The Boys From Biloxi by John Grisham

Hardback: For most of the last hundred years, Biloxi was known for its beaches, resorts, and seafood industry. But it had a darker side. It was also notorious for corruption and vice, everything from gambling, prostitution, bootleg liquor, drugs . . . even contract killings. The vice was controlled by a small cabal of mobsters, many of them rumoured to be members of the Dixie Mafia.

Keith Rudy and Hugh Malco grew up in Biloxi in the sixties and were childhood friends. But as teenagers, their lives took them in different directions. Keith’s father became a legendary prosecutor, determined to ‘clean up the Coast.’ Hugh’s father became the ‘Boss’ of Biloxi’s criminal underground. Keith went to law school and followed in his father’s footsteps. Hugh preferred the nightlife and worked in his father’s clubs. The two families were headed for a showdown, one that would happen in a courtroom.

Rich with history and with a large cast of unforgettable characters, The Boys from Biloxi (2022) is a sweeping saga of two sons of immigrant families who grow up as friends, but ultimately find themselves in a knife-edge legal confrontation in which life itself hangs in the balance.

In this novel, Grisham takes his powerful storytelling to the next level, his trademark twists and turns will keep you tearing through the pages until the stunning conclusion.

No one writes a legal drama like the legendary John Grisham.

About the author: Beginning with The Firm in 1991, John Grisham has published at least one No 1 bestseller every year. His books have been translated into 45 languages and have sold over 350 million copies worldwide. Ten have been adapted to film, including The Firm, The Pelican Brief, and A Time To Kill. His Theodore Boone series for young readers is now in development at Netflix. 

Find out more at jgrisham.com and stay in touch via Facebook at /JohnGrishamInt.

Rating: 5/5

Lucie Yi Is Not A Romantic by Lauren Ho

Paperback: An ambitious career woman signs up for a co-parenting website only to find a match she never expected, in this unflinchingly funny and honest novel, Lucie Yi Is Not A Romantic (2022).

Management consultant Lucie Yi is done waiting for Mr Right. After a harrowing breakup foiled her plans for children - and drove her to a meltdown in a Tribeca baby store - she is ready to take matters into her own hands. She signs up for an elective co-parenting website to find a suitable partner with whom to procreate - as platonic as family planning can be.

 

Collin Read checks all of Lucie’s boxes; he shares a similar cultural background, he is honest, and most important, he is ready to become a father. When they match, it does not take long for Lucie to take a leap of faith for her future. So what if her conservative family might not approve? 

When Lucie becomes pregnant, the pair return to Singapore and, sure enough, her parents refuse to look on the bright side. Even more complicated, Lucie’s ex-fiancé reappears, sparking unresolved feelings and compounding work pressures and the baffling ways her body is changing. 

Suddenly her straightforward arrangement is falling apart before her very eyes, and Lucie will have to decide how to juggle the demands of the people she loves while pursuing the life she really wants.

About the author: Lauren Ho is a reformed legal counsel who now prefers to write for pleasure. Hailing from Malaysia, she is currently based in Singapore, where she is ostensibly working on her next novel while attempting to parent. She is also the author of Last Tang Standing (2020). Ho can be found on Instagram or Twitter @HelloLaurenHo.

Rating: 5/5

2023 Prayer, Not A Resolution

St Thomas Beckett, Archbishop of Canterbury

Thomas à Becket (1118-1170)

Outside And Inside The Church

An Honourable Pact

Not Alone Enough To Make Every Moment Holy

Cold East by Gabija Grušaitė

Paperback: Twenty-something author and minor media influencer Stasys Šaltoka - or Stanley Colder to his adoring IG followers - has hit an existential wall. Abandoning his clichéd and stifling New York city life, he buys a one-way ticket to Southeast Asia in search of life-changing experiences.

A chance meeting with an enigmatic Russian leads Stasys to a documentary project - the murder of a mysterious Mongolian model that implicates a prime minister and his jewel-hoarding wife. 

Unravelling the truth takes Stasys deeper through the murky swamp of extreme corruption, death, Islamophobia and media manipulation.

Will he ever figure out the meaning of life or find a decent espresso?

Cold East (2017, 2018) has been shortlisted for the European Union Prize for Literature 2019 and Book of the Year in Lithuania 2018. It won the Jurga Ivanauskaitė Literary Prize (Lithuania) 2018 and the Penang Monthly Book Prize 2018. Cold East is translated from the Lithuanian by Kipras Šumskas.

