Saturday, 30 November 2024
Friday, 29 November 2024
Tuesday, 26 November 2024
A Rebel In Gaza by Asmaa Alghoul and Sélim Nassib
About the book: I think the real occupying forces are the internal ones, Hamas, Fatah, the parties...then comes the major occupation: Israel. We can't get rid of the latter without first getting rid of the former. To be honest, we are being subjected to a siege of the mind that is much more important than the siege on the borders. - Asmaa Alghoul in L'Impossible (first issue)
Born in Rafah, raised in Gaza, subjected both to Israeli bombs and to Islamist tyranny, and in the face of prison, death threats, abuse, misogyny, violence, and repression, Asmaa Alghoul has continued to speak her truth. She has continued to live and to love, to laugh and to protest. In this moving memoir of growing up Gaza with a hunger for freedom and a passionate attachment to the places she calls home, journalist, writer, and activist, Alghoul recounts her lifelong resistance to religious fanaticism, state sponsored violence, and all forms of repression and subjugation. Alghoul has been called “too strong minded,” criticized for not covering her hair, derided for ignoring warnings and speaking out against injustice. Her pure, clarion voice is raised wholly in support of dialogue, peace, love, and honesty.
Nothing, it seems, can stop her.
Offering an intimate look into life, politics, and survival in Gaza in recent years, Alghoul’s A Rebel in Gaza (2024) offers readers a nuanced and singular perspective on the current conflict.
A Rebel in Gaza is translated from the French by Mike Mitchell.
About the authors: Asmaa Alghoul was born in 1982 in Rafah, in a Palestinian refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip. A regular contributor to Al-Monitor, an information site that deals with news from the Middle East, she currently lives in France where she is writing her next book. She has won numerous international awards, including the Human Rights Watch Hellman / Hammett Award, the Dubai Press Club prize for journalism, and the International Women's Media Foundation Journalism Award.
Sélim Nassib served as a correspondent for Liberation during the war in Lebanon. He is the author of The Palestinian Lover (Europa Editions, 2007) and I Loved You for Your Voice (Europa Editions, 2006).
About the translator: Mike Mitchell has worked as a literary translator since 1995. He was awarded the 1998 Schlegel-Tieck Prize for his translation of Herbert Rosendorfer’s Letters Back to Ancient China after he had been shortlisted in previous years for his translations of Stephanie by Herbert Rosendorfer and The Golem by Gustav Meyrink. For many years an academic with a special interest in Austrian literature and culture, Mike Mitchell has been a freelance literary translator since 1995. He has published ninety-nine translations from German and French, including Gustav Meyrink's five novels and The Dedalus Book of Austrian Fantasy.
His translations have been shortlisted four times for The Oxford Weidenfeld Translation Prize: Simplicissimus by Johann Grimmelshausen in 1999, The Other Side by Alfred Kubin in 2000, The Bells of Bruges by Georges Rodenbach in 2008 and The Lairds of Cromarty by Jean Pierre Ohl in 2013. His biography of Gustav Meyrink: Vivo: The Life of Gustav Meyrink was published by Dedalus in November 2008.
Monday, 25 November 2024
Sunday, 24 November 2024
The Hidden Treasure: Holy Mass by Saint Leonard of Port Maurice
About the book: I believe that were it not for holy Mass, at this moment, the world would be in the abyss, unable to bear up under the mighty load of its iniquities.
Mass is the potent prop that holds the world upon its base. Therefore, when we are assisting at it, we ought to practice that which once Alphonsus of Albuquerque did, who, finding himself with his fleet in danger of perishing during a fierce and terrific tempest, adopted the following means: He took in his arms an innocent little child which was on board his ship, and lifting it up toward heaven, he said, "If we are sinners, this creature is certainly free from sin; O Lord, for love of this innocent, remit to us the death we deserve!" Will you believe it? The spectacle of the stainless babe was so pleasing to God that He tranquilized the sea, and changed into joy for these unfortunates their terror of a death already imminent.
Now, what do you believe is done by the Eternal Father when the priest, lifting in the air the thrice-sacred Victim, shows to Him the innocence of His Divine Son? Ah, then His compassion cannot resist the sight of the most spotless innocence of Jesus, and He feels as if compelled to calm our storms, and to provide for all our necessities.
The Hidden Treasure: Holy Mass (1952) describes the great spiritual power of the Mass, how it holds back the wrath of God, its wonderful eternal and temporal benefits and several excellent ways to pray at Mass.
The Hidden Treasure: Holy Mass is the prototype book on the Mass for all other books on the same subject; others basically repeat what this small book contains.
About the author: Saint Leonard of Port Maurice, Italian Franciscan preacher and ascetic writer, was born in 1676 near Genoa, Italy. While at the famous Roman College of St Aloysius, he became known for his extraordinary piety, diligence, and good deeds. He subsequently became aware of his vocation to the priesthood at the Roman convent of St Bonaventure, and became a Franciscan in 1697. Additionally, he possessed an intense love for Christ and His Mother, the Immaculate Conception, penance, and humility. The Hidden Treasure: Holy Mass was written in the nineteenth century as Il Tesoro Nascosto.
