I managed to read several books recently; a handful impressed me, some were very good but I seemed to have writer’s block when it came to writing a review, and a few went into the DNF box for donation. I prefer to write about books that I recommend rather than to spend my time tearing a book down. Below are the five books that stood out and which I believe are worth your time. At the end, I’ll mention the books I read but chose not to review.

Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris (Knopf, 2024)

Some of you may be old enough to remember the war in Bosnia and Croatia in the early-mid 1990s. With the breakup of the Soviet Union, the ethnic enclaves of Yugoslavia, no longer held together by a strongman ruler, fractured into new states. Bosnian Serb nationalists intent on expanding Serbia, established a siege in Sarajevo, the most diverse city in the region (it hosted the 1984 Winter Olympics). About 350,000 people were trapped for nearly four years, subjected to daily shelling and sniper attacks and cut off from the outside world.

Black Butterflies, which was a finalist for the 2023 Women’s Prize for Fiction, puts readers into the heart of this siege through the story of Zora, a painter and teacher who refuses to leave her beloved city. Morris depicts the daily friction of life under siege, a slow-motion war. Phone lines are cut, then electricity, then water. “We are refugees in our own city,” says Zora. Sarajevo becomes an open sore: summer heat on uncollected trash, unflushed toilets, residents who haven’t showered and who line up for hours to get water. Zora and her neighbors in her apartment building struggle to stay warm and find food; it’s a daily battle to stay alive. Black Butterflies is less about the war than about the strength, resilience, and resourcefulness of Sarajevo’s residents. She tries every way imaginable to contact her family and arrange a way out so she can reunite with them. When the siege began, she was working on a large painting of one of the city’s bridges and becomes obsessed with finishing it despite the war. It’s a powerful metaphor for the beautiful, culturally diverse city of Sarajevo and her hope that it can be saved and bridges rebuilt among Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs.

Isabela’s Way by Barbara Stark-Nemon (She Writes Press, Sept. 23)

While 1492 is best known as the year King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella sent Christopher Columbus across the Atlantic to find the East Indies, it’s also the year they expelled all Jews from Spain (they had established the Inquisition in 1478). The only other option for those who wanted to stay was conversion to Catholicism, but the government and Church hounded these conversos, believing they were practicing Judaism in secret. Isabela’s Way is set in the early 1600s, when the Inquisition came to Portugal.

Fourteen-year-old Isabela believes she is safe from the Inquisition. But her life changes when her father travels to Germany to set up a business venture and her mother dies of the plague. A strange woman visits her to deliver a message from her father: Trust this woman and the people who are going to help her join him in Germany. Before long Isabela is caught up in an underground railroad that is helping “New Christians” flee Portugal to safety. But she’s not just a passenger; her talent for needlework is needed for communication between the “secret Jews” and their conductors, both Jewish and Catholic. Isabela’s Way is a rich, absorbing novel that tells a story too few people know about. It’s a coming-of-age story, a suspenseful tale of resistance and determination, and a tribute to the unique culture of Portuguese Jews.

In a Distant Valley by Shannon Bowring (Europa Editions, Oct. 7)  

If you’ve been reading my blog or following my Instagram account for any length of time, you’ve seen me rave about the first two books in this trilogy, The Road to Dalton and Where the Forest Meets the River. In Dalton, Maine, Shannon Bowring has created a small town and a large cast of characters that readers have come to know well and care about. All three novels perfectly encapsulate the saying, “Everyone is carrying a burden you know nothing about.”

In a Distant Valley skillfully brings the many character arcs to a satisfying conclusion. Nate Theroux is back with the Dalton PD, still carrying the burden of his artist wife Bridget’s suicide from post-partum depression and doing his best to raise five-year-old Sophie. It looks like he might have a future with Rose Douglas and her two boys until her troubled ex, Tommy, returns to Dalton, trying to earn back their trust. The situation is very complicated. Two other residents are also back in town: Greg Fortin is back from the University of Maine, where he has been transformed physically and emotionally, and Angela Muse has returned from living with her father and his new family on the rez. It’s nice to see them revive their childhood friendship, which they both need desperately. Will Greg’s dad accept that he doesn’t want to follow in his footsteps as owner of the town’s hardware store? Will the secret held so long by Bev and Bill (Nate’s parents) and Trudy and Richard (Dalton’s librarian and recently retired doctor, respectively) ever be revealed to family members? It may sound like a melodrama, but it’s all handled with tenderness and insight into how people live and love.

