For many of us, autumn brings back vivid sense memories: the smell of freshly sharpened pencils, the feel of a new backpack’s sticky zipper, the sound of an alarm clock ringing in the dark for the first time in months. But the best thing about back-to-school? New books. That stack of unbroken spines, pages clean of overenthusiastic underlining and highlights…Of course, now that we’re all fully educated (yeah, right), we’re free to audit those interesting-sounding classes, the ones that never fit our schedule. And while reading may be fundamental, listening counts – especially with these too-cool-for-school works.
Biochemistry
A science class for those who couldn’t make it through Physics for Poets, covering material from uppers to downers and every illicit substance in between.
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The Vietnam War is almost over, and things have gone way beyond heavy. Stone is one of the great chroniclers of the post '60s expulsion from hippie Eden, and antihero John Converse is one of his darkest characters. Expect to learn about pharmaceuticals, jungle warfare, and heat exhaustion. Don't look for a happy ending; we lost the war.
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A generation younger than Robert Stone, Spiotta's take on the post-revolutionary counter culture is more nuanced and less immersive. Growing up in L.A. at the tail end of the Baby Boom, siblings Nik and Denise are Beatlemaniacs-turned-proto-punk rockers – then they get kind of old. If Dog Soldiers introduces us to grizzled survivors, Stone Arabia is about the hopelessness of unfulfilled promise.
Herstory
Oh, for the heady days of the early ’90s! Women’s Studies felt so relevant, what with politicians threatening our bodies and choices and those creepy heroin-chic magazine ads. Wait a minute…
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In her novels, Homes has dealt with hot-button subjects from child sexual abuse (The End of Alice) to school shootings (Music for Torching) Рclich̩-free. Her memoir, The Mistress's Daughter, goes to the root of these obsessions. Adopted as a newborn, Homes never knew the story of her birth parents. Then, in her mid 40s, they contacted her, drawing her into their failed and tragic relationship. Homes' prose is clear as an... unpocked mirror and complex as that mirror's true reflection.
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Bad Behavior, Gaitskill's debut collection, was shocking. Ostensibly dealing with sexual kinks, the book's true revelations were about the relationships between female friends. In Veronica, Gaitskill revisits this ground, examining the lives of two former “beautiful people.” We all know that even perfect faces eventually grow haggard and lined, and even the purest souls won't resist temptation. The question is, what happens after the inevitable?
Health Class
Get out your pedometers, we’re going on a run…to the most delectable Buffalo wings in town.
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Admit it: If Michaels can scare 500-pound Biggest Losers into sit-ups and turkey burgers, she's probably worth a listen. Even if you don't agree, she's coming for you anyway. Be ready.
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New Yorker raconteur and consummate gourmand Trillin is here to tell you everything you've always wanted to know about Chinese food. Don't listen to this when you're already hungry, or – heaven forbid – as you're walking around the grocery store; you won't make it out alive. Especially if you bump into Jillian Michaels while you're there.
Speech Class
Round your vowels and speak from your diaphragm. Otherwise, we won’t win the varsity championship this year!
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What can't British actors make sound cool? Seriously, could Dench and Williams please read aloud the results of that Google search I just did on the best place to get hot dogs in Cleveland? (I'm still thinking of Calvin Trillin). Fortunately, the great Shakespearean actors have chosen better stuff: Shakespeare, Dylan Thomas and Sylvia Plath, along with explanations of their own histories with the works.
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Warm, folksy, and so much smarter than you think it'll be, Lake Wobegon Days fits neatly into the American humor tradition of James Thurber and Mark Twain. If you're planning any kind of career in broadcasting, you couldn't do better than to listen to Keillor's deceptively down-home enunciation.
Current Events
In this age of up-to-the-millisecond news cycles and blogging bloviators, sometimes it’s good to take the long view.
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Remnick has been editor-in-chief of the New Yorker since 1998 – arguably the most tumultuous and terrifying time in American history. In his biography of Barack Obama, Remnick displays both a journalist's instinct for story and an editor's eye for detail. Yes, it's long (at just over 24 hours, it's perfect for a cross-country road trip), but it's the truth.
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Hunter S. Thompson: inventor of gonzo journalism, the greatest of Tricky Dick Nixon's print antagonists, consumer of grapefruits by the crate and acid by the sheet. Hey Rube is one of his last collections, a meanderingly vicious set of short pieces about Thompson's two favorite Great American pastimes: sports and politics (only the Good Doctor himself could get away with writing about 9/11 for espn.com). As he once said, “When the going... gets weird, the weird turn pro.”
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Classics
Sometimes, when you’ve had enough of postmodern theory and the dialectic of whatever, you just want to delve into an old-fashioned good book.
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A deliciously weird novel. The characters: a group of college classics scholars. The story: after an ancient Greece-inspired bacchanal, these fresh-faced undergrads murder one of their own. The twist: the whole damn thing. Tartt is aptly named – her narrative voice is at once crisp, biting and complex. In examining the roots of cruelty, she makes us all feel as if we, too, could be guilty.
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Just listen. More than just sex, drugs and rock & roll, Life is a musician's story. Learn just how much practice it takes to play the opening riff of “Start Me Up” and how little it took to write “Satisfaction.” The moral of the story: put in the hours, then go to sleep with your guitar under your pillow. And whatever you do, don't mess with Keef's shepherd's pie.