About the author: Gabija Grušaitė is an author and curator; Cold East is her second novel. A graduate of Anthropology & Media from Goldsmiths College, UK, Gabija has defined her creative pursuit by the relentless search of new horizons through travel. In 2009, she settled in Penang, Malaysia, where she cofounded an independent, contemporary art centre – Hin Bus Depot – as its curator-in-chief. She currently lives in Vilnius, Lithuania with her two Malaysian dogs, Gorgeous and Hazelnut.

About the translator: Kipras Šumskas has translated movies, magazines, several books, and far too many legal documents. In his spare time, he teaches Creative Thinking to teenagers and kids in informal education projects.

Rating: 5/5

Merry Christmas, The Wondrous Gift of Christ

And The Word Became Flesh!

Just Like A Carpenter

In Due Time, As Snow Melts

Singapore Fire (An Ash Carter Thriller Series) by Murray Bailey

Paperback: The Endgame.

Once again caught between the government and the criminal gangs, it's time for Carter to choose.

Escape now or stand and fight? 

Singapore Fire (2021) is the sixth instalment in the excellent Private Investigator/ex-Special Investigations Branch British MP Ash Carter Thriller series set in Singapore in the 1950s. 

About the author: By day, Murray Bailey is an international consultant and lecturer in risk and statistical models. However crime-thriller writing is his main passion. He resides in beautiful Dorset with his wife and family.

Rating: 5/5

Just Look At Us

The Accidental Malay by Karina Robles Bahrin

Paperback: Siapa yang makan cili, dia lah yang terasa pedasnya. (He who eats chillies will feel the heat). - Malay proverb

Jasmine Leong wants to be the next CEO of Phoenix, her family’s billion-ringgit company known especially for its bak kwa. 

But when Jasmine discovers she is actually a Malay Muslim, her newfound identity threatens to upend her life and ambitions. 

Set in Kuala Lumpur and other areas of Malaysia, The Accidental Malay (2022) examines the human cost of a country’s racial policies, and paints a portrait of a woman unwilling to accept the fate history has designated for her.

The Accidental Malay won the Epigram Books Fiction Prize 2022, which promotes contemporary creative writing and rewards excellence in Southeast Asian literature.

The Accidental Malay is available in all bookshops in Malaysia and Singapore. In the UK (Amazon) and in the USA (Barnes & Noble), it is currently available on Kindle form only.

About the author: Karina Robles Bahrin got her first break as a writer when she guest edited a weekly teen column in The New Straits Times a very long time ago. Her short fiction has been published in venues such as Urban Odysseys: KL Stories; KL Noir: Blue; A Subtle Degree of Restraint & Other Stories and Malaysian Tales: Retold & Remixed. She is a former columnist with The Heat, a weekly by Focus Malaysia. She currently lives and works on the island of Langkawi, Malaysia. The Accidental Malay is her debut novel.

Rating: 5/5

Happiness No 1412

Church Of Cowards: A Wake-Up Call To Complacent Christians (Religion & Spirituality) by Matt Walsh

Paperback: They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves. - Jeremiah 2:5

What Would You Surrender for God?

Christians in the Middle East, in much of Asia, and in Africa are still being martyred for the faith, but how many American Christians are willing to lay down their smartphones, let alone their lives, for the faith?

Being a Christian in America does not require much these days. Suburban megachurches are more like entertainment venues than places to worship God. The lives that American “Christians” lead aren’t much different from those of their atheist neighbours, and their knowledge of theology is not much better either.

Matt Walsh of The Daily Wire exposes the pitiful state of Christianity in America today, lays out the stakes for us, our families, and our eternal salvation, and invites us to a faith that is a lot less easy and comfortable - but that is more real and actually worth something.

The spiritual junk food we are stuffing ourselves with is never going to satisfy. As St Augustine said over a millennium ago, our hearts are restless until they rest in Him. Only God Himself can make our lives anything but ultimately meaningless and empty. And we will never get anywhere near Him if we refuse to take up our cross and follow Jesus.

This rousing call to the real adventure of a living faith is a wake-up call to complacent Christians and a rallying cry for anyone dissatisfied with a lukewarm faith. 

About the author: Matt Walsh, a columnist and host of The Matt Walsh Show podcast at The Daily Wire, is known for his controversial and provocative insights into culture, politics and religion. He speaks out in a way that connects with his generation and beyond. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee with his wife and young children.

