With schools finally out, the oft-dreaded summer reading list is in. For those who no longer have to worry about such things, here are three volumes about the pleasures -- and occasional pains -- of reading and writing.

"Orpheus in the Bronx"

by Reginald Shepherd

University of Michigan Press, $18.95

In this collection of essays, poet Reginald Shepherd, whose works include "Fata Morgana" and "Otherhood," explores "identity, politics and the freedom of poetry." The essays include autobiography, short poetry reviews and longer, critical pieces.

Readers who are not familiar with poetic theory and terminology may get bogged down in a few of the latter, but most of the pieces in "Orpheus in the Bronx" are highly accessible, as well as highly engaging, making the collection well worth reading for any audience. For instance, Shepherd's opening essay, "To Make Me Who I Am," is a searing recollection of growing up black, gay and poor and developing his poetic consciousness while trying to make a living and find a place in the world. And Shepherd's essays on Alvin Feinman, Linda Gregg, D.A. Powell and other poets should have readers adding a few more books to their nightstands.

"The Writing Class"

by Jincy Willett

Thomas Dunne Books, $24.95

Amy Gallup was 22 when her first novel was published. Now widowed, solitary, slightly phobic and suffering from writer's block, Amy is reduced to teaching an adult education course in creative writing at a local college. This quarter, she has a not atypically eccentric class. Her students include Charlton Heston -- yes, that's his real name -- the class clown; Dr. Richard Surtees, the pompous author of an unpublished and laughably bad medical thriller; Tiffany Zuniga, a vocal feminist, and Carla Karolak, a fixture in Amy's classes who has virtually memorized Amy's lectures. But there are atypically sinister doings afoot this quarter. Someone is playing cruel pranks on Amy and the other students.

The mischief begins with disturbing telephone calls, obscene drawings and cruel parodies of students' work. And then the killings begin. Each member of the class seems to have something to hide, and it is up to Amy to sort out the murderous from the benignly maladjusted.

Jincy Willett, author of "Winner of the National Book Award," pulls off no small feat in her latest novel, delivering a story that is both relentlessly suspenseful and laugh-out-loud funny.

"The Solitary Vice"

by Mikita Brottman

Counterpoint, $14.95

"Against Reading" is the subtitle of this latest work by Mikita Brottman, a professor at the Maryland Institute College of Art and the author of "Car Crash Culture." Brottman makes it clear early on, however, that she does not really intend to dissuade people from reading. Instead, she offers a probing yet immensely entertaining treatise on what literature does for us and to us. This includes a recounting of her childhood in Yorkshire, England, when she became obsessed with the darker side of what literature had to offer, even taking to roaming a nearby cemetery at night in a homemade cape.

In a later chapter, which is delightful and infuriating in equal measures, Brottman argues that people should read only things that please them, debunking the classics and even suggesting that the reader put down "The Solitary Vice" if it is boring him or her. She also defends some much-maligned "popular" genres, arguing that they shed much light on the human condition.

Brottman's style is impassioned and exuberant, making "The Solitary Vice" a real page-turner in itself.

Rebecca Oppenheimer, a recent Towson University graduate and National Book Critics' Circle member, continues to dive into the latest books from her home in Stevenson.

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