Happy September! Campus is buzzing, and so is the library. Welcome to all new Huskies, and congratulations to everyone who read a book by an author local to your campus in August. Here are some of the titles you read last month. (Reader comments may be edited for length or clarity.) Remember, to participate in the 2026 Reading Challenge, make sure to tell us what you read each month!
What You Read in August
Heart the Lover, Lily King
Find it at Snell Library | Read the e-book
Campus: Portland, Maine
“This was my first Lily King book and I loved it!! Heart the Lover was gripping from the start and left me devastated. The way King writes about love and heartache and the complicated in-between in such a way that avoids saccharine while staying true to the torturous joy of it all. I would say a perfect read for people with complicated feelings about other people.” — Zoë
Black Moses: A Saga of Ambition and the Fight for a Black State, Caleb Gayle
Read the e-book
Campus: Boston (literally — Caleb Gayle is an Associate Professor of Journalism and Africana Studies at Northeastern!)
“The narrative of this book is excellent. Caleb Gayle is a great storyteller.” — Rachel
Little Women: or, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy, Louisa May Alcott
Find it at Snell Library | Find it at F.W. Olin Library | Read the e-book
Campus: Boston
“A heartfelt and timeless story about family, growing up, and following your dreams. I loved how each sister had her own personality and struggles, making the story feel relatable and meaningful even today.” — Sandy
Yesteryear: A Novel, Caro Claire Burke
Find it at Snell Library | Read the e-book | Listen to the audiobook
Campus: Boston
“This book was INCREDIBLE. Natalie as a main character was equally complex and simplistic at the same time. The premise of two different storylines happening at once with flashbacks is always one that intrigues me, and this was exceptionally well written. I read this book while in Utah, which is the Mormon and tradwife epicenter, and it felt well-fitting to finish the book in the state where the book takes place.” — Gianna
What to Read in September
It’s back-to-school month, so we’re challenging you to read a book set on a college campus. For inspiration, check out the highlighted reads below, and browse the full list of suggested e-books and audiobooks.
Come & Get It: A Novel, Kiley Reid
Find it at Snell Library | Listen to the audiobook
It’s 2017 at the University of Arkansas, and Millie Cousins just wants to graduate, get a job, and buy a house. So when writer and visiting professor Agatha Paul offers Millie an easy yet unusual opportunity for them to help each other further their own interests, Millie naturally jumps at the chance. But Millie’s starry-eyed hustle quickly becomes jeopardized by a lonely transfer student, unruly residents, and illicit intrigue. Both Millie and Agatha are forced to question just how much of themselves they are willing to trade to get what they want.
Blood Over Bright Haven, M.L. Wang
Listen to the audiobook
For 20 years, Sciona has devoted every waking moment to the study of magic, fueled by a mad desire to be the first woman ever admitted to the High Magistry at the University of Magics and Industry. When Sciona finally passes the qualifying exam, she finds her challenges have just begun. Her new colleagues are determined to make her feel unwelcome — and, instead of a qualified lab assistant, they give her a janitor. What neither Sciona nor her peers realize is that her taciturn assistant sees the opportunity to understand the forces that decimated his tribe, drove him from his homeland, and keep the privileged in power. At first, mage and outsider have a fractious relationship. But working together, they uncover an ancient secret that could change the course of magic forever — if it doesn’t get them killed first.
Country People: A Novel, Daniel Mason
Listen to the audiobook
Miles Krzelewski is a bit lost, 12 years late with his PhD on Russian folktales and increasingly haunted by a sense that he’s become a disappointment to his family. So when his wife, Kate, accepts a visiting professorship at a prestigious college in Vermont, he decides that this will be the year to finally move forward with his life. But no sooner does Miles arrive than he finds himself entangled with a cast of characters as colorful as those of any of his folktales. The new friends, the enchanted woods, the histories: sure, no PhD, but all good fun. Until Miles stumbles upon a bizarre —perhaps ridiculous — local legend, which, he soon suspects, might not be just a legend at all.
Bunny: A Novel, Mona Awad
Find it at Snell Library | Read the e-book
Samantha Heather Mackey couldn’t be more of an outsider in her small, highly selective MFA program. A scholarship student, she is utterly repelled by the rest of her fiction writing cohort — a clique of unbearably twee rich girls who call each other “Bunny” and seem to move and speak as one. But everything changes when Samantha receives an invitation to the Bunnies’ fabled “Smut Session.” As Samantha plunges deeper and deeper into the Bunnies’ sinister yet saccharine world, beginning to take part in the ritualistic off-campus “Workshop” where they conjure monstrous creations, the edges of reality begin to blur.
Class: A Memoir of Motherhood, Hunger, and Higher Education, Stephanie Land
Listen to the audiobook
In Class, Stephanie Land takes us with her as she finishes college and pursues her writing career. Facing barriers at every turn, Land finds a way to survive, finally graduating in her mid-30s. Class paints an intimate and heartbreaking portrait of motherhood as it converges and often conflicts with personal desire and professional ambition. Who has the right to create art? Who has the right to go to college? And what kind of work is valued in our culture? In clear, candid, and moving prose, Class grapples with these questions, offering a searing indictment of America’s educational system and an inspiring testimony of a mother’s triumph against all odds.
Remember: whatever you read, make sure to tell us about it to enter the prize drawing!