It's Not About The dEvil: True Stories About Fighting Evil In The Modern World by John DiGirolamo

About the book: True stories:

David goes undercover online as a thirteen-year-old girl, and every parent needs to know what happens next. The case files of a law enforcement officer reveal the perils of sexting and how predators attempt to exploit teens.

Catherine is an abortion doctor who experiences a life-changing moment that prompts a Christ-centered transformation to become a pro-life advocate. Join her journey that is sometimes emotional, sometimes inspiring, and always captivating.

Clement fearlessly assists an exorcist, engaging in direct combat with fallen angels in spiritual warfare for human souls. Discover the inner workings of demons through a captivating account of the pitfalls of human sin, and how the power of Christ prevails.

It's Not About the dEvil (2024) highlights the undercurrents of our twenty-first-century digitized world (one of them being how our children are indulging in things that were unthinkable a few shorts years ago such as teen sexting and pornography) and the fight against modern evil (online predators, abortion and spiritual warfare). However, the author shines the light of hope into each situation making the book not only a call to awareness but a call to action. 

About the author: John DiGirolamo is a critically acclaimed author, speaker and antihuman trafficking advocate and is a member of the Christian Authors Network and Christian Indie Publishing Association. The author has been invited to speak at over forty different venues and can be contacted for a speaking engagement at johndtheauthor@gmail.com. His webiste is https://itisnotabout.com/

John DiGirolamo is the Board President of Bringing our Valley Hope, Colorado, whose objective is to end human trafficking in central Colorado through education and survivor support. He is also the Board Secretary of the Chaffee County Patriots and writes a newspaper column in the Fremont County Crusader and previously had columns in the Sangre De Cristo Sentinel and Winter Park Times as well as published a collection of short stories, #12 Suicide. DiGirolamo is a retired CPA who worked in various management positions at both small and large technology companies and currently lives in Chaffee County, Colorado. 

You Had A Crush On Him

New Age New Mass by Father Paul Trinchard STL

About the book: Is THIS not the beginning of or a pre-figurement of the abominable desolation predicted by Daniel and the Apocalypse?

Are we not at least exposed to the SPIRIT of that Beast of the Apocalypse? which looked like the LAMB 

BUT

had he horns (and heart) of SATAN?

What is Satan's Plan for OUR times?

How does Satan use OUR liturgy for HIS goals?

New Age New Mass ( 1995) will help you to perceive the demonic plan for New Age Catholicism (NAC) in these end-times and some of NAC's major implementations within the New Order's (or New Age's) English Mass (NOEL - Novus Ordo English Liturgy). 

New Age New Mass is no longer in print.

Cover: The Second Beast of the Apocalypse was supposed to The Lamb's religion, but spoke like the dragon (Revelation 13. 11). This beast with goat horns has a demonic mission.

About the author: Father Paul Trinchard, born in New Orleans, held a Master's Degree in Physics and Philosophy, and with an STL (Licentiate in Sacred Theology), was a pontifically licensed theologian. He had been working in the aerospace industry when he answered his call to the priesthood. Thus began his introduction and indoctrination into Rogerianism and liberalism, leading him to become a Novus Ordo priest. He wrote for The Wanderer, The Remnant and other international periodicals. 

Father suffered persecution from his former priest colleagues in the Society of Jesus (from which he canonically separated himself in the late 1980’s), and from the Archdiocese of New Orleans because he said the Traditional Latin Mass. In his writings, he explained the necessity for Christ’s true Divine Liturgy; the reasons why the prayers are never to be changed; and the true meanings of the Latin words. He died in 2015 following emergency surgery due to colon cancer. 

Saint Clement of Alexandria (150-215), Christian Theologian and Philosopher

Gender Madness: One Man's Devastating Struggle With Woke Ideology And His Battle To Protect Children by Oli London

About the book: While documenting his own personal identity struggles with gender and self-identity, British K-Pop singer Oli London explores the root cause of the issue of trans ideology and gender identity, tackling the pressures of social media, the education system, media, and other factors that are pushing a growing number of young people into transitioning. 

He takes a close look at real world examples and examines laws, research, and data to help lift the lid on the multibillion-dollar gender affirming care industry.

