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The Book

Happiness No 299

A Sweet Life

Suum cuique pulchrum est

Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel and Raphael

Fábula Urbis Lda

Lisbon boasts a literary heritage matched by few other capitals in Europe.  Besides being dotted with second-hand and antiquarian booksellers, home to Bertrand – the world’s oldest bookstore in continuous activity since 1732 – and the mobile Tell a Story located in a converted Volkswagen van, Lisbon hosted many literary greats the traces of whom await the curious traveler round every corner.  Much is made of Fernando Pessoa’s legacy, a giant of Modernist literature whose face is proudly displayed on anything from street art and statues to postcards and t-shirts. (The Culture Trip, Andrew Ricca, 13 December 2015)

One particular bookstore, Fábula Urbis Lda, can be found in a strategic place at Rua de Augusto Rosa in Alfama, Lisboa, Portugal.  The bookstore is housed in a former chapel turned carpentry now turned modern bookstore.  It specializes in publications about the city and was opened in 2007 with the ambition of becoming more than a bookstore but a place where culture and intellect homogenize.  There are books in Portuguese, English, and other foreign languages - including English, French, Spanish, Italian or German - covering Lisbon's history, culture, art and gastronomy of the past and present.  The top floor is a space used for exhibitions and other special events.

Do drop by the bookstore when you are visiting Lisbon because it is simply a must for all booklovers and bibliophiles!

The Old Vegetable Market

A small town 50 miles north of Lisbon has become a mecca for bibliophiles.

Óbidos - a medieval town that looks like it was lifted from the pages of a fairytale, 50 miles north of Lisbon in Portugal’s Centro region - used to rely on two saccharine treats to seduce visitors:  its annual chocolate festival and ginjinha, the sweet, cherry-based liqueur that originated there.

But today, a walk through its cobblestone alleys is a treat for more than just those with a sweet tooth.

Here, historic spaces have gradually been transformed into contemporary bookstores selling everything from coffee table design books to fiction from Nobel Prize-winner Jose Saramago.  If you’re a bibliophile, it is encouraging to see a place champion physical books so fervently, especially in an age where it is no longer trendy to do so.

Where to start?

Óbidos’s 13th-century architectural icon, the Church of Santiago, located right by the entrance of a hilltop castle, has been rebranded as Grande Livraria de Santiago (“The Grand Bookstore of Santiago”).  Its marble altars display bestsellers, and in the middle of the room, where congregants previously knelt on pews, stand towering shelves of art books, noir novels, and biographies in Portuguese, English, French, and more.

The old vegetable market has received similar treatment:  crates that once held produce are now fixed to the walls, housing volumes on wine and travel, as well as cookbooks from Portuguese chefs. (True to its foodie past, the shop still sells fresh vegetables).

Photos:  The old vegetable market/bookshop

Livraria da Adega, once a wine cellar and now part of a larger coworking space, is also excellent, both for perusing books and for taking a midday break from sightseeing on the outdoor patio, an ideal perch for sipping vinho - while you catch up on your reading.

Last year, the city’s journey to becoming a bona fide literary destination took on a higher profile when Óbidos introduced FOLIO, an international literary festival featuring debates, reading marathons, screenings, and concerts.  Portuguese comedian Ricardo Araújo Pereira and Mia Couto, a writer from Mozambique, were just two names on hand to celebrate.  It is no shock, then, that in December 2015, UNESCO named Óbidos a “City of Literature,” joining the likes of Dublin and Barcelona.  Óbidos may not have the robust literary heritage of these major cities - the town cannot lay claim to a James Joyce or Carlos Ruiz Zafón of its own - but since 2013, a dozen new bookstores have opened within the city walls in an effort to engage the populace economically and culturally through literature.  In this way, Óbidos has redefined its cultural identity as bookstores have joined ginjinha stands in ubiquity - they cannot be avoided.

(Article taken from Condé Nast Traveller - the world's premier travel magazine entitled Óbidos, Portugal Is a Book Lover's Dream by Chadner Navarro, 9 September 2016)

Photos by Choose and Book

To The Edge Of Doom

Kill The Father (Caselli and Torre Series) by Sandrone Dazieri

Paperback:  In this fascinatingly complex thriller, two people, each shattered by their past, team up to solve a series of killings and abductions - unspeakable crimes that turn out to be merely the visible surface of something far more sinister.

