Love In The Time Of Bertie (44 Scotland Street Series) by Alexander McCall Smith

Hardback: The latest instalment in the delightful 44 Scotland Street series finds all our favourite residents up to their usual hilarious hijinks.

In the microcosm of 44 Scotland Street, all of life’s richness is found in the glorious goings-on of its residents. There is Domenica, whose anthropological training has honed her observations of her neighbours; Matthew, whose growing triplets are more than a handful; Bruce, whose challenge as ever is thinking of anything but himself; and Big Lou, who may just have found her shot at romance. 

And of course, there is young Bertie Pollock, whose starry-eyed explorations of Edinburgh’s New Town are a touching reminder that life itself is an adventure and there is joy to be found wherever you choose to look.

Love in the Time of Bertie (2021) is the latest and fifteenth instalment in the excellent 44 Scotland Street series set in Edinburgh, Scotland.

About the author: Alexander McCall Smith, often referred to as ‘Sandy’, is one of the world’s most prolific and best-loved authors. His various series of books have been translated into forty-six languages and become bestsellers throughout the world. These include the highly successful The No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, the popular 44 Scotland Street novels, the Isabel Dalhousie novels, the von Igelfeld series and the new Detective Varg novels. He also writes stand-alone novels, children's fiction and libretti for short operas.

Alexander has received numerous awards for his writing and holds thirteen honorary doctorates from universities in Europe and North America.  He is Professor Emeritus of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh. In 2007, he received a CBE for services to literature and in 2011 was honoured by the President of Botswana for services through literature to the country.  In 2015, he received the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction and in 2017, The National Arts Club (of America) Medal of Honour for Achievement in Literature. In 2020, he received the honorary fellowship of the FT Weekend Oxford Literary Festival. In 2021, he received the coveted Edinburgh Awards, chosen by the people and cross-party politicians of Edinburgh. 

Rating: 5/5

At Your Highest Moment, Be Careful

Crooked Vows by John Watt

Paperback: Thomas, a 23-year-old student priest, emerges alone from the wilderness four days after surviving a plane crash. 

But a missing woman's footprints are found with his, near the crash site. 

What part did Thomas play in her disappearance? 

And why does he claim he cannot remember?

Sent to a psychiatrist by Church authorities to recover his memories, Thomas' life and world unravel in ways he could never have foreseen, shaking the very foundations of his faith, his loyalty to the Catholic Church and the vocation he had chosen.

Grappling with impossible expectations and burdened with guilt, the flawed characters show the consequences of oppressive rules colliding with impulses that cannot be tamed. 

This compelling and timely novel, Crooked Vows (2016), explores the underpinnings of a deeply conservative Australian Catholic community in the 1950s whose outward piety hides a shameful underbelly that dares not be exposed. It resonates strongly with the present time and the deluge of revelations about sexual abuse of children, committed and protected within supposedly respectable institutions. 

About the author: John Watt is a retired academic, a former Catholic seminarian, and a first time novelist from Busselton, Western Australia. 

Rating: 5/5

Parable Of The Prodigal Son

Laetare Sunday

Mary Potter, Founder Of The Little Company of Mary: Her Life And Vision - And Beyond by Sr Elizabeth Gilroy LCM

Paperback: Mary Potter, was born in 1847 and grew up in a single-parent family. She endured a life of suffering from ill health and misunderstanding from those who opposed her, yet her vision lives on in the work of her congregation, helping many in the last and most difficult moments of their life. 

The Little Company of Mary is an international religious congregation whose main ministry is to pray for and assist the sick and dying throughout the world.

Mary Potter (2019) is a revised and updated edition of the book of the same title published by The Incorporated Catholic Truth Society, London, in 2010. 

About the author: Sister Elizabeth Gilroy, author of this biography, is a member of the Australian Little Company of Mary (LCM). She has ministered in Health Care, Spiritual Direction, Counselling and Formation for LCM. After completing her Master’s Degree in Pastoral Ministry at Boston College, USA, she was appointed to England to assist in Little Company of Mary Heritage Pilgrimages. Sister Elizabeth has since returned to Australia and lives in Sydney where she is actively involved in LCM ministries.

The Annunciation Of The Lord

'You Are a DISGRACE for any Democracy!'

A Rereader

Be Joyful

Freedom Of Thought (Which They Seldom Use)

Luxury

Beware, All Too Often

Thought For The Day

First Lady: Intrigue At The Court Of Carrie And Boris Johnson by Michael Ashcroft

Hardback: Carrie Johnson is not only the consort of the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson; she is also considered by some to be the second most powerful unelected woman in Britain after the Queen. 

