*Starred Review* Sexually harassed at a frat party her freshman year, wallflower Greer Kadetsky is motivated to speak up about the outrage when feminist icon Faith Frank gives a lecture at her college. She catches Faith's attention in the Q&A, then further captures her interest during a chance encounter afterward. Faith recognizes something in this quietly assertive young woman, something she rewards when Greer approaches her for a job upon graduation. Sadly, Faith's groundbreaking feminist magazine is folding, but Faith and Greer rebound, thanks to a generous offer from a former lover who establishes a philanthropic foundation dedicated to women's causes. Wanting what she's having, Greer's best friend, Zee, pushes her to pass her résumé on to Faith, but Greer's protective of her success and never tells Faith about Zee's interest. The betrayal damages their friendship, just as Greer's burgeoning career drives a wedge between her and her longtime boyfriend when tragedy strikes his family. Sweeping yet intimate, Wolitzer's timely saga places her characters at the heart of a new wave of feminism, one clinging to the old paradigms of protest while encompassing current politics of personal responsibility. In a complex web of friends, lovers, mentors, and rivals, Wolitzer compassionately and artfully discerns the subtle strengths at the core of these essential connections.--Haggas, Carol Copyright 2018 Booklist

THE FEMALE PERSUASION, by Meg Wolitzer. (Riverhead, $28.) Of all the political threads that permeate Wolitzer's 12th novel, the most interesting is the challenge of intergenerational feminism. But Wolitzer is an infinitely capable creator of human identities as real as the type on this page; people are her politics. AETHERIAL WORLDS: Stories, by Tatyana Tolstaya. Translated by Anya Migdal. (Knopf, $25.95.) Tolstaya's remarkable short stories are all about people haunted by their flashing glimpses of shadow worlds - moments when the dull plastic coating of reality peels back to reveal something vastly more precious underneath. RUSSIAN ROULETTE: The Inside Story of Putin's War on America and the Election of Donald Trump, by Michael Isikoff and David Corn. (Twelve, $30.) Two veterans of Washington political journalism provide a thorough and riveting account of the 2016 election that casts an unfavorable light on both the Democratic and Republican campaigns. This is a book without heroes. GUN LOVE, by Jennifer Clement. (Hogarth, $25.) Clement's novel, her second about the gun trade, unfolds at a Florida trailer park where firearms and people intimately coexist. The imagery is dreamlike, as if to suggest the self-delusion of the novel's real-life counterparts. EDUCATED, by Tara Westover. (Random House, $28.) This harrowing memoir recounts the author's upbringing in a survivalist Idaho family cursed by ideological mania and outlandish physical trauma, as well as her ultimately successful quest to obtain the education denied her as a child. TANGERINE, by Christine Mangan. (Ecco/HarperCollins, $26.99.) In this sinister, sun-drenched thriller, set in the 1950s and rife with echoes of Patricia Highsmith, two college friends - involved in something dark and traumatic during their time at Bennington - get caught up in an even more lurid story when they meet, a year or two later, in Tangiers. NO TURNING BACK: Life, Loss, and Hope in Wartime Syria, by Rania Abouzeid. (Norton, $26.95.) This narrative of the Syrian war from 2011 through 2016 offers page after page of extraordinary reporting and exquisite prose, rendering its individual subjects with tremendous intimacy. HELLO LIGHTHOUSE, by Sophie Blackall. (Little, Brown, $18.99; ages 4 to 8.) Blackall's illustrated journey through the history of one lighthouse captures themes of steadfastness and change, distance and attachment, and the beauty and tumult of nature. THEY SAY BLUE, by Jillian Tamaki. (Abrams, $17.99; ages 4 to 8.) This gorgeous debut picture book from a cartoonist and graphic novelist gets inside the mind of a thoughtful girl who contemplates colors, seasons and time as she questions her world. The full reviews of these and other recent books are on the web: nytimes.com/books

Bright and ambitious, Greer Kadetsky, the child of former hippies, attends her fallback school while her high school sweetheart, Cory, an academic powerhouse, enrolls at Yale. During her first weekend in college, she's groped at a frat party by a serial abuser, and she becomes inspired to stand up for herself by a speech given by Faith Frank, a charismatic icon whom Greer later engages in conversation. Greer's burgeoning friendship with a feminist freshman, Zee, also motivates her. After college, Cory sets off to capitalize on his Ivy League degree in international finance, while Greer reaches out to Faith, and both women embark on a new venture, a foundation to empower and support women around the world. It's a testament to Wolitzer's skill that few characters remain unexplored. Greer, Faith, and Cory are all unflinchingly defined. The three true-to-life protagonists face struggles that will interest young adult readers because of the book's weighty and relevant themes. Here, they will also find a powerful character-driven coming-of-age story told in a stark, wry voice. VERDICT Buy for discerning teens and collections serving academic high -flyers.