Meg Wolitzer

Susan Choi's new novel, My Education, is a study of relationships and how they end. Reviewer Meg Wolitzer says the book is a triumph for academic novels, portraying youth, love and naivete with exceptional style.

The novel is about two sisters, aged 12 and 15, who travel cross-country after their mother abandons them. Reviewer Meg Wolitzer says that not only the characters are adrift in this book, the story itself seems unsure of what it wants to be.

Anthony Marra's debut novel, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, takes place in war-torn Chechnya — a world of perpetual violence, fear and exploding land mines. But reviewer Meg Wolitzer says the characters are so vivid and the language so brilliant you want to stay there.

In real life, people have to make choices. But the fictional Ursula Todd gets to live out several realities, all set in 20th century Europe. Reviewer Meg Wolitzer says Kate Atkinson's playfully experimental novel ends up capturing what life is really like.

Karen Russell's new collection of short stories has dead presidents reincarnated as horses, girls turning into silkworms, and vampires who quench their thirst for blood with lemons. Reviewer Meg Wolitzer says that in Russell's world we aren't fixed in space and time but can change at any moment.

Susanna Sonnenberg's life has been full of interesting women, and in a new memoir she tells their stories. Reviewer Meg Wolitzer says that She Matters: A Life in Friendships is a beautifully written book about the bonds, and the boundary issues, between women.

A few years ago, you might not have thought that something as basic as the food we eat would become trendy. But that's what's happened. Now a new novel takes on the subject of appetite and excess. Author Meg Wolitzer says The Middlesteins, by Jami Attenberg, is worth picking up.

For author Meg Wolitzer, John Neufeld's 1969 novel Lisa, Bright and Dark opened the door to more intense reads on mental illness. Has a book you've read ever acted as a gateway to harsher, truer or more literary novels? Tell us in the comments.

Long after the final bell has rung, the echoes of high school hold a fascination for us, even into adulthood. Author Meg Wolitzer recommends a guilty pleasure read that reminds her of the pain of being a teenager. Do you have a favorite book you read as a teen? Let us know in the comments.