Since she moved into Downing Street in July 2019, questions have been raised about her perceived influence, her apparent desire to control events, and the number of her associates who have been appointed to positions of standing in the government machine. 

So, are these concerns justified? 

In this carefully researched unauthorised biography, Michael Ashcroft charts the extraordinary ascent of Mrs Johnson, speaking to multiple sources who have been close to her and to Boris Johnson in recent years to produce a fascinating portrait of a woman who is still under the age of thirty-five. 

First Lady (2022) scrutinises Mrs Johnson’s colourful family, her attempt to become a professional actress, and her early decision to work in politics. Long before she moved into No 10, Mrs Johnson made a name for herself as a Conservative Party press aide before becoming a special adviser to two Cabinet ministers and eventually director of communications at Conservative campaign headquarters. Aside from politics, she is also the mother of two young children and campaigns in the fields of the environment and animal welfare. 

Carrie Johnson is without doubt a very modern prime ministerial spouse. This examination of her career and life offers the electorate the chance to assess exactly what role she plays in Boris Johnson’s unpredictable administration and why that matters. 

About the author: Lord Ashcroft KCMG PC is an international businessman, philanthropist, author and pollster. He is a former treasurer and deputy chairman of the Conservative Party. He is also honorary chairman and a former treasurer of the International Democrat Union. He is founder and chairman of the board of trustees of Crimestoppers, vice-patron of the Intelligence Corps Museum, chairman of the trustees of Ashcroft Technology Academy, a senior fellow of the International Strategic Studies Association, a former chancellor of Anglia Ruskin University and a former trustee of Imperial War Museums. 

His books include Call Me Dave: The Unauthorised Biography of David Cameron; White Flag? An Examination of the UK’s Defence Capability; Jacob’s Ladder: The Unauthorised Biography of Jacob Rees-Mogg; Unfair Game: An Exposé of South Africa’s Captive-Bred Lion Industry; Going for Broke: The Rise of Rishi Sunak; Red Knight: The Unauthorised Biography of Sir Keir Starmer; Falklands War Heroes: Extraordinary True Stories of Bravery in the South Atlantic; and Life Support: The State of the NHS in an Age of Pandemics. 

Even My Nearest And Dearest

Pain Killer: An Empire Of Deceit And The Origin Of America's Opioid Epidemic by Barry Meier

Hardback/Paperback: Between 1999 and 2017, an estimated 250,000 Americans died from overdoses involving prescription painkillers, a plague ignited by Purdue Pharma’s aggressive marketing of OxyContin. Families, working class and wealthy, have been torn apart, businesses destroyed, and public officials pushed to the brink. Meanwhile, the drugmaker’s owners, Raymond and Mortimer Sackler, whose names adorn museums worldwide, made enormous fortunes from the commercial success of OxyContin.

 

In Pain Killer (2003, 2020), Barry Meier tells the story of how Purdue turned OxyContin into a billion-dollar blockbuster. Powerful narcotic painkillers, or opioids, were once used as drugs of last resort for pain sufferers. But Purdue launched an unprecedented marketing campaign claiming that the drug’s long-acting formulation made it safer to use than traditional painkillers for many types of pain. 

That illusion was quickly shattered as drug abusers learned that crushing an Oxy could release its narcotic payload all at once. Even in its prescribed form, Oxy proved fiercely addictive. As OxyContin’s use and abuse grew, Purdue concealed what it knew from regulators, doctors, and patients.

 

Here are the people who profited from the crisis and those who paid the price, those who plotted in boardrooms and those who tried to sound alarm bells. A country doctor in rural Virginia, Art Van Zee, took on Purdue and warned officials about OxyContin abuse. An ebullient high school cheerleader, Lindsey Myers, was reduced to stealing from her parents to feed her escalating Oxy habit. A hard-charging DEA official, Laura Nagel, tried to hold Purdue executives to account.

 

In this updated edition of Pain Killer (from the original non-fiction, Pain Killer: A "Wonder" Drug's Trail of Addiction and Death published in 2003), Barry Meier breaks new ground in his decades-long investigation into the opioid epidemic. He takes readers inside Purdue to show how long the company withheld information about the abuse of OxyContin and gives a shocking account of the Justice Department’s failure to alter the trajectory of the opioid epidemic and protect thousands of lives. 

Equal parts crime thriller, medical detective story, and business exposé, Pain Killer is a hard-hitting look at how a supposed wonder drug became the gateway drug to a national tragedy.