When a woman is beheaded in a park outside Rome and her six-year-old son goes missing, the police unit assigned to the case arrests the woman’s husband and awaits his confession.  But the city’s Chief of Major Crimes has his doubts and assigns two of Italy’s top analytical minds to the case:  Deputy Captain Colomba Caselli, a fierce, warrior-like detective still reeling from a horrific mass killing she survived, and Dante Torre, a man who spent his childhood trapped inside a concrete silo.

Fed through the gloved hand of a masked kidnapper who called himself The Father, Dante emerged from his ordeal with crippling claustrophobia but, also, with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge.

All evidence suggests that The Father is back at work and wants a reunion with Dante.  But when Colomba and Dante begin unraveling the truth, they find themselves wanted for murder.  Now Dante and Columba must travel down a number of dark tunnels, both literal and figurative, as they confront the question that may solve it all:  what lies beneath the water in a remote Italian quarry? And what might that revelation mean for ten children who have recently gone missing?

An instant breakout novel in Italy, Kill The Father (2017) boasts a brilliantly layered plot that offers new and more haunting revelations at every turn.  Not since Thomas Harris’s The Silence of the Lambs has there been as intriguing a pairing of hard-charging female detective and 'damaged' savant, and not since Jo Nesbø has there been a foreign thriller talent as promising.

The sequel, Kill The Angel, will be released on 20 February 2018.

Kill The Father is translated from the Italian by a magnificent English translator, Antony Shugaar.

About the author:  Sandrone Dazieri is the bestselling author of eight novels and more than fifty screenplays.  Kill the Father, the first in a planned series - featuring two intriguing detectives to have emerged in recent years, Colomba Caselli and Dante Torre, and set in Rome, Italy - is his UK debut.

Rating:  5/5

Persons Unknown (DS Manon Bradshaw Series) by Susie Steiner

Hardback:  Manon Bradshaw is back.

Manon has settled back into life in Cambridgeshire with her adopted son Fly.

As dusk falls a young man staggers through a park, far from home, bleeding from a stab wound.  He dies where he falls;  cradled by a stranger, a woman's name on his lips in his last seconds of life.

DI Manon Bradshaw cannot help taking an interest - these days she only handles cold cases, but the man died just yards from the police station where she works.

She is horrified to discover that both victim and prime suspect are more closely linked to her than she could have imagined.

And as the Cambridgeshire police force closes ranks against her, she is forced to contemplate the unthinkable.

How well does she know her loved ones, and are they capable of murder?

Persons Unknown (2017), the sequel to Missing, Presumed, is her third novel and the second instalment in the very well-written and superb DS Manon Bradshaw series set in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, UK.

About the author:  Susie Steiner grew up in north London, studied English at university and trained as a journalist.  She worked in newspapers for twenty years, eleven of them on staff at The Guardian. Her first novel, Homecoming, was published by Faber & Faber to critical acclaim in 2013.  Her second, Missing, Presumed was a Sunday Times bestseller which introduced detective Manon Bradshaw.  It was a Richard & Judy book club pick and has sold 200 000 copies to date in the UK.

Missing, Presumed was selected as one of the Guardian’s, Wall Street Journal’s and NPR's standout books of 2016.  It was longlisted for the Theakston's Crime Novel of the Year and the 2017 Barry Awards Best First Novel.  Susie has written extensively about losing her eyesight to Retinitis Pigmentosa.  She lives in London with her husband and two children and is currently working on a third Manon Bradshaw mystery.

Rating:  5/5

Missing, Presumed (DS Manon Bradshaw Series) by Susie Steiner

Hardback:  At thirty-nine, Manon Bradshaw is a devoted and respected member of the Cambridgeshire police force, and though she loves her job, what she longs for is a personal life. Single and distant from her family, she wants a husband and children of her own.  One night, after yet another disastrous Internet date, she turns on her police radio to help herself fall asleep - and receives an alert that sends her to a puzzling crime scene.

Edith Hind - a beautiful graduate student at Cambridge University and daughter of the surgeon to the Royal Family - has been missing for nearly twenty-four hours. Her home offers few clues: a smattering of blood in the kitchen, her keys and phone left behind, the front door ajar but showing no signs of forced entry.  Manon instantly knows that this case will be big - and that every second is crucial to finding Edith alive.

