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The Fall of Man Today

Sitting The Month by Clarissa Wei

About the book: In Taiwan and across the Chinese-speaking world, the transition period into motherhood is treated with such reverence that it has its own name: zuò yuè zi - to sit the month. 

When Clarissa Wei gave birth to her first child, she was living in Taiwan, where the postpartum period lasts four weeks and is considered one of the most important periods of a woman's life. The practice of "sitting the month" includes therapeutic herbs and warming meals-stir-fried pork liver, chicken simmered with rice wine and sesame oil, or steamed cod with goji berries-believed to help repair the womb and reenergize the new mom. 

There is not a lot of information in the English-speaking world about this practice, or its cuisine, and she set out to learn more.

In Sitting the Month: Postpartum Recipes For Rest & Recovery, through gorgeous photography, stories, and recipes, Clarissa Wei offers a holistic outlook on food specifically intended to nurture new mothers back to health. Any partner or relative (or a very tired mom) can navigate these 88 recipes. With guidance from Stella Wang, a second-generation owner of a Chinese medicine shop, she introduces three stages of recovery. Start with light, herbal soups such as Salmon Miso Soup and Egg Drop Seaweed Soup to detox the body. Advance to collagen and protein-rich dishes such as Scallion Oil Chicken and Black Vinegar Pork Knuckle Stew to support tissue repair, and build up to Ten Tonic Supreme Soup, packed with fiery herbs intended to combat deep fatigue and lingering weakness. Each recipe is designed for solo meals or for sharing with a partner. Freezing advice and notes on unique herbs make this ancient tradition accessible and doable for modern moms in the United States. 

There is an old folk saying that sums up the East Asian attitude toward postpartum care: During pregnancy, nurture the baby. After pregnancy, nurture your body.

Sitting the Month: Postpartum Recipes For Rest & Recovery (2026) returns care and love to the early stages of motherhood, promising nourishment for all stages of life.

About the Author: Clarissa Wei is the author of Made in Taiwan (cookbook), winner of an IACP Award and finalist for a James Beard Award. Her writing has been published in the New Yorker, New York Times, and Bon Appétit. The founder of single-origin soy sauce brand HEYDOH, she lives in Taiwan.

Blessed Karl Of Austria: Death Of An Emperor by Dr Hans Karl Zeßner-Spitzenberg

About the booklet: Over a century ago, the world received the sudden news of the death of the last Emperor and King of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. 

Forced to live the final chapter of his life in exile on the distant island of Madeira, far from his homeland and peoples, his passing sent waves of profound shock and sadness around the world. However, few in his beloved empire knew the full story of the conditions and circumstances that marked the final moments of this saintly ruler.

As a devout Catholic, grounded in devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Emperor Karl overcame the trials and tribulations of life with the greatest joy and bitterest of sorrow. 

Yet, he was never more noble than in his final moments, when he embraced a peaceful Christian death, living out the words, "The death of a just man is precious in the eyes of the Lord."

Blessed Karl Of Austria: Death Of An Emperor tells the story of Karl's last days and moments, offering profound insight into a life completely devoted to God, family, country, and peace.

Modern Man Calls Himself Free

Forsaking All Others (True Crime) by Loretta Schwartz-Nobel

About the book: Shortly before dawn on 5 November 1989, forty-two-year-old San Diego matron Betty Broderick entered her ex-husband's home and shot the powerful lawyer and his young bride as they lay in bed. 

To some, her action made the spurned wife a folk heroine: she had financially supported her husband through school, raised their children and helped him to achieve wealth and distinction as a San Diego, California, attorney, only to be cast aside when she lost her youthful good looks. 

Broderick's subsequent murder trial, which ended in a hung jury, was nothing if not controversial - inspiring national headlines and a top-five-rated television movie. 

Although a 1991 retrial resulted in a conviction on two counts of second-degree murder, the jury again violently disagreed over whether Betty Broderick had committed a crime of passion or an act of cold-blooded murder. 

Even now, despite years of media frenzy, few people know the real facts behind her harrowing ordeal. Loretta Schwartz-Nobel, award-winning journalist and author of The Baby Swap Conspiracy, gives us the untold story in a provocative, in-depth re-examination of the case - including startling evidence barred from the retrial. Hers is a three-dimensional portrait of a beautiful young woman who became a middle-aged throwaway wife - betrayed, then abandoned by her husband, systematically deprived of financial security, home, and custody of her four children, thrown into prisons and mental institutions and victimized by the unprecedented legal tactics of a husband who at the time was president of the San Diego Bar Association.

Forsaking All Others: The Real Betty Broderick Story including Prison Interviews was published in 1993. 

About the author: Loretta Schwartz-Nobel numbers among her awards the Columbia School of Journalism Award, the Robert F Kennedy Award, the Women in Communication Award, the American Bar Association Award, the Penny Missouri Award, and the National Society of Professional Journalists Award. A resident of Pennsylvania, she has authored the Edgar-nominated true-crime work Engaged to Murder, A Mother's Story (with Mary Beth Whitehead), Starving in the Shadow of Plenty, and The Baby Swap Conspiracy. 