Gender Madness (2023) gives an intimate look into what led Oli London to want to become a "Korean woman" and how he overcame his battle to become an advocate for the millions of young people who question their own identity. 

He recently publicly announced he had detransitioned and is living as a male again and has since become an outspoken activist for children and women's rights, appearing regularly on numerous news networks including Fox News, Newsmax, OAN, EWTN, Piers Morgan Uncensored, Tucker Carlson Tonight, and Talk TV to campaign against gender affirming surgery in teenagers. 

This book shares his deeply personal life journey and his important message to others, all while encouraging readers to question the current societal trends, especially the "gender ideology" movement, and challenge their own way of thinking.

About the author:

Types of Readers

Gold Rush by Olivia Petter

About the book: We give celebrities a power they don’t deserve. 

Power they haven’t earned. 

What happens when they exploit it?

Imagine you have just spent the night with the most famous man on the planet. Except you do not quite remember it. That is what happens to Rose, a twenty-something woman who seemingly has everything going for her.

Working for one of the most powerful news outlets in the country, Rose spends her days doing PR for glossy magazines. There are tedious spreadsheets, fashion divas, and many A-list parties. It is at one of those parties where she meets Milo Jax, the world-famous, globally adored, British pop sensation. An unlikely flirtation turns into an even more unlikely evening and then Rose wakes up, unable to piece it all together. 

What happens next changes everything.

Gold Rush (2024) is a story about consent, celebrity culture, and trying to figure out where women fit in a world that consistently devalues and disrespects their bodies.

About the author: Olivia Petter is an award-winning journalist, author and broadcaster based in London. She is currently a columnist at the Independent and has also written for the Sunday Times, the Guardian, British Vogue, Stylist and Grazia, among others. She has hosted the Independent's chart-topping Millennial Love podcast since 2017; in 2023, Olivia relaunched the podcast under the name Love Lives. That same year, she was named one of the Forbes' 30 Under 30. She wrote her first book, Millennial Love, in 2021. Gold Rush is her first novel.

Books In The Spiritual Life

Agatha Christie (1890-1976), English Writer

The Great Hippopotamus Hotel (The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series) by Alexander McCall Smith

About the book: In this latest instalment of Alexander McCall Smith’s beloved No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi take on an intriguing new case and uncover surprising truths.

In the rolling hills just outside Gaborone, surrounded by a grove of acacia trees, lies The Great Hippopotamus Hotel. With spacious rooms overlooking the Botswanan countryside and a fine and loyal staff, the hotel has served as a refuge to weary travellers for many years. 

But a sudden string of misfortunes threatens to ruin the hotel’s reputation. Food poisoning befalls an unlucky diner, laundry mysteriously disappears from the drying line, and a scorpion stings one of the guests. Mishap after mishap, until it seems these incidents are more than simple coincidences - something foul is afoot.

Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi are on the case to find out who could be responsible for these unfortunate events. The answer at first seems clear, especially when they find out Violet Sephotho is involved. But as they dig deeper, they realize that the solution is not as simple as it initially seems. 

Meanwhile, one of Mr J L B Matekoni’s most important clients has asked him to source a sports car, putting him in a ticklish position as the man’s wife seems to be unaware of the purchase and the client is taking great pains to keep it that way. 

Nevertheless, with a healthy dose of good humour and kindness, Mma Ramotswe and her associates must help restore the reputation of the hotel and prove that even the most difficult situations can be remedied with honesty and compassion.

The Great Hippopotamus Hotel (2024) is the twenty-fifth instalment in the much-loved No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series set in Botswana, Southern Africa featuring the wise and kind character Mma Precious Ramotswe.

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. And in 2022 he received the Lifetime Achievement in the Saltire Literary Awards for contribution to the Arts at the Scottish Book Awards. In 2024, he was knighted by the King. He lives in Scotland.

Rating: 5/5

Hillbilly Elegy by J D Vance

About the book: In this internationally bestselling memoir and passionate analysis of a culture in crisis, Hillbilly-born Yale Law graduate J D Vance takes a probing look at America's white working class through his own experiences growing up.