The investigation starts with Edith's loved ones:  her attentive boyfriend, her reserved best friend, her patrician parents.  As the search widens and press coverage reaches a frenzied pitch, secrets begin to emerge about Edith's tangled love life and her erratic behaviour leading up to her disappearance.

With no clear leads, Manon summons every last bit of her skill and intuition to close the case, and what she discovers will have shocking consequences not just for Edith's family but for Manon herself.

Suspenseful, beautifully and stylishly written and keenly observed, Missing, Presumed (2016) - the first instalment in the DS Manon series set in Cambridgeshire, England - is a brilliantly twisting novel of how we seek connection, grant forgiveness, and reveal the truth about who we are.

About the author:  Susie Steiner grew up in north London, studied English at university and trained as a journalist.  She worked in newspapers for twenty years, eleven of them on staff at The Guardian. Her first novel, Homecoming, was published by Faber & Faber to critical acclaim in 2013.  Her second, Missing, Presumed was a Sunday Times bestseller which introduced detective Manon Bradshaw.  It was a Richard & Judy book club pick and has sold 200 000 copies to date in the UK.

Missing, Presumed was selected as one of the Guardian’s, Wall Street Journal’s and NPR's standout books of 2016.  It was longlisted for the Theakston's Crime Novel of the Year and the 2017 Barry Awards Best First Novel.  Persons Unknown (2017), the sequel to Missing, Presumed, is her third novel.  Susie has written extensively about losing her eyesight to Retinitis Pigmentosa.  She lives in London with her husband and two children and is currently working on a third Manon Bradshaw mystery.

Rating:  5/5

A Twisted Society

No Doubt Politics Is A Dirty Game

Conversation

The Right Moment To Act

Patience

Realest

Loss of Innocence

Adults In The Room: My Battle With Europe's Deep Establishment (Memoir/Politics) by Yanis Varoufakis

Hardback:  "There are two kinds of politicians," he said:  "insiders and outsiders.  The outsiders prioritize their freedom to speak their version of the truth.  The price of their freedom is that they are ignored by the insiders, who make the important decisions.  The insiders, for their part, follow a sacrosanct rule:  never turn against other insiders and never talk to outsiders about what insiders say or do.  Their reward?  Access to inside information and a chance, though no guarantee, of influencing powerful people and outcomes."

With that Summers arrived at his question.  "So, Yanis," he said, "which of the two are you?"

What happens when you take on the establishment?

In this blistering, personal account, world-famous economist Yanis Varoufakis blows the lid on Europe's hidden agenda and exposes what actually goes on in its corridors of power.

Varoufakis sparked one of the most spectacular and controversial battles in recent political history when, as finance minister of Greece, he attempted to re-negotiate his country’s relationship with the EU.  Despite the mass support of the Greek people and the simple logic of his arguments, he succeeded only in provoking the fury of Europe’s political, financial and media elite.  But the true story of what happened is almost entirely unknown - not least because so much of the EU’s real business takes place behind closed doors.

In this fearless account, Varoufakis reveals all:  an extraordinary tale of brinkmanship, hypocrisy, collusion and betrayal that will shake the deep establishment to its foundations.

As is now clear, the same policies that required the tragic and brutal suppression of Greece’s democratic uprising have led directly to authoritarianism, populist revolt and instability throughout the Western world.

Adults In The Room (2017), hailed as one of the greatest political memoirs of all time (Guardian) and a Number One Sunday Times Bestseller, is an urgent wake-up call to renew European democracy before it is too late.

About the author:  Yanis Varoufakis is the former finance minister of Greece and the author of several international bestselling books.

And the Weak Suffer What They Must?:  Europe, Austerity and the Threat to Global Stability (2016) reveals the underlying problems that led to the Eurozone crisis and its ongoing catastrophic mishandling.

Adults In the Room: My Battle with Europe's Deep Establishment (2017) is an explosive memoir that reveals what goes on behind the scenes in Europe's corridors of power.

Talking To My Daughter About the Economy: A Brief History of Capitalism (2014) explains through vivid stories and easily graspable concepts what economics actually is and why it is so dangerous in the form of a letter to his teenage daughter.

