Novels for College Students
Aaah! So, you are in college now. From now on you will be referred to as a college student and not as a high school student. It's a totally different world out there. You meet new people, you make new friends, and if you are in a college far away from your home, then, you are in a new place altogether. College is the stepping stone for your future career. It's here where you decide what you want to do in life. College life is full of changes. Friends, lifestyle, likes dislikes, everything changes. Even your reading habits change. So much so, that there are a separate set of novels for college students only. These books increases your maturity level, which you require when you are in college. These novels broaden your mind and make you a better person. Discussion of these books with others, gives you an opportunity to make new friends.
Recommended Novels
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
This is one of my favorite books and I believe that all college students should read this novel at least once. The story is set in Afghanistan. This book is about friendship, faith, betrayal, sacrifice, brotherhood, love and joy. The main characters in this book are Amir and Hassan, the former, is a son of a rich man and belongs to the high society. He is also the main protagonist as well as the narrator of the novel, while the latter, is the son of a servant and belongs to a very low class, a class which everyone one in Afghanistan hated. But, this did not act as an hindrance in their friendship. Amir and Hassan were inseparable, or so they thought. Hassan was betrayed by Amir. Years later, Amir gets a chance to rectify his mistake, to return a favor to Hassan. Read the book and by the time you reach the end, you will be in tears. You will want to read it again and again.
A Widow for One Year - John Irving
The story of the novel is set in 1958. the main character is Ruth Cole, who at that time was just 4 years old. She came from a troubled family. Her two brothers were dead, her mother, Marion, was still in shock and her father, Ted, an artist, drew pictures of women, with whom he had an affair. He hires Eddie as his assistant. Eddie and Marion have an affair, and later in the series, disappear. The scene then shifts to 1990, where we are introduced to a 36 years old Ruth who is now a writer. The climax of the scene comes when she becomes a witness to a brutal murder of a prostitute. The murderer is arrested later. But no one comes to know who the sole witness was. In the third section of the book, Ruth is now a 41 year old woman and has a son. In this section, she falls in love for the first time in her life. The detective who had solved the case of the murder of the prostitute, finds out that Ruth was the witness to that murder. When they meet, Ruth and the detective fall in love and finally we have a happy ending with Marion, Eddie and Ruth and the detective, all coming together.
Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen
The story is mainly based on a series of memories being recalled by an old man, Jacob Jankowski, who is spending his life in a nursing home. The story begins with a 23 year old Jacob, who at that time was a veterinary student, and was preparing for his final exams when he hears about his parents' death in a car accident. That was the end of his education. Fate puts him in a circus train and his training as a vet gets him the job in the circus. The head of the circus, August, is a brutal man, whose wife, Marlena, falls in love with Jacob. Sick of being abused by August, she leaves her husband. Uncle Al, the owner of the circus, threatens Jacob, that if he didn't get August and Marlena together, then he would redlight (to throw out a person from the moving train) Jacob's two friends,Walter and Camel. Marlena and Jacob love each other. She becomes pregnant with his child. Jacob decides to kill August, but, before he could do that, his friends, Walter and Camel, have already been redlighted. You will love the end of the novel, where all those who had been redlighted by August and Uncle Al, come back and close down the circus. August dies and Uncle Al commits suicide. As for Jacob and Marlena, they live happily and have 5 children. He becomes a vet in a zoo, after working for 7 years in a circus. The end of the story is heart wrenching. Jacob was waiting for someone from his family to come and take him to the circus, but, no one does that. Finally, he goes to the circus on his own. When he reaches there, he realizes that he is finally home.
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
This story is about a teen-aged girl Susie, who was raped and killed in the year 1973, by a serial killer. She now watches over her family, and narrates her story to her readers from heaven above. While reading this book, you learn about Susie's father, Jack, who was determined to put his daughter's killer behind bars and who blames himself for not being able to protect his daughter. We meet Lindsey, her sister, who too tries to find out her sister's murderer, and we also see how she becomes engaged to a guy and later has a baby daughter. We meet Susie's mother, Abigail who has an affair after her daughter's death and who later leaves the family only to come back when Lindsey's fiance has a heart attack. The story is exciting and you cry along with the narrator and support her at every step.
Some Other Recommendeds
Given below is a list which you can read and which can help you change your life for better.
- Schindler's List - Thomas Keneally
- The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
- Ulysses - James Joyce
- The Lord of the Flies - William Golding
- A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingway
- For Whom the Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemingway
- The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand
- The War of the Worlds - H.G.Wells
- The Rules of Attraction - Brett Easton Ellis
- Portrait of a Lady - Henry James
- Go tell it on the Mountain - James Baldwin
- All the King's Men - Robert Penn Warren
- The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
- The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton
- The Awakening - Kate Chopin
- A Good Man Is Hard to Find - Flannery O'Conner
- Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
- Lady Chatterley's Lover - D. H. Lawrence
- Twilight - Stephenie Meyer
- My Antonia - Willa Cather
- Absalom, Absalom! - E. M. Foster
