Purgatorian Manual

About the book: Why should we pray for the Holy Souls in Purgatory? Theologians assert that those who bestow mercy upon the suffering souls, shall themselves find great relief and assistance in Purgatory; they consider active charity towards the holy souls a mark of predestination to eternal happiness.

This beautiful pocket sized prayerbook is only 3" x 5" and less than 1/2 inch thick, yet it contains almost 300 pages of wonderful prayers. 

Purgatorian Manual contains every prayer, meditation, novena, and Mass for the Holy souls that you could imagine. It is a treasure for those who love the Holy Souls and wish to pray TO and FOR our dearly departed. 

Purgatorian Manual was the official Manual of the Purgatorian Society promoted under the auspices of the Redemptorists. 

This edition was published during the second world war in 1941 and was extremely popular among Catholic Americans during the war years.

The Freedom Of Obedience: Carthusian Novice Conferences by A Carthusian

About the book: Obedience is the submission of the person to the will of God, the fulfilment of a commandment whose value and meaning we cannot always see. This obedience is the fruit of faith that clings to God for himself and submits to every word of God, thus entering into the pattern which he weaves in the history of the world.

For many of us today, obedience is an unusual, even alien, notion. What can we learn from the members of the Carthusian order, for whom the vow of obedience, alongside poverty and chastity, is the most fundamental importance?  

Carthusian spirituality teaches that obedience is not a contradiction of liberty. Rather, it is the way of love and of true freedom. 

This fourth volume of the Carthusian Novice Conferences series (1998) illuminates the truth behind this paradox giving fascinating insights into how the vow of obedience is realised and lived out. The essence of liberty, we learn, is not the power to choose between good and evil, but simply to do good.

These spiritual reflections by a Carthusian novice master for those training for the life of silent love in the cloister show that in the obedience born of love, one responds to the all encompassing, deeply intimate and sustaining love of God.

The Freedom Of Obedience: Carthusian Novice Conferences is translated from the French by an Anglican Solitary. 

For My Sister Nicole (Biography, True Crime) by Denise Brown

About the book: From Denise Brown - older sister of Nicole Brown Simpson - comes a vital, trauma-informed book that illuminates intimate partner violence and the systems that enable it.

“We’re hearing so many stories now about domestic violence…The statistics are staggering. Denise Brown has been in search of some new things that might actually help save women’s lives.” - Diane Sawyer

About one in three women in the US experience domestic violence, and many incidents are never reported. Drawing on decades of work with domestic violence shelters and the aftermath of her sister’s death, Denise blends memoir and biography with passages from Nicole’s journals, centering the voices and lived experiences of survivors.

Denise teaches practical, evidence-based ways to recognize warning signs - because abusers often hide behind charm, wealth, or charisma - and explains how friends, family, and communities can respond safely and effectively. 

Compassionate and urgent, For My Sister Nicole: Love Shouldn't Hurt, What To Know About Domestic Violence (2026) is both a necessary survivor narrative and a call to action, helping readers to better understand what happened to Nicole and learn how to recognize and support other people in danger.

For My Sister Nicole: Love Shouldn't Hurt, What To Know About Domestic Violence is a Publishers Weekly Pick for Fall 2026 Fiction and Nonfiction Preview: Memoirs & Biographies.

About the author: Denise Brown was raised in a close-knit family in Orange County, California, and became known worldwide after the brutal 1994 murder of her sister Nicole Brown Simpson. Denise testified in front of the US Senate Appropriations Committee for increased funding for the Violence Against Women Act; President Biden and Senator Hatch cited her as “having done more for the issue of domestic violence than any other individual.” After three decades of advocacy, she is a sought-after speaker and educator on this critical public health issue.

In Light Of All Darkness (True Crime) by Kim Cross

About the book: Paced like a thriller and full of insider information on the history and science of Crime Scene Investigation, In Light of All Darkness: Inside the Polly Klaas Kidnapping and the Search for America's Child embeds readers in one of the most famous true-crime stories of our generation - the kidnapping of Polly Klaas - a case as pivotal in the history of the FBI as the Unabomber or Oklahoma City bombing.

On 1 October 1993, a 12-year-old girl was kidnapped at knifepoint from her bedroom in Petaluma, California, during a sleepover with two friends, while her mother slept soundly in the room next door. This rarest of all kidnappings - a stranger abduction from the home - triggered one of the largest manhunts in FBI history.  