Born in Athens in 1961, Yanis Varoufakis was for many years a professor of economics in Britain, Australia and the USA before he entered government and is currently Professor of Economics at the University of Athens.  Since resigning from Greece's finance ministry, he has co-founded an international grassroots movement, DiEM25, campaigning for the revival of democracy in Europe and speaks to audiences of thousands worldwide.

yanisvaroufakis.eu/@yanisvaroufakis

Our Natural State of Being

Book Gifts Are The Best

Getting At The Root Of Things

I Like To Be Alone

Celebrate

Inside Scientology: The Story of America's Most Secretive Religion (Religion) by Janet Reitman

Paperback:  Scientology is known for its celebrity believers and its team of "volunteer ministers" at disaster sites such as the World Trade Center;  its notably aggressive response to criticism or its attacks on psychiatry;  its requirement that believers pay as much as hundreds of thousands of dollars to reach the highest levels of salvation.

But for all its notoriety, Scientology has remained America's least understood new religion, even as it has been one of its most successful.

Now Janet Reitman tells its riveting full story in the first objective modern history of Scientology, at last revealing the astonishing truth about life within the controversial religion for its members and ex-members.

The book covers the history of Scientology and discusses prominent Scientologists such as L Ron Hubbard (creator of Scientology) and Tom Cruise.  It details the church's business model under the leadership of David Miscavige.  It also describes Scientology controversies, such as the death of Lisa McPherson.  The book devotes some attention to Scientology's broader teachings including Scientology’s development from the birth of Dianetics to today, following its metamorphosis from a pseudoscientific self-help group to a global spiritual corporation with profound control over its followers and ex-followers.

After its release, the book was criticized by the Church of Scientology.  A spokesperson for the church alleged that the book was poorly researched and contained numerous inaccuracies.  Reitman disputed their claims, maintaining that she did extensive research.

According to a review published on The Village Voice, Reitman's book is a "stunning overview of everything" and calls the author a "thorough, brave journalist."

Based on five years of research - which began in 2006 when she published an article in Rolling Stone about Scientology - confidential documents, and extensive interviews with current and former Scientologists, this is an utterly compelling work of nonfiction and the defining work on an elusive faith.

Inside Scientology:  The Story of America's Most Secretive Religion (2011) has been nominated as a New York Times Notable Book, an Amazon.com Best Nonfiction Book of the Year and a San Francisco Chronicle Top Ten Book of the Year.

About the author:  Janet Reitman is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, and the author of Inside Scientology, which was based on her National Magazine Award-nominated story of the same name published in Rolling Stone in March, 2006.  She is the first American journalist to publish a major book on Scientology, and the only writer to have charted its full history.

Reitman also covered the war in Iraq for Rolling Stone and has reported on a wide range of other topics, including the failure of US and international recovery efforts in post-earthquake Haiti;  the Duke lacrosse scandal;  the death of American aid worker Marla Ruzicka in Baghdad;  and the national childhood obesity crisis.  She has also reported extensively in Africa, profiling Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe, and covering conflicts in Sudan and Sierra Leone.

In addition to Rolling Stone, Reitman's work has appeared in GQ, Men's Journal, the Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine, and Salon, among other publications.  She and journalist L Christopher Smith live in Brooklyn, New York, with their French sheepdog, Bode.

Or Reading Enough?

Comes The Dawn by Veronica A Shoffstall

Colors of the Wind by Alan Menken and Stephen Laurence Schwartz

You think I'm an ignorant savage
And you've been so many places
I guess it must be so
But still I cannot see
If the savage one is me
How can there be so much that you don't know
You don't know

You think you own whatever land you land on
The Earth is just a dead thing you can claim
But I know every rock and tree and creature
Has a life, has a spirit, has a name

You think the only people who are people
Are the people who look and think like you
But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger
You'll learn things you never knew, you never knew

Have you ever heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moon
Or asked the grinning bobcat why he grinned
Can you sing with all the voices of the mountains
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind

Come run the hidden pine trails of the forest
Come taste the sun sweet berries of the Earth
Come roll in all the riches all around you
And for once, never wonder what they're worth

The rainstorm and the river are my brothers
The heron and the otter are my friends
And we are all connected to each other
In a circle, in a hoop that never ends

How high will the sycamore grow
If you cut it down, then you'll never know
And you'll never hear the wolf cry to the blue corn moon
For whether we are white or copper skinned
We need to sing with all the voices of the mountains
We need to paint with all the colors of the wind

You can own the Earth and still
All you'll own is Earth until
You can paint with all the colors of the wind

Copyright © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc, Walt Disney Music Company

Final Court of Appeal in the United Kingdom

Shanghai Redemption (An Inspector Chen Series) by Qiu Xiaolong

Paperback:  "The system has no place for a cop who puts justice above the interests of the Party.  It's a miracle that I survived as long as I did."