Jolabokaflod

I'm Reading

Reading To A Young Calf

How The Tables Have Turned

Anwar Ibrahim: Evolution Of A Muslim Democrat by Charles Allers

Paperback: Long before the recent Arab Spring, when the topic of democracy with in many Muslim countries took centre stage internationally, Malaysia's Anwar Ibrahim, an energetic and charismatic politician, had been one of the most vocal global proponents of the compatibility of Islam and democratic principles. 

Anwar, who at one time was asked to be secretary-general of the United Nations, has lived a life that is a compelling testimony of the growth and evolution of his love for his country and his faith. Anwar has been active at the highest levels of Malaysian politics for over thirty years, and though he has been jailed for his activism on several occasions, he continues to be a dynamic, passionate voice for the diverse cultures, religions, and peoples of Malaysia. 

Charles Allers, who holds a PhD in Islamic Studies, tells Anwar's life story in a factual, impartial way, and his one-on-one interviews with Anwar add a unique personal component.

Anwar Ibrahim: Evolution of a Muslim Democrat (2013), illustrated with photographs of Anwar from throughout his political career, is essential reading for those interested in developing their understanding of the complexities and controversies surrounding Anwar Ibrahim and his place in Malaysian society, as well as those interested in attitudes toward politics and religion in modern Islamic contexts.

About the author: Charles Allers holds a PhD in Islamic studies. He has been a pastor and educator in Southern California for the past 30 years. He and his wife, Greta, reside in San Diego, California.

Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman

Paperback: From 'the folk hero of Davos', Fox News antagonist and author of the international bestseller Utopia for Realists (2014, 2017) comes a radical history of our innate capacity for kindness. It is a belief that unites the left and right, psychologists and philosophers, writers and historians. It drives the headlines that surround us and the laws that touch our lives. 

From Machiavelli to Hobbes, Freud to Pinker, the roots of this belief have sunk deep into Western thought. Human beings, we are taught, are by nature selfish and governed by self-interest.

Humankind (2019, 2020) makes a new argument: that it is realistic, as well as revolutionary, to assume that people are good. The instinct to cooperate rather than compete, trust rather than distrust, has an evolutionary basis going right back to the beginning of Homo sapiens. By thinking the worst of others, we bring out the worst in our politics and economics too. In this major book, international-bestselling author Rutger Bregman takes some of the world's most famous studies and events and reframes them, providing a new perspective on the last 200,000 years of human history.

From the real-life Lord of the Flies to the cooperation seen in the aftermath of the Blitz, the hidden flaws in the Stanford Prison Experiment to the true story of the Kitty Genovese murder, Bregman shows how believing in human kindness and altruism can be a new way to think - and act as the foundation for achieving true change in our society. It is time for a new view of human nature.

Humankind (2019, 2020) was awarded the Publieksprijs voor het Nederlandse Boek (2020) and nominated for the Goodreads Choice Award for History & Biography (2020).

About the author: Rutger Bregman (1988) is a historian and author. He has published five books on history, philosophy, and economics. His books Humankind and Utopia for Realists were both New York Times Bestsellers and have been translated in more than 40 languages. Bregman has twice been nominated for the prestigious European Press Prize for his work at The Correspondent. He lives in Holland.

A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson

Paperback: A Town Called Solace (2021) is longlisted for the Booker Prize 2021.

Clara's older sister is missing. Angry, rebellious Rose, had a row with their mother, stormed out of the house and simply disappeared. Eight-year-old Clara, isolated by her distraught parents' efforts to protect her from the truth, is grief-stricken and bewildered.

Liam Kane, newly divorced, newly unemployed, newly arrived in this small northern town, moves into the house next door, a house left to him by an old woman he can barely remember and within hours gets a visit from the police. It seems he's suspected of a crime.

At the end of her life Elizabeth Orchard is thinking about a crime too, one committed thirty years ago that had tragic consequences for two families and in particular for one small child. She desperately wants to make amends before she dies.

Set in Northern Ontario in 1972, A Town Called Solace is Mary Lawson's fourth novel and explores the relationships of these three people brought together by fate and the mistakes of the past. By turns gripping and darkly funny, it uncovers the layers of grief and remorse and love that connect us, but shows that sometimes a new life is possible.

