because a hand was always there to catch you. How does someone, excluded from the only community he or she has ever known, go on living? Harvard student Jeremy Stull lives with a devout Amish family to observe their faith and their shunning of those who breach it. He befriends Beulah--a banished Amish woman--but comes no closer to undrstanding her predicament than he is to fathoming his own bitter exile. For Jeremy, community means Ironwood, a summer camp in the Vermont woods. First as a camper, then as assistant director, Jeremy has found in Ironwood's rituals a sturdy foundation for his life. But when he is blindsided by the seductive charm of Max, a fourteen-year-old boy from Manhattan, all arms and legs and attitude, Jeremy must confront both his own confusing desires and a legacy of disturbing secrets at Ironwood.--From publisher description.