For years, Inspector Chen Cao managed to balance the interests of the Communist Party and the promises made by his job.  He was both a Chief Inspector of Special Investigations of the Shanghai Police Department and the deputy party secretary of the bureau.  He was considered a potential rising star in the Party until, after one too many controversial cases that embarrassed powerful elements in the Party, Inspector Chen found himself neutralized.

Under the guise of a major promotion, a new position with a substantial title but no power, he is stripped of his job duties and isolated.  But that is still not enough, as it becomes increasingly clear that someone is attempting to set him up, for public disgrace and possibly worse.

The threat increases when Inspector Chen is charged with the investigation into a 'Red Prince' - a high Party figure who embodies the greed and corruption of modern China.  This 'Red Prince' has the kind of connections and power to deflect any attempts to bring him to justice.  With no power and few allies, the former Inspector Chen knows he is facing the most dangerous case of his career and his life.

Shanghai Redemption (2015) is the ninth instalment in the marvellous, engrossing, unpredictable and immensely readable Inspector Chen series set in China.  The series portray an honest cop whose personal ethics often conflict with the politically expedient orders from above.  The protagonist embodies the confusion - both ideological and spiritual - that haunts modern China.  Qiu captures China in transition elegantly and with clarity as well as gives a fresh perspective on the forces shaping a new China and the influences of the Cultural Revolution and Tiananmen in 1989.

About the author:  Qiu Xiaolong was born in Shanghai.  The Cultural Revolution began in his last year of elementary school, and out of school, out of a job, he studied English by himself in a local park.  In 1977, he began his studies at East China Normal University in Shanghai, and then the Chinese Academy of Social Science in Beijing.  He was selected for membership of the Chinese Writers' Association and published poetry, translations and criticism in China.  In 1988, he came to Washington University in St Louis, US as a Ford foundation fellow to do a project on TS Eliot.  After the Tiananmen tragedy of 1989, he decided to stay on.  He lives there still with his wife and daughter.

Rating:  5/5

A Well-Stocked Library

Celebrate Fiercely

The Agility of The Spirit

My Mind, My Soul, My Wisdom

Pilgrim

Yesterday's Thought Of The Day

You Don't Know What You Don't Know

Blood Med (Chief Inspector Max Cámara Series) by Jason Webster

Hardback:  Spain is corrupt and on the brink of collapse.  The king is ill, banks are closing, hospitals are in chaos, homes are lost, demonstrators riot and rightwing thugs patrol the street.  The tunnels beneath the streets are at once a refuge and a source of anger.  And as the blood flows, Cámara roars in on his motorbike.

Cámara is back in Valencia with his partner Alicia and his anarchist, marijuana-growing grandfather Hilario.  In the old police headquarters, the mood is tense as the chief hunts for cuts - who will go, Camara or his friend Torres?

The two men are flung into action investigating the suicide of an ex-bank clerk and the brutal murder of a young American woman.  As the city erupts around them, their case takes them into the heart of the trouble.

Blood Med (2014) is the fourth instalment in this brilliant Chief Inspector Max Cámara series set in Spain.  It is highly recommended.

About the author:  Jason Webster is a highly acclaimed Anglo-American author and authority on Spain whose work ranges from biography to travel, crime fiction and history.  His books have sold in over a dozen countries, including the US, the UK and China, and have been nominated both for the Guardian First Book Award and the Crime Writers’ Association New Blood Dagger Award.  He has been favourably compared with writers such as Bruce Chatwin (The Daily Mail), Gerald Brenan (El País) and Ernest Hemingway (Sunday Telegraph).

Webster was born near San Francisco and brought up in the UK, Germany and Italy.  After finishing a degree in Arabic and Islamic History at the University of Oxford, he worked as an editor at the BBC World Service for several years before becoming a full-time writer and moving to Spain.  He is married to the flamenco dancer Salud and they have two sons.  They currently divide their time between Valencia and the UK.

Rating:  5/5