Five books. Every month. A variety of topics from different genres.

Here is the list from October 2025. Clicking on the title will direct you to the original post on MORE TO COME.

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The Civil War (2025) by European military historian Jeremy Black, MBE reorients readers to see what was extraordinary in the civil war of “the American colonies.” As Black states early in this work, the Civil War “was the most traumatic conflict, indeed event, in American history.” That holds true even when compared with the War of Independence, as the divisions within the country at the time of the revolution were not as long-lasting. The Civil War in America was not just a military struggle; it was also a political struggle. Black steps back to take a larger, and more international view, to show that the conflict “helped define American politics and human geography for a century, and its echo remains strong today.” This concise new volume asks the reader to look at this watershed moment in world history with a broader international perspective.

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The Searcher (2020) by Tana French begins as Cal Hooper, after twenty-five years in the Chicago police force, moves to a small rural Irish village seeking a fresh start. Having survived a broken marriage and drained by the demands of his job, Cal is seeking nothing more than a small fixer-upper, land to walk, time to think, and a good pub. But into his search for a new start walks a local kid who comes looking for help. Trey’s brother is missing and no one seems to care. Cal doesn’t want to get involved but he also cannot bring himself to walk away. Slowly Trey comes to trust Cal and the former cop comes to care about finding answers in a village that likes to hide secrets.

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Greek Lessons: A Novel (2023) by Han Kang (translated by Deborah Smith and Emily Yae Won) is set in Seoul, South Korea, where a young woman watches her Greek language teacher at the blackboard. She tries to speak but has lost her voice. Her teacher is drawn to the silent woman, for he is also moving into isolation as day by day he is losing his sight. Two ordinary people are battling personal anguish in this extraordinary work. There is a sadness that pervades their story but there is also hope. There is shared suffering that brings the man and the woman together in this work that is, as more than one reader has noted, a love letter to human intimacy and connection.

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An Odyssey: A Father, A Son, and an Epic (2018) by Daniel Mendelsohn is a brilliant combination of memoir and literary exploration that begins when the author’s father, eighty-one-year-old Jay Mendelsohn, decides to enroll in the undergraduate Odyssey seminar his son teaches at Bard College. It is not surprising that early in the course the father and son have a public disagreement in class over the nature of Odysseus. Was he a hero or a self-pitying liar? It is the beauty and genius of this book that Daniel can hear his father’s disagreement; listen to how his seminar students react to father, son, and the text; and lead everyone to a far deeper understanding of the epic poem. After the semester ends father and son take a Mediterranean cruise, retracing the mythical journeys of Odysseus, where another side of Jay is revealed. Like Odysseus and perhaps most of us, he is polytropos: “many-sided” or “much-turning.” By examining their life together, Daniel is making his own peace with the past. It is a beautiful and thoughtful journey.

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Maigret’s Holiday (1948) by Georges Simenon is the 28th book in the writer’s famous Inspector Maigret series. The tale begins as Maigret and his wife are on holiday in the seaside town of Les Sables d’Olonne. Madame Maigret, with a fever and complaining of vague pains, is admitted to a hospital. She is still there nine days later after an emergency operation for acute appendicitis. During that time a young woman in room 15 in another ward dies and Maigret is unable to resist investigating the circumstances of her death. Through his investigations the inspector discovers someone else’s life is in danger, but he doesn’t know whether it is a man or a woman and how the deed might be done. In the end Maigret uncovers the truth, even when some of the locals—including some very important men and women—do not want to accept it.

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WHAT’S ON THE NIGHTSTAND FOR NOVEMBER (SUBJECT TO CHANGE AT THE WHIMS OF THE READER)

• The Road to Wisdom: On Truth, Science, Faith, and Trust by Francis S. Collins
• A Child is Born: A Beginners Guide to Nativity Stories by Amy-Jill Levine
• History Matters by David McCullough
• The Accidental Vineyard: An Old House, New Vines, and a Changed Life in Wine Country by Richard A. Moran
• Shakespeare is Hard, But so is Life by Fintan O’Toole

Keep reading!

More to come . . .

DJB

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NOTE: Click to see the books I read in September of 2025 and to see the books I read in 2024. Also check out Ten tips for reading five books a month.

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Photo by Kateryna Hliznitsova on Unsplash