Many Americans remember Polly's face, which appeared on the national news every night, on the cover of People magazine, and on more than 8 million flyers distributed as far as China. The emotional gravity of Polly’s story touched every agent, police officer, and forensic technician who worked on her case. Many of these investigators have never shared their stories - until now.

New York Times bestselling author Kim Cross has written the first comprehensive account of what happened on that fateful night in October, as well as how the case forever transformed the Bureau’s approach to solving crimes. With unprecedented access to files, crime scene photos, a videotaped murder confession, and inside sources, In Light of All Darkness: Inside the Polly Klaas Kidnapping and the Search for America's Child (2023) follows the investigators who pieced together the evidence that led to the arrest and conviction of the kidnapper - and made the victim a household name and a girl who will never be forgotten. 

About the author: Kim Cross is a New York Times bestselling author, journalist, and historian known for meticulously reported narrative nonfiction. Her stories have been recognized in “Best of” lists by the New York Times, the Columbia Journalism Review, The Sunday Longread, Longform, Apple News Audio, and Best American Sports Writing. She lives in Boise, Idaho.

Bibliothèque Intérieure

I Believe In Love by Jean du Coeur de Jesus d'Elbée

About the book: This spiritual classic has long been beloved by Catholics for its wondrous distillation of the teaching of St Thérèse of Lisieux into a reader-friendly set of meditations. It is perfect as a personal retreat when you have only a few moments to spare each day - and for spiritual reading anytime and anywhere. 

Father Jean C J d'Elbée, a French priest deeply imbued with St Thérèse's spirit, brings you St.Thérèse's teachings on God's love and the confidence in Him that it should inspire in your soul; humility, peace, and fraternal charity; the apostolate; the Cross; and what it means truly to abandon yourself to Divine Providence. I Believe in Love: A Personal Retreat based on the Teaching of St Thérèse of Lisieux (1974) has helped countless souls embark on the way to the Father. It will help you focus on Him throughout each day, rest in Him amid your troubles, and live joyfully with Him at every moment!

You will learn:

a) How you can (and must) have confidence in God, not in spite of your sufferings, but because of them!

b) The secret that makes sense of the pain and trouble in your life no matter how great

c) One thing you must cherish in your soul, or you'll never learn to love as Jesus loves

d) God's love for you personally: are you really aware of its reality in every moment of your life?

e) How you can see it at work

f) The spiritual goldmine that is at your fingertips now if you know where to find it

g) What you must do before you speak about the Faith, or your words will be useless

h) Crosses: why you can't avoid them and why you should love the ones God sends you

i) How to deal with failures, reversals, and difficult moments of all kinds without losing your spiritual or emotional equilibrium

j) The Fall of Adam and Eve: how even it shows God's abiding love for every soul

k) The sin that destroys countless souls since few know how to recognize and fight it

l) Do you wish you had the love of God that the saints have but are discouraged by your weaknesses?Why you should take heart

m) Are you drawing on all the treasures of the Eucharist and the saints? How you can be sure

n) The comforting reason why our Lord at times chooses not to deliver you from trials

o) Much more that will show you how to live in the glorious love of God at each moment!

I Believe in Love was first published in French in 1969 under the title Croire à l'amour.

About the author: Fr Jean C J d'Elbee was a French priest who, in his book, I Believe in Love, beautifully conveys the spirit of St Thérèse of the Child Jesus, and her message of joyful confidence and total abandonment to the Heart of Jesus.

Definition: Chaophile

St Francis Of Assisi by Bret Thomas OFS

About the book: All Christians know his name. Few truly know the man.

Francis of Assisi was not even five feet tall. He was not well educated. And yet he is the one saint commonly recognized as Alter Christus, the “other Christ.” Francis is not just any saint - he is a saint for everyone, whatever your place or position in life. 

But do we really know him?

Who was this man at his core? 

What was it that thrust this little man from a little town to the heights of sanctity, into a place of high honour among the celestial court?

In this riveting biography, author Bret Thoman accomplishes what few biographers have. He pierces the inner life of Francis, revealing his deepest passions, his unquenchable love for poverty, and his unshakable grip on the core of the Gospel. The life of Francis, so often festooned with spectacle and miracle, is in reality the story of a soul yearning for God in every moment and glimpsing His presence in all creation.

