Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is a School Freebie — and lacking the brain power at the moment to come up with a coherent theme, I thought I’d go for a more random post.
All of these books, one way or another, remind me of school or learning — so I’ll just go ahead and share my list and then explain why I chose these books.
1) Educated by Tara Westover: There’s the title, for starters, plus what’s more iconic when thinking about school than a big old pencil?
2) The Most Likely Club by Elyssa Friedland: I just finished this book, and it absolutely took me back to the days of high school yearbooks, extracurriculars, and cafeteria table groupings.
3) A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik: I did say this was going to be rather random. This is an example of a school that I would never, ever want to attend. It’s terrifying and potentially lethal.
4) The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune: As opposed to this one, which is more of a home for magical children than a formal school, but education happens, so it counts! And it’s so lovable that I’m always happy to include it in a TTT post!
5) The Finishing School series by Gail Carriger: Now here’s another school I’d be happy to visit! I mean, it’s set on a dirigible! ‘Nuff said.
6) The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder: I will always be scared by the scenes of the children trying to get home from the schoolhouse in a blizzard. Brrrrrrr.
7) The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare: This book doesn’t have much to do with a school, although the main character does teach others to read. I associate it with my own school days, since I think it was pretty much required reading for every schoolkid in Connecticut, at least back when I lived there.
8) The Lottery by Shirley Jackson: Does this still get taught in high school? I read this for an English class, and this was long enough ago that “dystopian” wasn’t an entire genre yet. It felt so startling at the time!
9) The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan : And now, a weird detour into my more recent reading! This is all about a remedial school for parents deemed negligent in some way, and it’s very disturbing.
10) True Biz by Sara Novic: Wrapping things up with one more school-based book — this one takes place at a boarding school for the Deaf, and it’s amazing.
So… was your school freebie more organized than mine? What theme did you go with? Please share your TTT links!
Bookshelf Fantasies 
I wouldn’t want to go to the school in A Deadly Education, either. Idk how anyone there gets anything done with all the dangers at that place!!
Right?? I haven’t read beyond the 1st book in the series, because I found the set-up so bizarrely dangerous that I just couldn’t get into the characters at all, if that makes any sense.
That scene in The Long Winter scared me, too!
My post: https://lydiaschoch.com/top-ten-tuesday-microhistory-books-worth-reading
It’s amazing how certain scenes from books can make such a lasting impression, even after decades have gone by!
Strong list – I have a few of the same ones on my list….randomness is good and that makes it interesting. A Deadly Education is definitely not my kind of school either but would love to go to the Cerulean Sea. True biz and School for Good Mothers sound intriguing. But, sheesh, there are so many new-to-me books this week; my TBR is popping its seams!
Terrie @ Bookshelf Journeys
https://www.bookshelfjourneys.com/post/ttt-set-in-school
Thanks for sharing your list! I have the same experience — every time I visit a new TTT list, my TBR list just grows and grows…
Love your list! Witch of Blackbird Pond and The Long Winter are two favorites of mine. š
That’s so great to hear! I don’t know many people who’ve read The Witch of Blackbird Pond. I recently reread, and loved it all over again.
The Long Winter–have you read either of the fictional or nonfictional books The Children’s Blizzard? Here’s a link to my post if you want–they tell the story of THAT winter https://hopewellslibraryoflife.wordpress.com/2022/01/27/good-wintery-books-for-seasonal-reading/
I remember reading about those books on your blog! I do have a copy of the fictional The Children’s Blizzard, and I do want to read it. (the non-fiction sounds amazing too)
I’ve not read any of these, but True Biz is on my TBR.
My TTT: https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2022/08/30/top-ten-tuesday-383/
I hope you read True Biz! It was one of my favorites of 2022 (so far).
I definitely will at some point, not sure when!
This is such a diverse list, I love it! And yes, I remember how upsetting it was to read The Lottery for the first timeš¬
It blew me away! What a shock, not knowing what to expect and then THAT’s how it ends!
Educated definitely reminds me of learning as well. It’s amazing how far Westover has gone from having hardly any education at all in her younger years. Very inspiring story.
It’s almost beyond belief! Such a powerful book.
Oooh I’ve only read a couple of Gail Carriger’s books, and I haven’t seen the Finishing School series. I’m going to have to add that to my list, thank you!
It’s such a fun series! It’s a prequel series (in relation to the Parasol Protectorate world) — same general society, but set about 20 years earlier, if I remember correctly.