About the author: Mary Lawson was born and brought up in the small farming community of Blackwell, near Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. Her family had a summer cottage in northern Ontario, in an area of lakes and rocks and forests known as the Canadian Shield. It remains, Lawson says, her favourite landscape, and it has played a major role in her writing.

After graduating from McGill University in Montreal she went to England for a holiday, ran out of money, had to find a job, fell in love with a colleague and married him. They have two sons and live in Kingston upon Thames, near London.

Lawson began writing when her children went to school. For some years she dabbled with short stories, which she sold to women’s magazines, but it wasn’t until she set one of those stories in Canada and was advised by an editor to turn it into a novel that she finally found her voice and discovered what she wanted to write about.

Crow Lake, her first novel, published when Lawson was 55, sold in 28 countries. It spent 75 weeks on the bestseller list in Canada, won the Amazon.ca First Novel Award, was a New York Times bestseller and was chosen as a Book of the Year by the New York Times, The Sunday Times, The Washington Post and The Globe and Mail. The Other Side of the Bridge, her second novel, was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize and was a Richard and Judy Summer Read in the UK.  Road Ends, published to critical acclaim in 2014, was a top-ten bestseller, described by the New York Times as “tender and surprising...a vivid and evocative tale”.

Rating: 5/5

The Disappearance Of Lydia Harvey: A True Story Of Sex, Crime And The Meaning Of Justice by Julia Laite

Paperback: 1910, Wellington, New Zealand. Lydia Harvey is sixteen, working long hours for low pay, when a glamorous couple invite her to Buenos Aires. She accepts - and disappears.

London, England. Amid a global panic about sex trafficking, detectives are tracking a ring of international criminals when they find a young woman on the streets of Soho who might be the key to cracking the whole case. As more people are drawn into Lydia's life and the trial at the Old Bailey, the world is being reshaped into a new, global era. Choices are being made - about who gets to cross borders, whose stories matter and what justice looks like - that will shape the next century.

In this immersive account, historian Julia Laite traces Lydia Harvey through the fragments she left behind to build an extraordinary story of aspiration, exploitation and survival - and one woman trying to build a life among the forces of history.

The Disappearance of Lydia Harvey: A True Story of Sex, Crime and the Meaning of Justice (2021) won the CWA ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction 2022.

About the author: Julia Laite is a reader in modern history at Birkbeck, University of London. Her first book, Common Prostitutes and Ordinary Citizens (2011), examined the criminalisation of commercial sex in 20th-century London. She has written for the Guardian, Open Democracy and History & Policy, and appeared on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour and Making History, as well as the television programme Find My Past. She discovered Lydia Harvey during research for her first book and has been searching for her story in archives around the world ever since. She lives in Cambridge with her partner and their two children.

My Menopause Memoir by Tracy Minnock-Nuku

Paperback: Planning my Fabulous 50th and I smacked into the throes of perimenopause - although I'd never heard of it! Hot flashes, night sweats, brain fog, anxiety and no one to talk to about this. Even my GP hadn't mention the pending hormonal changes. 

Once I wrapped my head around the 35 recognised symptoms (and counting) and that I had 29 of these, I committed to learning everything I could and telling everyone I could. My journey through menopause has had trauma, heartbreak, humour and enlightenment. While I share my personal experience about each perimenopause symptom, I navigate conversations with experts from around the world for my podcast "Sexy Ageing" and learn that there are many things we can do to support our menopause transition - both naturally and medically. 

Each symptom is broken down into a story that you can probably relate to, an explanation of what is happening in the body to cause that symptom and then top tips to support you as recommended by the experts in this field. My experience is supported by other women's stories and from their sharing, we learn that every woman's journey is different.

About the author: Tracy Minnoch-Nuku (BPhEd - Otago, NZ and MBA, Vic, Melb.) is an educated and experienced advocate for women's health and fitness. With over 30 years in the fitness industry, Tracy began her career as a Group Fitness Teacher and Personal Trainer where she transformed bodies and lives through fitness and nutrition. Tracy spent 20 years developing teams and fitness training programs in Asia - live, online and through fitness apps. 

Tracy’s own experience with menopause was messy. Without any prior warning, her symptoms began to accelerate and negatively impacted on her physical and mental health, work life and relationships. Tracy documents all of her symptoms and experiences in her book My Menopause Memoir (2022) as well as through her highly acclaimed podcast “Sexy Ageing”.