If you want to see the hidden life of the greatest saint, if you want to hear his thoughts, if you want to feel the fervour that blazed within his soul, you must read St Francis of Assisi: Passion, Poverty, and the Man who Transformed the Catholic Church (2016). 

About the author: Bret Thoman, OFS, has been a member of the Secular Franciscan Order (Third Order of St Francis) since 2003. He has an MA in Italian from Middlebury College, a BA from the University of Georgia in foreign languages, and a certificate in Franciscan Studies. Bret has written and published three books and translated twelve books from Italian to English.

While working as an interpreter for CNN, he translated the papal conclave and announced the election of Pope Francis live. But his main activity is organizing pilgrimages for St Francis Pilgrimages, the company he founded in 2004. He is also an FAA-licensed pilot and has logged more than 3500 hours of flight time.

Bret is partial to Latin, Gregorian chant, and incense, and he spends his free time reading classics, hiking, or biking anywhere not on asphalt. He currently lives in Loreto, Italy, with his wife and two children.

The Trial of Lizzie Borden by Cara Robertson

About the book: The Trial of Lizzie Borden: A True Story (2019) tells the true story of one of the most sensational murder trials in American history. 

When Andrew and Abby Borden were brutally hacked to death in Fall River, Massachusetts, in August 1892, the arrest of the couple’s younger daughter Lizzie turned the case into international news and her trial into a spectacle unparalleled in American history. Reporters flocked to the scene. Well-known columnists took up conspicuous seats in the courtroom. The defendant was relentlessly scrutinized for signs of guilt or innocence. Everyone - rich and poor, suffragists and social conservatives, legal scholars and laypeople - had an opinion about Lizzie Borden’s guilt or innocence. 

Was she a cold-blooded murderess or an unjustly persecuted lady? 

Did she or didn’t she?

The popular fascination with the Borden murders and its central enigmatic character has endured for more than one hundred years. Immortalized in rhyme, told and retold in every conceivable genre, the murders have secured a place in the American pantheon of mythic horror, but one typically wrenched from its historical moment. 

In contrast, Cara Robertson explores the stories Lizzie Borden’s culture wanted and expected to hear and how those stories influenced the debate inside and outside of the courtroom. Based on transcripts of the Borden legal proceedings, contemporary newspaper accounts, unpublished local accounts, and recently unearthed letters from Lizzie herself, The Trial of Lizzie Borden offers a window onto America in the Gilded Age, showcasing its most deeply held convictions and its most troubling social anxieties.

About the author: Cara Robertson began researching the Borden case as a Harvard undergraduate in 1990. She holds a PhD from Oxford University and a JD from Stanford Law School. She clerked at the Supreme Court of the United States, served as a legal adviser to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia at The Hague, and has written for various publications. Her scholarship has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Humanities Center, of which she is a Trustee. The Trial of Lizzie Borden is her first book.

Holding Lightning by Emily Lordi

About the book: She was The Voice, and then she was a tragedy. Or so the story goes. 

Since her death in 2012, the life of Whitney Houston has been shaped by the popular imagination into a simplistic tale of angelic rise and pitiable fall. But as Emily Lordi argues in this magisterial new biography, such an assumption fails to convey just how hard Whitney worked to become herself, to share her gifts at the height of her powers and to passionately resist her own end.

In Holding Lightning: The Life, Loves, and Art of Whitney Houston (2026), Lordi reveals the dedication Houston applied to everything she did, from her encyclopaedic knowledge of music to the groundbreaking networks of Black creators that she worked so hard to create and uplift. This book fundamentally reappraises Houston’s life and art, shifting our perspective so we can finally see Whitney in all her real, imperfect, fallible, resilient humanity.

About the author: Emily Lordi is a writer, cultural critic, and professor of English at Vanderbilt University. She is the author of three books on Black literature and popular music, a writer-at-large for T: The New York Times Style Magazine, and a contributor to NewYorker.com, The Washington Post, and others. She lives in Nashville, TN.

Empire of Orgasm by Ellen Huet

About the book: Empire of Orgasm: Sex, Power, and the Downfall of a Wellness Cult (2025) is a cautionary tale of sex and salvation for the wellness generation: how orgasmic meditation turned into a cult.

