By Zoe Shapiro
Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld
Back-to-school time, girlies! Does the September atmosphere have you in the mood to sympathize with a scholarly journey, or gleefully remind you that your own high school years are behind you? Check out Prep, the wonderful debut novel of Curtis Sittenfeld, who recently won rave reviews for her newer book American Wife.

Prep is the story of Lee Fiora, an angsty teen whose scholarship win plucks her from Indiana and drops her into the prestigious Ault School. The story follows Lee through her four tumultuous high school years filled with the usual anxiety that has been compounded by her clear ‘not-belonging-ness’ at Ault, with its elite atmosphere and reputation as an East Coast, old money institution. The artful writing allows us to readily view Lee’s perspective; her experiences are/were our own. You’ll also encounter some fab character portraits of the people that peppered all of our teen years; the too-earnest young teacher, the athlete whose head we only briefly turned, the closeted teen.

Room: A Novel by Emma Donoghue
This is the novel I’m most eagerly anticipating reading this month. It’s being buzzed about in literary circles as one of the best books of the year and was long-listed for the most prestigious book award, the Man-Booker.

Here’s the Amazon synopsis that hooked me: “To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it’s where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits… Told entirely in the language of the energetic, pragmatic five-year-old Jack, ROOM is a celebration of resilience and the limitless bond between parent and child, a brilliantly executed novel about what it means to journey from one world to another.”
There’s even a trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8rj2otXNfM
It sounds eerie and interesting with a unique character narrating. Famous authors and critics are already falling over themselves adoring it. Can’t wait!

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
Have you been pretending for years that you have in fact read the whole Dickens library and know Virginia Woolf’s catalogue like the back of your hand? (you’re out there – admit it!). If you’re in the mood to go back and read some of the (quote-unquote) Classics that you never got around to when you were actually supposed to, give Tenant of Wildfell Hall a try. (Who else wishes tuition came with a ‘money-back for lectures-skipped’ policy?)

Wildfell Hall is written by the least famous Bronte sister (her siblings penned Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights) but don’t let that stop you. This is a surprisingly easy and absorbing read for a novel masquerading as VeryImportantVictorianLiterature. It’s also not as old fashioned as you might think. It boils down to a story about an unwed mother, Helen, whose reputation gets put through the ringer by a mean-girl, Eliza, which disastrously affects her opportunities for romance with Gilbert. This is a book about yearning, about romance and wanting. It’s the man you know isn’t right for you but is impossible to leave and a good guy you want to be with but can’t, who is trying to put all the puzzle pieces together.

Put on your best faux-lace or old fashioned ensemble and get romantic with a Classic.

One Day by David Nicholls
This recent release is by far the best thing I’ve read all year. While so many books that are based on a quirky premise fall apart trying to live up to it, Nicholls has taken his idea and run with it, with fantabulous results.

One Day follows best mates Emma and Dexter, Em and Dex. Each chapter is the same calendar date in their lives told over twenty years. Fraught with sexual tension, tense loyalties and the lively banter that old friendships have, the story follows these vivid characters through graduating university, the fright of being twentysomething with no plans, success, relationships and everything in between. The easy storytelling makes their lives exciting and their relationship is always honest and totally believable. It’s a one-sitting book that had me surprisingly emotionally invested when the ending arrived. One Day is fantastically Britishy; it hearkens after Hornby’s About a Boy and other fab Brit-fic.

I cannot say enough good things about this book. This one is definitely a MUST read, especially before Anne Hathaway charms us in next year’s film version.