About the author: Barry Meier is a Pulitzer Prize-nominated investigative reporter for the New York Times and a 2002 recipient of a George Polk Award for outstanding journalism. He lives in New York City with his wife and daughter.

Saint Patrick, Apostle of Ireland

March by John Updike (1932-2009)

Definition: Apricate

In Total Silence

Empire of Pain: The Secret History Of The Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Raddon Keefe

Hardback: Empire of Pain (2021) is the gripping and shocking story of three generations of the Sackler family and their roles in the stories of Valium and Oxycontin, by the prize-winning, bestselling author of Say Nothing (2018).

The Sackler name adorns the walls of many storied institutions - Harvard; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Oxford; the Louvre. They are one of the richest families in the world, known for their lavish donations in the arts and the sciences. The source of the family fortune was vague, however, until it emerged that the Sacklers were responsible for making and marketing Oxycontin, a blockbuster painkiller that was a catalyst for the opioid crisis-an international epidemic of drug addiction which has killed nearly half a million people.

In this masterpiece of narrative reporting and writing, Patrick Radden Keefe exhaustively documents the jaw-dropping and ferociously compelling reality. 

Empire of Pain is the story of a dynasty: a parable of 21st century greed.

Empire of Pain (2021) is the winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-fiction 2021 and and the Goodreads Choice Award for History & Biography. It was shortlisted for the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award 2021 and longlisted for the 2022 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. It was also selected for The Washington Post's "10 Best Books of 2021" list. 

Empire of Pain is dedicated to all those who have lost someone to the crisis.

About the author: Patrick Radden Keefe is an award-winning  staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of The Snakehead, Chatter and Say Nothing. Say Nothing received the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, as well as the Orwell Prize for Political Writing, and was selected by Entertainment Weekly as one of the “10 Best Nonfiction Books of the Decade.” His work has also appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Slate, New York, and The New York Review of Books. 

He is the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship, and fellowships from the Rockefeller Foundation, the New America Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library. 

Mit Brennender Sorge by Pope Pius XI

Paperback: Mit brennender Sorge (German for "With burning anxiety") is a Catholic Church encyclical of Pope Pius XI, published on 10 March 1937 (but bearing a date of Passion Sunday, 14 March).

Written in German, not the usual Latin, it was read from the pulpits of all German Catholic churches on one of the Church's busiest Sundays, (Palm Sunday). It condemned breaches of an agreement signed between the Nazi government and the Church, and included criticism of Nazi ideology and, in the interpretation of some scholars, of Nazism and Hitler.

Mit brennender Sorge stated that rejection of the Old Testament, which some leaders - religious as well as secular - advocated in Nazi Germany, was blasphemous.

The encyclical was drafted by Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber with an introduction added by Cardinal Pacelli (later Pope Pius XII) dealing with the historical background of the Concordat between the Catholic Church and the Third Reich. At the time, Pius XI credited the encyclical to Cardinal Pacelli. In fact, Pacelli is credited with changing the title from Mit grosser Sorge (With great concern) to the more strident Mit brennender Sorge (With burning concern).

The Man With The Silver Saab (The Detective Varg Series) by Alexander McCall Smith

Hardback: In the hilarious new novel in the best-selling Detective Varg series, an eminent art historian is framed and the ace investigators of the department of sensitive crimes are on the case.

 

Detective Ulf Varg is a man of refined tastes and quite familiar with the art scene in Malmö. So when art historian Anders Kindgren visits the Department of Sensitive Crimes to report a series of bizarre acts that have been committed against him, Ulf and his team swing into action. Fish stuffed into the vents of Kindgren’s car and a manipulated footnote in a recent publication would be cause enough for an investigation, but when a painting Kindgren had confidently appraised as genuine is later declared to be a fake, it is clear that someone is out to tarnish his reputation.

 

Meanwhile, Ulf is also weathering personal issues, which quickly spiral out of control. When his lip-reading dog, Martin, engages in a contretemps with a squirrel that results in a grievous wound, Ulf must rush Martin to the veterinarian and weigh the merits of cosmetic surgery for animals. And later, when Martin’s blood is found in the back of Ulf’s classic Saab, Ulf finds himself the subject of a departmental investigation.

 

In the end, Ulf will have to muster all his detective skills and bureaucratic cunning to restore Kindgren’s reputation - as well as his own.

The Man with the Silver Saab (2021) is the third instalment in the very entertaining and refreshing Detective Varg series set in Sweden.