OneTaste hoped orgasm would change the world. Emerging in the midst of the late-aughts for-profit wellness boom, the company was unwavering in its faith in orgasmic meditation, or OM, a fifteen-minute practice involving a woman being clitorally stimulated by a clothed, usually male partner. Nicole Daedone, the group’s magnetic and cunning founder, envisioned a world where OM was as widespread as yoga. But Daedone’s vision came at a price: behind the militant loyalty she inspired and the millions of dollars in sales was what former members describe as a cult of manipulation, abuse, and coercion driven by a relentless quest for control. 

And by the time the FBI showed up at her door in 2023 with an indictment alleging that she had conspired to commit forced labor, even Daedone herself was no longer safe.

Building on the viral Bloomberg article that exposed the dark sides of OneTaste and of Daedone, Ellen Huet’s Empire of Orgasm tells how a boundary-pushing wellness program became a cult that, according to dozens of witnesses, ruthlessly exploited its members. Huet, the undeniable authority on the group, reveals how, in demanding absolute fealty to Daedone on the path to enlightenment and healing, OneTaste pushed its followers past their limits - sexually, emotionally, financially - and left the lives of many in shambles. 

The story culminates in Daedone’s conviction in June 2025 after a five-week criminal trial.

A riveting saga and a nuanced exploration of the mechanics of manipulation, Empire of Orgasm: Sex, Power, and the Downfall of a Wellness Cult is an extraordinary account of wellness gone wrong.

About the author: Ellen Huet is an investigative journalist who covers technology and Silicon Valley for Bloomberg News. She writes award-winning features for Bloomberg Businessweek magazine, has hosted two seasons of the podcast Foundering, and holds a particular interest in writing about strange and complex subcultures. Previously, she was a staff writer at Forbes and a crime reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Sometimes Well Written, Mostly Predictable

Grok Translation: Bookstores overflow with books, and yet very few inspire the desire to be read to the end. You open a novel, read three pages, and already something slips away. Not the interest, but the necessity.

It’s as if the book, scarcely begun, no longer has any reason to hold us back. It’s not the story that falls short. It’s that force which, in certain books, forbids us from setting them down.

Too many novels today seek merely to please us. They are sometimes very well written, but everything already feels predetermined, predictable. They validate us, or they spare us.

Great books, on the other hand, do not seek to seduce us. They impose their rhythm, their ideas, a presence that compels us. We continue reading them not because it’s enjoyable, but because something has begun to stir within us that refuses to stop.

Perhaps that is why so many contemporary novels slip from our hands. They have a reason to exist on a bookstore table, but not the one to survive within us.

Murder In The Dollhouse (True Crime) by Rich Cohen

About the book: Murder in the Dollhouse: The Jennifer Dulos Story (2025) is a nail-biting, edge-of-your-seat investigation into the mysterious disappearance of Jennifer Dulos and the aftershocks that rattled a wealthy suburb.

Rich Cohen’s Murder in the Dollhouse: The Jennifer Dulos Story is the chilling, unputdownable story of Jennifer Dulos, a beautiful, rich suburban mother who dropped her kids off at the New Canaan Country School one morning on 24 May 2019 and vanished. 

Her body has never been found.

Dulos was in the midst of an ugly divorce - one of the most contentious in Connecticut state history. The couple, a beautiful, highly connected pair, met at Brown University, had five children, and led what appeared to be a charmed life. 

In the wake of her disappearance, Dulos’s husband and his girlfriend were arrested. He killed himself on the day he was supposed to report to court; she was tried and convicted of conspiracy to commit murder. 

A gripping story of status, wealth, love, and hate, Murder in the Dollhouse: The Jennifer Dulos Story peers beneath the sparkling veneer of propriety that surrounded the Duloses to uncover the origins and motivations of a crime that has become a national obsession.

About the author: Rich Cohen is the New York Times-bestselling author of Tough Jews, Monsters, Sweet and Low, The Sun & the Moon & the Rolling Stones, The Chicago Cubs, and The Last Pirate of New York, and, with Jerry Weintraub, When I Stop Talking, You’ll Know I’m Dead. He is the cocreator of the HBO series Vinyl, a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, and a writer at large for Air Mail. He has written for The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and Harper’s Magazine, among other publications. Cohen has won the Great Lakes Book Award, the Chicago Public Library’s 21st Century Award, and the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award. He lives in Connecticut.

"Even Sin Has Become Fashionable," said the Saint