Saint Maravillas Of Jesus: Jesus Christ The Sole Reason Of My Life by Baldomero Jiménez-Duque

Booklet: Since her death, Mother Maravillas has become a talking point both among Carmelites and throughout the Church. It should as no surprise to us that of all Carmelites, she is the one who has been raised to the altar in the shortest time: only 24 years after her death. St Teresa of Ávila took 30 years and even St Thérèse of Lisieux took 32. So this is a record.

She has been called the St Teresa of the 20th century. And rightly so. The convents she founded and her life are very impressive. The role she played had providential and prophetic echoes. This small and urgent biography is intended as a humble offering to this extraordinary woman, or rather to the glory of God, since all is grace.

Mother Maravillas (1891-1974), a Discalced Carmelite, is an example of deep humility and devotion to the Lord. Her dedication and her love of God, her Teresian spirituality and apostolic zeal can be seen in the foundation of various convents, among which two stand out: Cerro de los Ángeles and La Aldehuela. She died in 1974, was beatified in 1998 and canonized in 2003.

Saint Maravillas Of Jesus: Jesus Christ The Sole Reason Of My Life (2002) is translated from the original Spanish text, Vida de la Madre Maravillas, into the English by Oliver Todd.

Saint Maravillas Of Jesus: Jesus Christ The Sole Reason Of My Life (2002) was purchased at the Librairie Catholique Internationale in Lourdes, France, for a sum of €12.

Any Time Off Peak Train

A Job

Such As We Are, Such Are The Times

Athonite Fathers Of The 20th Century Volume 1 by Cell of the Resurrection, Mount Athos

Paperback: In the lives of twenty-four Athonite Fathers of the twentieth century the reader encounters heaven on earth, the Gospel in action and the continuation of the Incarnation. 

Following the Holy Fathers, these holy ascetics lead us on the Way and connect us to the clouds of witnesses gone before us. Their lives guide us on the path of repentance and their examples inspire us to divine ascent. 

As so many flowers beautifying the Garden of the Theotokos, the lives of these Hagiorite ascetics adorn the Church with their hesychastic way of life, ascetic struggles, patristic confession of faith, and heavenly visitations. 

Advanced and beginners, faithful and seekers, all alike will cling to these eyewitness accounts of contemporary angels in the flesh and men of heaven. 

This treasury of spiritual gems has been carefully gathered and guarded by Hagiorite desert fathers and now it is made available to you, the pious pilgrim on the path to paradise.

Athonite Fathers of the 20th Century (2022) is translated from the Greek text, From the Ascetic and Hesychastic Athonite Tradition. 

Additional volumes will be released soon.

Mount Athos is the site of an important centre of Eastern Orthodox monasticism in northeastern Greece.

Inner Silence A Difficult Achievement

Beasts Of A Little Land by Juhea Kim

Paperback: Beasts of a Little Land (2021) is longlisted for the 2022 HWA Debut Crown Award; finalist for the 2022 Balcones Fiction Prize; a Recommended Read by: The Today Show, The Washington Post, USA Today, GoodReads, BuzzFeed, LitHub, Fortune, The Chicago Review of Books, Entertainment Weekly, The Millions, Kirkus Reviews, BookRiot, Buzz Books, Vulture, Bustle, Good Morning America, Christian Science Monitor, PopSugar, The Oregonian, Globe & Mail, Seattle Public Library; a Best Book of 2021: Harper's Bazaar, Real Simple, Ms. Magazine, Portland Monthly; Amazon's Best Books of December 2021; December 2021 Indie Next List Pick; and December 2021 Library Reads Pick.

 

As the Korean independence movement gathers pace, two children meet on the streets of Seoul. Fate will bind them through decades of love and war. They just don't know it yet.

It is 1917, and Korea is under Japanese occupation. With the threat of famine looming, ten-year-old Jade is sold by her desperate family to Miss Silver's courtesan school in the bustling city of Pyongyang.

As the Japanese army tears through the country, she is forced to flee to the southern city of Seoul. Soon, her path crosses with that of an orphan named JungHo, a chance encounter that will lead to a life-changing friendship.

But when JungHo is pulled into the revolutionary fight for independence, Jade must decide between following her own ambitions and risking everything for the one she loves.

Sweeping through five decades of Korean history, Juhea Kim's sparkling debut is an intricately woven tale of love stretched to breaking point, and two people who refuse to let go.

