Cecilia Galante grew up in a religious commune, so she knows whereof she speaks in her first novel, “The Patron Saint of Butterflies.” In it, two girls grow up in a religious commune, one who loves it, the other who hates it. When they both are taken from the commune, they have to deal with the huge upheaval in their lives and their own feelings about faith and religion.

Also new in fiction is “Searching For Paradise in Parker, PA” by Kris Radish, which explores marriage through the eyes of both the man and the woman. Radish claims to be “writing about what real women are thinking,” so here’s your chance to find out.

And in nonfiction, John Arquilla explores the amount of spending — and its apparent lack of impact — on the military in “Worst Enemy: The Reluctant Transformation of The American Military.” Arquilla, a professor of defense analysis at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., offers his thoughts on what kind of military is needed to combat terrorists.