-Suzanne Gordon, Lanier High School, Sugar Hill, GA © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Greer's best friend Zee is an activist and outspoken feminist, the opposite of Greer, who is shy and unsure of herself. When Zee invites Greer to a lecture by feminist icon Faith Franks at Ryland College, she doesn't expect it to change her life. Faith becomes Greer's mentor, hiring her after graduation to help run the nonprofit arm of a large firm run by a morally shaky man from Faith's past. Meanwhile, Greer and Cory have been together since high school, maintaining a long-distance relationship, when tragedy strikes Cory's family in a profound way. While the novel ostensibly centers on the struggles and history of white feminism in the United States, ultimately it is about people's relationships and working through the hurtful things they do to one another. Wolitzer's novel is dense and yet says little about current feminist issues, although it does explore the complexities of female friendships and long-term relationships. Though the work is excellently narrated by Rebecca Lowman and the characters are interesting and well thought out, not much happens to most of them, though the novel spans decades. The most thought-provoking event happens to Cory and is not well explored. VERDICT Wolitzer's gift for characterization alone does not save the novel. ["Sure to be in demand: an essential purchase": LJ 3/1/18 starred review of the Riverhead hc.]-Terry Ann Lawler, Phoenix P.L. © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A decade in the life of a smart, earnest young woman trying to make her way in the world.On Greer Kadetsky's first weekend at Ryland Collegea mediocre school she's attending because her parents were too feckless to fill out Yale's financial aid formshe gets groped at a frat party. This isn't the life she was meant to lead: "You [need] to find a way to make your world dynamic," she thinks. Then Greer meets Faith Frank, a second-wave feminist icon who's come to speak at Ryland. During the question-and-answer period, Greer stands up to recount her assault and the college's lackluster response, and, later, Faith gives her a business card. Like a magical amulet in a fairy tale, that card leads Greer to a whole new life: After graduation, she gets a job working for Faith's foundation, Loci, which sponsors conferences about women's issues. That might not be the most cutting-edge approach to feminism, Greer knows, but it will help her enter the conversation. Wolitzer (Belzhar, 2014, etc.) likes to entice readers with strings of appealing adjectives and juicy details: Faith is both "rich, sophisticated, knowledgeable" and "intense and serious and witty," and she always wears a pair of sexy suede boots. It's easy to fall in love with her, and with Greer, and with Greer's boyfriend, Cory, and her best friend, Zee: They're all deep, interesting characters who want to find ways to support themselves while doing good in the world and having meaningful, pleasurable lives. They have conversations about issues like "abortion rights, and the composition of the Senate, and about human trafficking"; they wrestle with the future of feminism, with racism and classism. None of them is perfect. "Likability has become an issue for women lately," Greer tells an English professor while she's still at Ryland, and Wolitzer has taken up the challenge. Her characters don't always do the right thing, and though she has compassion for all of them, she's ruthless about revealing their compromises and treacheries. This symphonic book feels both completely up-to-the-minute and also like a nod to 1970s feminist classics such as The Women's Room, with a can't-put-it-down plot that illuminates both its characters and larger social issues.The perfect feminist blockbuster for our times. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Wolitzer's ambitious and satisfying novel (following The Interestings) charts a Massachusetts girl's coming-of-age and asks pressing questions about what it means to be an empowered modern woman. When "selectively and furiously shy" freshman Greer Kadetsky first encounters 63-year-old feminist icon Faith Frank's impassioned rhetoric during a guest lecture at her college, she is bowled over by Frank's knowledge and intimidating stature. A few years after graduation, Greer lands a coveted job at Frank's Loci Foundation, a new speakers' forum dedicated to sharing women's stories, and couldn't be more excited about what her future might hold. But life throws a few curveballs. Her high school sweetheart, now a hotshot consultant, endures an unfathomable tragedy and moves back into his childhood home, disrupting the couple's plans to move in together. And, while her job at the foundation started out exhilarating and full of big ideas, the once-wide-eyed Greer has gained a more realistic perspective a few years in-including a nuanced understanding of a more human Frank. As in her previous novels, Wolitzer writes with an easy, engrossing style, and her eye for detail seamlessly connects all the dots in the book's four major story lines. This insightful and resonant novel explores what it is to both embrace womanhood and suffer because of it. Agent: Suzanne Gluck, WME Entertainment. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.