About the author: Juhea Kim was born in Incheon, Korea, and moved to Portland, Oregon, at the age of nine. She is the founder and editor of Peaceful Dumpling, an online magazine covering sustainable lifestyle and ecological literature. She earned her BA in Art and Archaeology from Princeton University. Her writing has been published in Granta, Catapult, Joyland, Times Literary Supplement, Independent, Zyzzyva and elsewhere, and Beasts of a Little Life is her debut novel. After a decade in New York City, Kim now lives in Portland, Oregon.

Rating: 5/5

Personal Notes by Bernadette SOUBIROUS

Booklet: With the exception of the autobiographic narratives of the Apparitions, the small note book containing Bernadette's Personal Notes, is certainly the most precious treasure of Saint Bernadette kept in the archives of Saint Gildard's Convent in Nevers, France.

In this very modest note book, Saint Bernadette has written down:

1) Extracts from books that she had read, pious thoughts or prayers copied from holy pictures, snatches of hymns, etc; among which, sometimes, short, simple prayers to God, to Our Lady and to the Saints escaped from Bernadette's heart;

2) Notes taken down during a retreat given by a Jesuit, Father Secail, from 21 October to 30 October 1873. During that retreat, Bernadette made her confession to the chaplain of St Gildard's Convent, Father Douce, a Marist Priest, whose advice and lines of direction she asked for. She also jotted down her own answers to which she added her resolutions and personal prayers. All these form real confidences, revealing the secrets of her interior life;

3) A few outlines of meditations;

4) A very beautiful prayer to the Virgin Mary, in the form of a dialogue between the soul and Mary, which she copied from a picture;

5) Then follow notes taken down during the retreat given by a Jesuit, Father Candeloup, from 5 September to 14 September 1874, with the advice received from Father Douce, together with her own resolutions. These pages are especially enlightening;

6) Again, a selection of thoughts, some of which were copied from holy pictures;

7) Finally, on the last page, scribbled in pencil in a shaky handwriting, probably written on her sick bed, we read a very moving sentence on holiness and the Rule. To the note book dated 1873 and 1874 we add some notes written on note books or loose-leaf pages of the same size as Personal Notes. They will enable the reader to follow Bernadette further in the admirable progress of her soul, constantly moved during these years, to a purer love of Jesus Christ.

We have found the source of most of the copied notes. However, this takes nothing away from the originality and intimacy of these pages. Saint Bernadette chose these texts because they were what she preferred and she preferred them because, in fact, they corresponded to the depths of her own interior life.

To copy, for Bernadette, was to express her feelings and to bring to light her deepest and sometimes her most hidden desire. It was also a means of expressing beneath a borrowed veil, what she was too timid to write in her own simple words.

- André RAVIER, S J

Personal Notes (1873-75) was purchased at the Librairie Catholique Internationale in Lourdes, France, for a sum of €4.50.

Beneath The Mountain by Luca d'Andrea

Paperback: In Luca D’Andrea’s atmospheric and brilliant thriller, set in a small mountain community in the majestic Italian Dolomites, an outsider must uncover the truth about a triple murder that has gone unsolved for thirty years.

New York City native Jeremiah Salinger is one half of a hot-shot documentary-making team. He and his partner, Mike, made a reality show about roadies that skyrocketed them to fame. But now Salinger’s left that all behind, to move with his wife, Annelise, and young daughter, Clara, to the remote part of Italy where Annelise grew up - the Alto Adige.

Nestled in the Dolomites, this breathtaking, rural region that was once part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire remains more Austro than Italian. Locals speak a strange, ancient dialect - Ladino - and root for Germany (against Italy) in the world cup. 

Annelise’s small town - Siebenhoch - is close-knit to say the least and does not take kindly to out-of-towners. When Salinger decides to make a documentary about the mountain rescue group, the mission goes horribly awry, leaving him the only survivor. He blames himself, and so - it seems - does everyone else in Siebenhoch. Spiraling into a deep depression, he begins having terrible, recurrent nightmares. Only his little girl Clara can put a smile on his face.

But when he takes Clara to the Bletterbach Gorge - a canyon rich in fossil remains - he accidentally overhears a conversation that gives his life renewed focus. In 1985, three students were murdered there, their bodies savaged, limbs severed and strewn by a killer who was never found. Although Salinger knows this is a tightlipped community, one where he is definitely persona non grata, he becomes obsessed with solving this mystery and is convinced it is all that can keep him sane. And as Salinger unearths the long kept secrets of this small town, one by one, the terrifying truth is eventually revealed about the horrifying crime that marked an entire village.