About the author: Alexander McCall Smith, often referred to as ‘Sandy’, is one of the world’s most prolific and best-loved authors. His various series of books have been translated into forty-six languages and become bestsellers throughout the world. These include the highly successful The No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, the popular 44 Scotland Street novels, the Isabel Dalhousie novels, the von Igelfeld series and the new Detective Varg novels. He also writes stand-alone novels, children's fiction and libretti for short operas.

Alexander has received numerous awards for his writing and holds thirteen honorary doctorates from universities in Europe and North America.  He is Professor Emeritus of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh. In 2007, he received a CBE for services to literature and in 2011 was honoured by the President of Botswana for services through literature to the country.  In 2015, he received the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction and in 2017, The National Arts Club (of America) Medal of Honour for Achievement in Literature.

Rating: 5/5

This Moment In History

 

Sermons For Sundays And Festivals Volume I: General Prologue Sundays From Septuagesima to Pentecost by Saint Anthony of Padua, Doctor of the Church

Paperback: The introduction, translation and notes in Sermons for Sundays and Festivals Volume 1 (2007) is carried out by Paul Spilsbury.

Saint Anthony of Padua (1195-1231) is one of the most popular saints of Christendom, renowned for his miracles and his concern for the poor. It is less well known that he was the first great theologian and teacher of the early Franciscan Order. Commissioned by Francis himself to teach theology to the friars, he fulfilled this task by composing his Opus Evangeliorum, a set of Commentaries on the Sunday Gospels. It is also called his Opus Dominicale or Sunday Work because it deals with the Gospels as they are read liturgically, week by week.

Beginning this work while superior at Limoges, he completed it at Padua. A little later, he undertook a second set on the Festivals and other important days, such as Ash Wednesday. This work was barely half finished at his death.

The other three volumes are 

II. From the first Sunday after Pentecost to the sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost.

III. From the seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost to the third Sunday after Epiphany and Marian Sermons.

IV. Sermons for Festivals and Index.

Anthony made it very clear that his work was written to instruct preachers. It should be repeated, the work is not his "sermons", but a text-book from which sermons may be composed according to the individual skills of preachers.

On the cover of the book: Saint Anthony of Padua by Tanzio da Varallo (1575-1635).

About the author: Anthony of Padua, OFM (born Fernando Martins de Bulhões; 15 August 1190 - 13 June 1231), also known as Anthony of Lisbon, was a Portuguese Catholic priest and friar of the Franciscan Order. Though he died in Padua, Italy, he was born and raised in a wealthy family in Lisbon. More known for his ability to wash the dishes than for Scriptural learning at first, as his first biographer said, he had since then been noted by his contemporaries for his forceful preaching and expert knowledge of scripture. 

He was the second-fastest canonized saint (after St Peter of Verona) and proclaimed a Doctor of the Church on 16 January 1946. He is also the patron saint of finding things or lost people.

Definition: Weltschmerz

 

Meditations For Lent by Bishop Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet

Paperback: Even three hundred years ago, believers found it difficult to sustain for forty days the proper Lenten spirit. 

That is why even then, countless Christians turned to the writings of Bishop Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet (1627-1704), whose great piety and simple eloquence won him renown as one of the greatest preachers of his time. 

From Bishop Bossuet's sermons and spiritual writings, believers drew ever greater Lenten wisdom and strength. 

Now editor and translator Christopher O Blum has selected from Bishop Bossuet's voluminous works fifty brief but remarkably powerful meditations that complement the daily readings at Mass during the Lenten season, thus offering to us the perfect companion for a thoughtful and fruitful Lent.

Meditations for Lent (2013) is a selection and translation of Méditations sur l'Évangile in Oeuvres choisies de Bossuet; Elévations à Dieu sur tous les mystères de la religion chrétienne in Oeuvres complètes de Bossuet and Oeuvres Oratoires de Bossuet.

About the author: Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, French bishop and theologian, was renowned for his sermons and other addresses. As a student of St Vincent de Paul, he was considered by many to be one of the most brilliant orators of all time and a masterly French stylist. He had been compared very favourably with two of the Church's greatest preachers: St Augustine and St John Chrysostom, whose theological writings and sermons helped to shape Bossuet's. But most importantly, Bossuet's work reflected his lifelong love for and study of Sacred Scripture and his vital interior life, and as such it had been prized by holy souls such as Blessed Junípero Serra and Pope Pius XII, who kept Bossuet's writing on his bedside table. Bossuet was also a favourite of the influential retreat master of the twentieth century, Fr Edward Leen.  