Saint Dumitru Stăniloae (1903-1993), Romanian Christian Orthodox Priest, Theologian and Professor

Feast Day of St Alfred The Great

They Speak By Silences by A Carthusian

About the book: They Speak By Silences are a translation of two small books published originally in French by the Benedictine nuns of St Priscilla in Rome. The first, Silence Cartusien, was published in 1948, there being nothing to indicate its origin beyond a brief forward in Italian. This was followed in 1953 by a similar work by the same hand, Voix Cartusienne; and it is these two works which are now translated and presented in English for the first time. They were born in silence and solitude of a Charterhouse, and their very anonymity is part of that silence. 

It is due perhaps to the reader to say that the writer of these pages held for some years various positions of authority in the Carthusian Order, involving the direction of souls. The extracts here given were never in the author's mind intended for publication; only after his death in 1945 were they carefully collected and published as has already been told. Such in brief is all that is known to the outside world of the writer of this book. His life, like the life of any Carthusian, was not made up of external events, and we need to do no more than let his words speak for themselves. As he himself would be the first to admit, it is not what they say but what they leave unsaid that will probably influence other souls, seeking as he sought that union with God which is not peculiar to Carthusians or to any other religious, but is the end set before all men. 

We can only re-echo the hope expressed by the original editor of these works that the thoughts preserved and collected in this little book may help and encourage others to persevere in the ascent to that union. 

They Speak By Silences (1955, 2006) is translated from the French by a Monk of Parkminster.

When There Is Just Cause For Anger

The History of the Sufferings of Eighteen Carthusians in England by Chauncey Maurice

About the book: The History of the Sufferings of Eighteen Carthusians in England Who Refusing to Take Part in Schism, and to Separate Themselves from the Unity of the Catholic Church, were Cruelly Martyred is an unchanged, high-quality reprint of the original edition of 1890.

The tragedy of the fall of the Charterhouses of England began with the martyrdom at Tyburn of the three Carthusian Priors: Blessed John Houghton of London; Blessed Augustine Webster of Axholme; and Blessed Robert Lawrence of Beauvale on 4 May 1535.

Of the forty-eight members who remained in the London Charterhouse after Houghton's death, thirty were choir monks, and eighteen lay brothers.

On 18 May 1537, the Royal Commissioners came to their monastery and exacted the Oath of Supremacy from the Prior and twenty of his subjects. Of the twenty-eight others, seventeen died for the Faith, and all the others were expelled with a small pension of £5 a year; among these latter was Dom Maurice Chauncey, a monk of the London Charter House and the principal authority for their history of which a translation is here offered about the year 1539, shortly after the destruction of that House by Cromwell and his agents. 

About the author: Dom Maurice Chauncey was born in Hertfordshire about AD 1513. He was educated at Oxford and Gray's Inn, and entered the Carthusian Order before he was twenty, and was professed in 1534, Blessed John Houghton being then Prior. During the persecution which followed that Martyr's death, Dom Maurice was zealous in resisting the endeavours of Cromwell to induce the monks to acknowledge the supremacy of the King, and was one of four who were sent away from the London House into another House of the Order near Hull, with the object, it would seem, of breaking down his constancy. He returned after a time to London, and partly through the influence of the Monks of St Bridgett at Sion House and partly cajoled by representations and promises which gave him hopes that his taking the oath would preserve the London House, he yielded and took the oath; but speedily repented, and for ever afterwards deeply grieved over what he had done. 

Dom Maurice died on 12 July 1581 in Paris, aged sixty-eight years. On his body being prepared for burial, there was found fastened on it, an iron chain, the instrument alike and the witness of his lasting penance. 

The Story Baker by Carsten Henn

About the book: From the international bestselling author of The Door-to-Door Bookstore comes a delicious, heartwarming story of a has-been ballerina who takes up a temporary job in a bakery, finding purpose in every loaf she bakes.

What ingredients does a good life need?

Though she only just started her temporary job at the village bakery, former ballet dancer Sofie already wants to quit from day one. Her career abruptly ended after an injury threatened any and all chances of success, and losing her most beloved passion has thrown her life off track.

Yet there is something about the rhythms of the bakery that captivates her. Fascinated, Sofie watches old Italian baker Giacomo at work, and discovers that baking bread is almost like a dance: the dough is kneaded on beat, the rotation of the hands a steady rhythm, the swing of the hips like a practiced routine. To her own surprise, Sofie comes to see the little bakery as far more than just a place of work: it slowly transforms into a reprieve. It is here that she discovers the wisdom of a simple man, the joy of small things and the courage to embrace change.