Bowring’s concerns and writing style remind me of Elizabeth Strout, Anne Tyler and Richard Russo. This is solid “old-fashioned storytelling” that will find a place in your heart.

A Complete Fiction by R. L. Maizes (Ig Publishing, Nov. 4)

A Complete Fiction is R. L. Maizes’ first novel after two acclaimed short story collections. And it’s a barnburner. P. J. Larkin has been a struggling writer for a long time, but she’s finally written the right book for the times, a story of a young woman working for a congressman who assaults her. It’s based loosely on her younger sister’s experiences. She has submitted it to several publishers, from the big houses to indie presses. When she learns that an acquisitions editor at a small publisher is set to publish a book with a similar plot, she posts a potshot on the Crave social media app, setting in motion a complicated series of events that will affect the lives of several people.

Maizes has crafted realistic characters and situations, especially the way that things can spiral out of control. A Complete Fiction has a lot to say about writing, publishing, social media, sexual assault victims’ trauma, and even dating. It may sound like Maizes has overstuffed her book, but she weaves all these elements together effectively. It’s a fast, thought-provoking, and often funny read.  

A Desert Between Two Seas: A Novel in Stories by A. Muia (University of Georgia Press, Sept. 16)

Over the last decade, I’ve discovered several outstanding writers through the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, administered by the University of Georgia Press. The current Series Editor is acclaimed short story writer Lori Ostlund (Are You Happy?). I’ve particularly enjoyed the work of Toni Ann Johnson, Colette Sartor, Karin Lin-Greenberg, Anne Raeff, Dana Johnson, and Monica McFawn.

2024 winner A. Muia’s novel in stories, A Desert Between Two Seas (published last month) is another impressive discovery. Set in 19^th century Baja California, these stories feel like a long-hidden manuscript from the time. With her spare prose, Muia’s depiction of the characters’ faith-infused lives and harsh landscape is evocative and haunting. The stories mostly follow two characters on the run from their past: a priest haunted by guilt over what he considers his part in the death of a young boy who worked at the mission and a deaf woman trying to escape her reputation as a pistolera. Muia’s novel moves across the decades and the barren peninsula as they wander in search of peace of mind. A Desert Between Two Seas is unsparing and occasionally brutal in both the physical and spiritual sense. It’s an accomplished debut from an author I plan to keep an eye on.

Books I Read and Liked

I liked these books and recommend them: The Book of I by David Greig (I don’t review books by men on my blog), Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (everyone knows all about this clever and heartwarming book), The White Girl by Tony Birch, The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donoghue, and A Dog in Georgia by Lauren Grodstein.

Books I Put Aside

Fine Young People by Anna Bruno, Indian Country by Shobha Rao, and The Literati by Susan Coll. In the case of the Bruno and Rao books, I felt like I’d read similar novels already and didn’t need to read another that didn’t seem quite as good. The Literati sounded good on paper but didn’t engage me the way I expected.

Books on My Night Table (and coffee table and bookshelves)

My TBR list is pages long and contains recent releases, upcoming releases, and lots of backlist books that I never got around to reading. If I read 24/7 for a few years, I could get through a lot of it. Anyway, here’s a list of 12 books that are at the top of my list, a mix of books I’ve agreed to read for possible review and those I just want to read. I’m hoping the cooler weather and shorter days will help me get back into my reading groove. But conditions in the non-natural world are a constant distraction.

A Guardian and a Thief – Megha Majumdar, Becoming Sarah – Diane Botnick (out Oct. 28), The Book of Guilt – Catherine Chidgey, The Correspondent – Virginia Evans, She’s Under Here: A Memoir – Karen Palmer, Vulture – Phoebe Greenwood, Mona’s Eyes – Thomas Schlesser, Amanda – H. S. Cross, The Hebrew Teacher – Maya Arad, Remember to Eat and Other Stories – Meryl Ain (out Jan. 20), How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder – Nina McConigley (out Jan. 26), and The World Between – Zeeva Bukai (out Feb. 24).

I’d love to hear from you about what your Fall reading plans are.