He was appointed tutor to the dauphin in 1670 by Louis XIV, a position he held until 1681. He was the most eloquent and influential spokesman for the rights of the French church against papal authority. He is now chiefly remembered for his literary works, including funeral panegyrics for great personages. 

The Talented Mr Varg (The Detective Varg Series) by Alexander McCall Smith

Paperback: Spring is coming slowly to Sweden - though not quite as slowly as Detective Ulf Varg's promised promotion at the Department of Sensitive Crimes. For Varg, referred by his psychoanalyst to group therapy at Malmö's Wholeness Centre, life now seems mostly a circle of self-examination, something which may or may not be useful when it comes to the nature of his profession and the particularly sensitive cases that have recently come to light.

All in a day's work for Detective Varg, except that one of his new investigations involves fellow detective Anna; it will require every ounce of self-discipline he has in order to remain professional. 

The other, more curious case is centred around internationally successful novelist Nils Personn-Cederström. According to his girlfriend, Cederström is being blackmailed - but by whom and for what reason?

Accompanied by his irritating but kindly colleague Blomquist, Varg begins his enquiries and soon the answers fall neatly into place. Nothing and no one is ever that simple, however, and not for the first time he learns as much about his own emotional and moral landscape as he does about the motives of others. Now Varg must make a possibly life-changing decision. Will he choose his own happiness over that of his heart's desire?

The Talented Mr Varg (2020) is the second instalment in the enjoyable Detective Varg series set in Sweden.

About the author: Alexander McCall Smith, often referred to as ‘Sandy’, is one of the world’s most prolific and best-loved authors. His various series of books have been translated into forty-six languages and become bestsellers throughout the world. These include the highly successful The No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, the popular 44 Scotland Street novels, the Isabel Dalhousie novels, the von Igelfeld series and the new Detective Varg novels. He also writes stand-alone novels, children's fiction and libretti for short operas.

Alexander has received numerous awards for his writing and holds thirteen honorary doctorates from universities in Europe and North America.  He is Professor Emeritus of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh. In 2007, he received a CBE for services to literature and in 2011 was honoured by the President of Botswana for services through literature to the country.  In 2015, he received the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction and in 2017, The National Arts Club (of America) Medal of Honour for Achievement in Literature.

Rating: 5/5

Rerum Novarum: On Capital And Labour by Pope Leo XIII

Paperback: Rerum novarum or Rights and Duties of Capital and Labour, is an encyclical issued by Pope Leo XIII on 15 May 1891. It is an open letter, passed to all Catholic patriarchs, primates, archbishops and bishops, that addressed the condition of the working classes.

It discusses the relationships and mutual duties between labour and capital, as well as government and its citizens. Of primary concern is the need for some amelioration of "the misery and wretchedness pressing so unjustly on the majority of the working class." It supports the rights of labor to form unions, rejects both socialism and unrestricted capitalism, while affirming the right to private property.

Rerum novarum is considered a foundational text of modern Catholic social teaching. Many of the positions in Rerum novarum are supplemented by later encyclicals, in particular Pius XI's Quadragesimo anno (1931), John XXIII's Mater et magistra (1961) and John Paul II's Centesimus annus (1991), each of which commemorates an anniversary of the publication of Rerum novarum.

(Excerpt taken from Wikipedia)

The Little Number Of Those Who Are Saved by St Leonard of Port Maurice

E-book: Saint Leonard of Port Maurice (1676-1751) was a most holy Franciscan friar who lived at the monastery of Saint Bonaventure in Rome. He was one of the greatest missioners in the history of the Church. He used to preach to thousands in the open square of every city and town where the churches could not hold his listeners.

So brilliant and holy was his eloquence that once when he gave a two weeks' mission in Rome, the Pope and College of Cardinals came to hear him. The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin, the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and the veneration of the Sacred Heart of Jesus were his crusades. 

He was in no small way responsible for the definition of the Immaculate Conception made a little more than a hundred years after his death. He also gave us the Divine Praises, which are said at the end of Benediction. But Saint Leonard's most famous work was his devotion to the Stations of the Cross.

He died a most holy death in his seventy-fifth year, after twenty-four years of uninterrupted preaching.

One of Saint Leonard of Port Maurice's most famous sermon was The Little Number of Those Who Are Saved. It was the one he relied on for the conversion of great sinners. This sermon, like his other writings, was submitted to canonical examination during the process of canonization. In it, he reviews the various states of life of Christians and concludes with the little number of those who are saved, in relation to the totality of men.

The reader who meditates on this remarkable text will grasp the soundness of its argumentation, which has earned it the approbation of the Church. 

Ash Wednesday