Completely engrossing and deeply atmospheric, Beneath The Mountain (2017) is a thriller par excellence. It is translated from the Italian by Howard Curtis.

About the author: Luca D’Andrea lives with his family in Bolzano, Italy, where he was born in 1979 and where he worked as a teacher for ten years. Beneath the Mountain (2017) is his first thriller and was the most talked-about and fastest-selling book at the London Book Fair in 2016. It sold in thirty countries before it was first published in Italy.

Rating: 5/5 

The Beast Of Bethulia Park by S P Caldwell

Paperback: When Ray Parker dies unexpectedly in Bethulia Park Hospital, his suspicious family launch a campaign for justice. They recruit the young and idealistic hospital chaplain Father Calvin Baines to find a beautiful nurse who might unmask the doctor they believe is guilty of murder. 

When Emerald Essien enters his life, the priest finds his high principles are put to the test in a way that drives him to the edge of despair as he is propelled into a dark world of sexual obsession, danger and death.

"The Beast of Bethulia Park is a gripping psychological novel with Catholic themes but is also a wonderful thriller in its own right. Caldwell is an exciting new voice with a journalist's eye for crime detail and medical research. The priest belongs in the top literary gallery of priest protagonists who are all too human and find themselves up against clerical authority. A major new talent has arrived." - William Cash, award-winning author; founder of The Mace, Spear's magazine and The Westminster Index; writer at The Times and the New Statesman; and Chairman at the Catholic Herald 

About the author: Simon Paul Caldwell was born in Liverpool in 1968 and trained as a journalist on local newspapers in Lancashire in the early 1990s. He joined the Catholic Herald as associate editor in 1999 and the Daily Mail in 2001, spending more than a decade on the foreign desk. He lives in Lancashire and continues to work as a freelance journalist and media consultant.

Rating: 3/5

An Old Lady Who Loves Reading

The Love For Christ That Prayer Brings To The Heart

Society Knows Exactly Who Is The Man And Who Is The Woman

See Each Other More

The Life And Prayers Of Saint Lucy of Syracuse by Wyatt North Publishing

Paperback: One part biography, one part prayer book, The Life and Prayers of Saint Lucy of Syracuse (2013) is an essential book for any Christian.

For a saint about whom so very little is really known, Saint Lucy (283 AD to 304 AD) has a surprisingly impressive religious pedigree. Her relics have traveled the world. Her cult extends across oceans, and every year, large numbers of Italian-Americans travel "back home" to Sicily, a land they have primarily known through an increasingly distant heritage, to participate in the great festival there in her honor.

She is the bringer of light and lucidity, things which are in fact her namesakes as Lucy, or Lucia as she was known in Latin, itself means 'light.' She is also the patron of the blind, and those suffering from ailments of the eye. Ailments of the throat are also one of her specialties. It would seem like Saint Lucy governs over seemingly small and unimportant aspects of life. Those who had not previously heard of her might expect her to be a small niche-saint.

Yet, there she is, the light that once spread across all of Europe, from Spain in the west to Turkey in the east, and from Sicily in the south to Sweden in the north. She was one of eleven female saints officially recognized in the Roman Catholic Mass as early as the year 600. 

She makes an appearance in some of the most famous written works of western civilization. She is honoured not only in the Catholic Church, but in the Orthodox Church, the Anglican Church, and even the Lutheran Church, which is noteworthy on its own on account of the Lutheran denial of saints. 

About the author: Starting with just one writer, Wyatt North Publishing, a boutique publishing company, has expanded to include writers from across the USA. Their writers include college professors, religious theologians and historians. Visit them at www.WyattNorth.com 

Marcus Sedgwick (1968-2022), British Writer, Illustrator And Musician

Unreported Truths About COVID-19 And Lockdowns: Combined Parts 1-3: Death Counts, Lockdowns, And Masks by Alex Berenson

Paperback: Former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson offers all a combined version of three booklets in the controversial and best-selling Unreported Truths about Covid series - at one low price.

Since the publication of the first booklet in June, Unreported Truths (2020) has offered an honest counterpart to over-the-top media coverage about the risks of the coronavirus and ways to stop it. Part 1 focused on the ways governments count and report Covid-19 deaths. Part 2 covered the history of lockdowns and the evidence that they work - or don't. And Part 3 gave the same treatment to masks and mask mandates.