The book tells a true story of what a social, regional, and class decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck. As his family's saga plays out, the book shows how J D's grandparents, aunt, sister and, most of all, his mother struggled profoundly, never fully escaping the legacy of abuse, alcoholism, poverty and trauma.

Writing with piercing honesty, Vance shows how he himself still carries around the demons of his chaotic family history. 

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis (2016) is an urgent and troubling meditation on the loss of the American Dream for a large segment of the population. It is unmissable reading in these times of political upheaval. It was adapted into the 2020 Netflix movie Hillbilly Elegy, directed by Ron Howard and starring Glenn Close and Amy Adams. The book reached the top of The New York Times best seller list in August 2016 and January 2017. In 2017, Vance signed a $8 million deal to write a sequel to Hillbilly Elegy. (Source: Wikipedia)

After Vance was announced as Trump's running mate in 2024, sales of the book and viewership for the film on Netflix increased dramatically. In July 2024, the book was censored in China on WeChat. (Source: Wikipedia)

About the author: J D Vance was born and raised in Middletown, Ohio, a once flourishing American manufacturing town where Ohioans could live content, middle-class lives on single incomes. Over time, many of those good jobs disappeared, and J D’s family suffered the effects along with many others.

Turbulence was common at home and at school. His grandmother, called Mamaw, was his saving grace. Her tough love and discipline kept him on the straight and narrow. A “blue dog” Democrat, she owned 19 handguns and nurtured a deep Christian faith in herself and her family. She died in 2005, shortly after J D enlisted in the United States Marine Corps.

J D went on to serve our nation in the Iraq War, then graduated from The Ohio State University and Yale Law School. He was elected to the United States Senate representing Ohio in 2022. In 2024, he became the Republican nominee for Vice President. Vance lives in Columbus, Ohio, with his family. He also started a business dedicated to growing jobs and opportunity in the American heartland. (Source: vance.senate.gov)

The Life Of Saint Joseph by Maria Cecilia Baij OSB

About the book: Saint Joseph does not have any words recorded in sacred Scripture, but the published meditations of an 18th-century Italian nun offer the chance to imagine the details of the Holy Family’s daily life as it might have been from the perspective of the foster father of Jesus. 

Servant of God Mother Maria Cecilia Baij’s personal revelation, described in the book “The Life of Saint Joseph,” provides an intimate portrait of the life of prayer, suffering, and joy within the Holy Family. The Life of Saint Joseph (1997) was manifested by Our Lord, Jesus Christ to Maria Cecilia Baij, abbess of the Benedictine Convent of St Peter in Montefiascone, Italy, from 1743 to 1766.

As an artist might fill in the details in a painting depicting a scene in the life of Christ from the Bible, Baij’s account allows the reader to dwell on the scenes that could have made up Joseph’s life with Jesus and Mary, with a particular focus on his interior life.

It begins with the birth of Joseph and provides a 75-page account of his life before meeting Mary, with a focus on how God prepared him with graces for the privilege of meeting the future Mother of God.

From there, the reader accompanies Joseph as he exults in the Incarnation within Mary’s womb, endures trials on the way to Bethlehem, weeps for joy as he holds the Saviour of the world in his arms, sings hymns of praise to God with Mary, works with the child Jesus in his workshop, and continually abandons himself to the will of God in the face of uncertainties.

While the Church does not consider it obligatory to believe private revelations as a matter of faith, the book has received an imprimatur and nihil obstat from the Vatican, officially declaring it free from doctrinal and moral error.

Pascal Parente, a professor at the Catholic University of America, translated the 18th-century manuscript into English.

“The account of Saint Joseph’s life … was not intended essentially to provide exegetical or historical instruction but rather to serve as a means of edification,” Parente, who died in 1971, wrote in his introduction to the text.

“It reveals the most loving and lovable head of the Holy Family in a new light which cannot fail to impress both the mind and the heart of the reader, thereby making him a partaker of the heavenly peace and harmony that reigned in the Holy Family of Nazareth.”

The manuscript was completed before Baij’s death in 1766 but remained unknown until a Benedictine monk, Dom Willibrord van Heteren, found Baij’s writings in 1900 in St Peter’s convent in Montefiascone, Italy, and published some excerpts.

