100 Books Like The Lecherous Professor

What struck me most is that Russell flips the usual script: instead of everyone telling the victim "this didn't happen to you," everyone is telling Vanessa "this did happen to you."

But she can't admit it. Not even by the end. She clings to the belief that she had power in the relationship with her instructor to avoid the horror of how powerless she actually was. Even though it derailed her life and career.

I couldn't grasp what happened to me either. And in a lot of ways, no matter how much data I've gathered or what literature I've studied, I still don't. It's just that traumatic.

Phoenix does something unique: alongside her lived story, she builds an irrefutable case for why "consensual" relationships between professors and students are inherently unethical.

Her examination of how adults over 18 remain neurologically underdeveloped, her analysis of obedience to authority dynamics, and her discussion of professors as "helping professionals" evading sexual boundary ethics struck at the heart of the problem.

Additionally, the university, in her case, did hold the accused accountable and created new policies that were modeled by other universities. That's what inspired me to file my own Title IX complaint, which led to the resignation of the accused.

Freitas wrote one of the first memoirs documenting gender-based violence in higher education. One of only three I've found.

Reading how she tried to avoid the problem for so long to protect her career resonated deeply with me. The stalking and triangulation she described felt all too familiar.

I went through my own version of this, and the subsequent university failures and career derailment she recounts. All of this hinges on the troubling power dynamics embedded in academia's gatekeeping and letter-of-recommendation system, where a predator's endorsement can make or break a career.

Sara Ahmed publicly resigned from her professorship at Goldsmiths in 2016 as a direct protest against the institution's failure to address sexual harassment.

This book was an outgrowth of all the letters she received from other victims, sharing how their universities also failed them during their complaints. Ahmed exposes the commonalities among the letters, unveiling how universities weaponize "shadow policies" to bury complaints and complainants' careers.

This book became my bible when I filed my first formal complaint and began experiencing the same systemic cover-up and retaliation she documents. Seeing every university trick in her book play out in real time in my case, at the very least, empowered me with a sense of solidarity.

And then there was Campusland… Fast, funny, and brutal in its satirical account of today’s campuses, with their “safe spaces” and identity politics and administrators and students alike running amok, this is a book with an agenda (be forewarned) but which executes that agenda extremely well. Johnston really nails certain character types present on many liberal arts colleges and elite campuses, as well as the dynamics as those characters execute their own agendas. If you share the author’s agenda you will lap it up; if not, you will be enraged; but either way you will be entertained. And if you haven’t been paying attention to the campus scene for a while—prepare to be shocked.  

Ezekiel Farragut is a former university professor and current inmate at Falconer prison.

A drug addict and a murderer for killing his own brother during an argument, while incarcerated Farragut must wean himself from his addiction with methadone, and suffer visits from his profoundly disappointed wife. He is also involved romantically with a fellow prisoner—the captivating Jody, who all the guys want to screw.

When Jody successfully escapes, Farragut is left to contemplate how his own failures got him to this lonely place, and how to be a better man if he is ever able to leave it. This is where the grim, dreamlike beauty of Cheever’s best-known signature works shines through.

If you like this, also check out Blake Bailey’s biography of Cheever. The parallels between fact and fiction are fascinating.

We move up a generation to the next “classic,” an equally entertaining satire that now sets the American university against the British. Two professors exchange roles for an academic year, swapping not only courses but eventually also students, colleagues, and (spoiler alert!) spouses. You get to look at each place through the eyes of the other—starting with the sunny American campus (based on Berkeley) against the damp British one—which is as jarring as it is revealing. Lodge beautifully melds the academic, the intellectual, and the personal, so the story grips you personally even as it stimulates and entertains. I read this as a graduate student and somehow stayed in the business anyway!

This is classic, quintessential British humor, the kind of dry wit that makes you laugh out loud as you’re reading. I didn’t want it to end because of how hilarious I found the main character. Even while being funny, the book does a great job establishing the imposter syndrome the main character feels as a member of the middle class attempting to enter the elite halls of academia as an older graduate student.

He is a fish out of water, incapable of having normal social interactions with his peers, “betters,” or students. Possibly, the best-ever hangover scene in writing occurs in this book. 

Based on a simple question: “Can a man escape from a high-security prison cell using only his mind?” The Problem of Cell 13 is everyone’s favorite. The story offers a convincing answer and a mind-bending ending you just don’t see coming.

This collection of short stories demonstrates how someone can solve even the most impossible mysteries if one harnesses the formidable power of one’s mind. As I walk mentally side-by-side with Futrelle’s protagonist, Professor Augustus S.F.X. Van Dusen, I find myself consistently unable to solve each puzzle first.

Unfortunately, Futrelle died young on the Titanic, taking several new stories down with him. At least we can still enjoy what he left behind, one of the greatest collections of mysteries you’ll find anywhere.

Helen McInnes books made their way into my family via those Readers Digest Condensed books that used to come in the mail. They were hard bound and heavy to hold, but it was fun to open them and explore new books. The only one I remember, though, is one by Helen McInnes. I had to go find the complete book because when they condense? You miss a lot. I recommend starting with her first book, Above Suspicion. I loved her characters right off. This isn’t one of those stories that starts with a big bang. The tension rises very slowly and you don’t realize you are being wound up like a spring until it’s too late to put it down. And cool factoid, the author was in the OAS in World War II. She knew her stuff.