All three booklets draw on primary sources like Centers for Disease Control reports, news articles, and scientific papers - and all three offer direct links to the material so that you the reader can judge it for yourself.

With a quarter-million copies sold, Unreported Truths has become an independent journalism phenomenon. And as the fight over our response to Covid drags on, knowing the facts is more important than ever! Now, for the first time, all three booklets are available in a single package. Whether you are wondering about the series, have read one booklet but are interested in the others, or simply want them together for convenience, the Combined Edition offers fresh flexibility.

With a new introduction!

About the author: Alex Berenson was born in New York in 1973 and grew up in Englewood, New Jersey. After graduating from Yale University in 1994 with degrees in history and economics, he joined the Denver Post as a reporter. In 1996, he became one of the first employees at TheStreet.com, the groundbreaking financial news Website.

In 1999, he joined The New York Times. At the Times, he covered everything from the drug industry to Hurricane Katrina; in 2003 and 2004, he served two stints as a correspondent in Iraq, an experience that led him to write The Faithful Spy, his debut novel, which won the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best First Novel. He left the Times in 2010 to devote himself to writing fiction. But conversations with his wife led him to begin researching the science around cannabis and mental illness, a project that became the book Tell Your Children, published in January 2019.

He has now written twelve John Wells novels and two non-fiction books, The Number: How the Drive for Quarterly Earnings Corrupted Wall Street and Corporate America (2003), Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness and Violence (2019) and Pandemia: How Coronavirus Hysteria Took Over Our Government, Rights, and Lives (2021). 

Alex lives in the Hudson Valley with his wife, Dr Jacqueline Berenson, a forensic psychiatrist, and their children.

Happiness No 1611

Sensate Age

American Mother: The True Story Of A Troubled Family, Motherhood, And The Cyanide Poisonings That Shook The World (True Crime) by Gregg Olsen

Paperback: From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of If You Tell comes the absolutely unputdownable and chilling true-crime story of Stella Nickell, a mother and wife who did the unthinkable and the unforgiveable.

 

At 5.02 pm on 5 June 1986, an emergency call came into the local sheriff’s office in the small town of Auburn, Washington State. A distressed housewife, Stella Nickell, said her husband Bruce was having a seizure. Officers rushed to the Nickell’s mobile home, to find Stella standing frozen at the door. Bruce was on the floor fighting for his life.  

 

As Stella became the beneficiary of over $175,000 in a life insurance pay-out, forensics discovered that Bruce had consumed painkillers laced with cyanide.

 

A week later, fifteen-year-old Hayley was getting ready for another school day. Her mom, Sue, called out ‘I love you’ before heading into the bathroom and moments later collapsed on the floor. Sue never regained consciousness, and the autopsy revealed she had been poisoned by cyanide tainted headache pills. Just like Bruce.

 

While a daughter grieved the sudden and devastating loss of her mother, a young woman, Cindy, was thinking about her own mom Stella. She thought about the years of neglect and abuse, the tangled web of secrets Stella had shared with her, and Cindy contemplated turning her mom into the FBI.

 

Gripping and heart-breaking, Gregg Olsen uncovers the shocking true story of a troubled family. He delves into a complex mother-daughter relationship rooted in mistrust and deception, and the journey of the sweet curly-haired little girl from Oregon whose fierce ambition to live the American Dream led her to make the ultimate betrayal.    

 

Originally published as Bitter Almonds (1993, 2002), American Mother: The True Story Of A Troubled Family, Motherhood, And The Cyanide Poisonings That Shook The World (2022) is a revised and updated edition. All characters depicted in American Mother are real people. There are no composites. Some have passed away, a few are still living. This book was crafted through hundreds of hours of interviews that survive both in print and on film and thousands of pages of court records (federal and local). Circumstances described are true.

About the author: A #1 New York Times bestselling true-crime writer, Gregg Olsen is praised for his ability to create a detailed narrative that offers readers fascinating insights into the lives of real people and fictional characters caught in extraordinary circumstances. He has authored ten nonfiction books, over twenty novels, a novella, and a short story, which appeared in a collection edited by Lee Child.  In addition to television and radio appearances, he has been featured in Redbook, USA Today, People, Salon magazine, Seattle Times, Los Angeles Times and the New York Post.  He is a native of Seattle and currently lives in rural Washington state.   

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Archbishop Fulton J Sheen (1895-1979), American Bishop And Theologian Of The Catholic Church