Twenty years later, a local priest, Msgr Peter Bergamschi, took an interest in Baij’s writings in the convent archive and presented them to Pope Benedict XV in a private audience on March 17, 1920, during the month of Saint Joseph. The pope encouraged Bergamaschi to publish them.

About the author: Maria Cecilia Baij was born in 1694 in Montefiascone, a hill town about 60 miles north of Rome located on the shores of Lake Bolsena. At the age of 20, she took her religious vows with the Benedictine community of Montefiascone. She was named abbess in 1743 and remained in the post until her death at the age of 72.

In her prayers at the convent, Baij received both attacks from the devil and mystical revelations about the life of Christ, Saint Joseph, the Holy Family, and Saint John the Baptist, which she wrote down in lengthy manuscripts in obedience to her confessor.

Her Benedictine convent, St Peter’s, remains active today more than 250 years after her death. The sisters welcome pilgrims who walk the Via Francigena, a medieval pilgrimage route that passes through their town. The sisters also still possess all of Baij’s original manuscripts.

Baij is believed to have completed her account of Saint Joseph’s life in December 1736. Throughout the text, Joseph is often depicted in prayer, speaking praises to God on his own and together with the Virgin Mary and Jesus.

Baij wrote: “Sometimes, when Joseph worked very strenuously, he would approach his spouse and ask her to condescend to sing for him a hymn in praise of God, and thereby relieve his weariness. The holy virgin would readily comply with his requests. Her singing of the hymns of divine exaltation was so delightful that Joseph often was carried into ecstasy.”

“He once remarked to Mary: ‘My spouse, your singing alone is enough to bring comfort to every afflicted heart! What consolation you gave me through it! What relief for my weariness! What a great joy it is for me to hear you speak or sing!’”

“For the most holy Virgin, these words were the occasion for giving additional praise to God, the source of all that is good. … ‘God has poured these graces into my heart,’ she told him, ‘in order that you might be comforted and obtain relief in your tribulations and affiliations.’ The saint’s love and gratitude to God expanded steadily and he continued to wonder at the virtue of his most holy spouse.”

(Source: EWTN, 'How a forgotten nun's visions shed 'new light' on the life of Saint Joseph, 19 March 2023)

The Meditations Of Guigo I: Prior of the Charterhouse translated by A Gordon Mursell

About the book: Founded in the mountains above Grenoble in 1084 by Bruno of Cologne, the Grande Chartreuse expressed in stone the persistent monastic longing for the desert. 

Uncompromisingly separated from a worldly entanglements, the first Carthusians developed a unique and eclectic synthesis of eremetic and cenobitic monastic lifestyles. 

As their fifth leader, or prior, in 1109, they chose a dynamic, well-connected young man, Guigo, former dean of Grenoble. Considered by contemporaries 'immensely erudite in both secular and sacred studies, he had a keen mind, a sure memory, and a remarkable eloquence, and was very effective in encouraging others'.

During his priorate, Guigo - later called 'the first' to distinguish him from the ninth prior - presided over the transformation of the Chartreuse from an isolated hermitage to the mother house of a new Order. His correspondence with Saint Bernard of Clairvaux and Peter the Venerable of Cluny testify to his familiarity with contemporary reform monasticism, and to the Carthusians' remarkable determination to avoid all unnecessary involvement with the world and be free for contemplation - not an easy task in a day when Church and world were virtually coterminous. 

Guigo I (1083?), fifth prior of la Grande Chartreuse, died 1136.

His Meditations (1995) offer an insight into the spirituality which animated his life, his community and his prayer.

About the translator: With degrees in history and theology, A Gordon Mursell is the author of two earlier books: Out of the Deep (1989), a study of prayer as protest; and The Theology of the Carthusian Life in the Writings of Saint Bruno and Guigo I (1989). He is a retired British Anglican bishop and author. From 2005 to 2010, he was the Bishop of Stafford in the Church of England - a post he vacated in June 2010. His other works include The Wisdom of the Anglo-Saxons (1996) and English Spirituality (2001). He is also a keen hill walker and a member of the Athenaeum Club (Wikipedia).