A bestselling phenomenon, The Story Baker (13 October 2026) is the delightfully charming small-town story of one woman who finds solace, love, and community in the most unlikely of places.

The Story Baker will be released in the UK on 3 December 2026. It is translated from the German, where it was originally published under the title Der Geschichtenbäcker, by Melody Shaw.

About the author: Carsten Henn has worked as a radio presenter, wine and restaurant critic, and has published a number of successful novels. He lives in Germany.

Rating: 5/5

Ethel Kennedy by Kerry Kennedy

About the book: Ethel Kennedy: The Extraordinary Life and Bold Legacy by Kerry Kennedy about? (13 October 2026) is a vivid, intimate biography of American icon Ethel Kennedy by her daughter Kerry Kennedy, told through her firsthand memories and exclusive access to Ethel’s personal papers

When her husband Robert F Kennedy was killed in 1968, Ethel Skakel Kennedy - then pregnant with their eleventh child - drew national attention for her grace, dignity, and resolute commitment to furthering his work in human rights, even in her grief. But as her daughter Kerry witnessed, Ethel was so much more than a dutiful wife and keeper of Robert's legacy of service. She was courageous, curious, compassionate, boisterous, and witty, always guided by faith and an instinct for speaking truth to power.

Kerry delves into her own memories, her family's recollections, and her mother's private papers, describing:

- Ethel's family's journey from a working-class Chicago background to life in tony Greenwich, Connecticut

- Ethel's fairytale romance with Kerry's father RFK - a courtship that inspired a Taylor Swift song half a century later

- How the bold, athletic Ethel quickly became "more Kennedy than the Kennedys"

- The years on the famed family properties in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, and the Hickory Hill estate in Virginia, where Kerry and her ten siblings grew up amidst presidents and politicians, Olympians and Hollywood stars, and a rambunctious menagerie of pet animals

- Moments of pain and loss - RFK’s death just five years after that of his brother; and the tragic deaths of two of Kerry’s siblings

- Ethel’s unflagging commitment to global human rights causes that carried on through the decades

Ethel Kennedy: The Extraordinary Life and Bold Legacy by Kerry Kennedy about? inspires us to reject cynicism and to live bigger and bolder.

The UK's publication date for Ethel Kennedy is 5 November 2026.

About the author: Kerry Kennedy is a human rights lawyer, activist, New York Times-bestselling author, and daughter of Ethel Skakel Kennedy and Robert F Kennedy. Kerry is the president of Robert F Kennedy Human Rights, the organization Ethel founded in 1968 to continue Robert's unfinished work, and served as chair for the Amnesty International USA Leadership Council for over a decade. During her forty years working in human rights, she has led hundreds of delegations and negotiated with leaders around the globe. She is the author of three previous books: Robert F Kennedy: Ripples of Hope; Speak Truth to Power; and Being Catholic Now.

Alone in Court by Edward Romain

About the book: ‘An enormously valuable - and long overdue - book.’

Rt Hon Lord Smith of Finsbury, Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, from his Foreword:

"Every year, thousands of people in England and Wales walk into a courtroom without a lawyer. Nobody tells them what they are walking into. This book does.

Drawing on the case files of Blind Justice UK, Alone in Court: What Happens When Ordinary People Face the Justice System Without a Lawyer (2026) follows ordinary people through the decision to fight, the paper war, the tactics of the other side, the day in court, the cost, the obsession, the loneliness, and what winning – and walking away – really feel like.

An electrician owed twelve thousand pounds for work already done. A teaching assistant whose defence never reached the judge. A hairdresser who opened a twelve-page letter from a City firm and felt her hands go cold. A woman who won her tribunal claim on every point and recovered a fraction of the award.

Their names have been changed. What happened to them has not.

Every chapter ends with what it means for you: what to do, what to avoid, and when to stop. The book closes with a costed proposal for a litigant in person liaison officer in every court, and three appendices covering the legislation, the court forms and the free help that exists.

This is not a textbook. It is a field guide, written by someone who has stood in court alone himself, for anyone about to do the same."

About the author: Edward Romain is a writer, poet and lawyer, and the founder and CEO of Blind Justice UK, a registered charity working to improve access to justice for people who face the courts without a lawyer. He read English and History at Durham, took the Graduate Diploma in Law at Sussex and studied the Bar Professional Training Course at BPP, and is an Associate member of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (ACILEX). Fifteen years later he stood in a courtroom as a litigant in person, and that experience took him back into law, led him to found Blind Justice, and became the book Alone in Court, published in November 2026 with a foreword by Lord Smith of Finsbury, Chancellor of the University of Cambridge.

Through Blind Justice UK, he has handled more than forty case files, given evidence to the Justice Select Committee, and worked with parliamentarians and ministers on court reform. His research has been published as formal written evidence by two parliamentary committees, and the charity's work has been covered by the Law Society Gazette and Legal Futures. His poetry collection The Man Who Grew Things is also available on Kindle. He lives in Brighton.