St Leonard died in Rome on the twenty-sixth of November, 1751. He was canonized by Pope Pius IX in 1867.
The Screwtape Letters by C S Lewis
About the book: The devil...the prowde spirite...cannot endure to be mocked. - Saint Thomas More (1478-1535)
On its first appearance, The Screwtape Letters (1942) was immediately recognized as a milestone in the history of popular theology. Now, after 82 years, and having sold over half a million copies and possibly about 150,000 copies every year, it is an iconic classic on spiritual warfare and the power of the devil.
The Screwtape Letters is a masterpiece of satire on Hell’s latest novelties and Heaven’s unanswerable answer. How do you train an apprentice demon? How best to assure the damnation of an ordinary young man?
C S Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters has entertained and enlightened millions of readerswith its sly and ironic portrayal of human life from the vantage point of Screwtape, a demon and highly placed assistant to “Our Father Below.” Written for J R R Tolkien, this masterpiece of satire is wildly comic, deadly serious, and strikingly original. Through the correspondence of worldly-wise Screwtape to his nephew Wormwood, a novice demon, C S Lewis shows us his darkest and most playful work.
About the author: Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963) was one of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century and arguably one of the most influential writers of his day. He was a Fellow and Tutor in English Literature at Oxford University until 1954, when he was unanimously elected to the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University, a position he held until his retirement. He wrote more than thirty books, allowing him to reach a vast audience, and his works continue to attract thousands of new readers every year. His most distinguished and popular accomplishments include Mere Christianity, Out of the Silent Planet, The Great Divorce, The Screwtape Letters, and the universally acknowledged classics The Chronicles of Narnia.
Thursday, 21 November 2024
Tuesday, 19 November 2024
The Evening And The Morning (Kingsbridge Series) by Ken Follett
About the book: Thirty years ago we were introduced to Kingsbridge in The Pillars of the Earth. Ken Follett has given us a masterful prequel international bestseller, The Evening and The Morning (2020) which will take us on a journey into a rich past and end where his masterpiece begins.
A Time of Conflict
It is 997 CE, the end of the Dark Ages, and England faces attacks from the Welsh in the west and the Vikings in the east. Life is hard, and those with power wield it harshly, bending justice according to their will – often in conflict with the king. With his grip on the country fragile and with no clear rule of law, chaos and bloodshed reign.
Three Lives Intertwined
Into this uncertain world three people come to the fore: a young boatbuilder, who dreams of a better future when a devastating Viking raid shatters the life that he and the woman he loves hoped for; a Norman noblewoman, who follows her beloved husband across the sea to a new land only to find her life there shockingly different; and a capable monk at Shiring Abbey, who dreams of transforming his humble abbey into a centre of learning admired throughout Europe.
The Dawn of A New Age
Now, with England at the dawn of the Middle Ages, these three people will each come into dangerous conflict with a ruthless bishop, who will do anything to increase his wealth and power, in an epic tale of ambition and rivalry, death and birth, and love and hate.
About the author: Ken Follett was born in Cardiff, Wales. Barred from watching films and television by his parents, he developed an early interest in reading thanks to a local library. After studying philosophy at University College London, he became involved in centre-left politics, entering into journalism soon after. His first thriller, the wartime spy drama Eye of the Needle, became an international bestseller and has sold over 10 million copies. This World War II thriller set in England, earned him the 1979 Edgar Award for Best Novel from the Mystery Writers of America. It remains one of his most popular books.
He then astonished everyone with his first historical novel, The Pillars of the Earth, the story of the building of a medieval cathedral, which went on to become one of the most beloved books of the twentieth century. One of the most popular authors in the world, his many books including the Kingsbridge series and the Century trilogy - a body of work which together chronicles over a thousand years of history - and his latest novel Never - which envisages how World War III could happen - have sold more than 188 million copies. A father and husband, Ken lives with his wife in England and enjoys travelling the world when he can. More than 195 million copies of the 37 books he has written have been sold in over 80 countries and in 40 languages.
Rating: 5/5
Never by Ken Follett
About the book: In the Sahara Desert, two elite intelligence agents are on the trail of a powerful group of drug-smuggling terrorists, risking their lives - and, when they fall desperately in love, their careers - at every turn.
Nearby, a beautiful young widow fights against human traffickers while traveling illegally to Europe with the help of a mysterious man who may not be who he says he is.
In China, a senior government official with vast ambitions for himself and his country battles against the older Communist hawks in the government, who may be pushing China - and its close military ally, North Korea - to a place of no return.
And in the United States, Pauline Green, the country’s first woman president, navigates terrorist attacks, illegal arms trading, and the smear campaigns of her blustering political opponent with careful and deft diplomacy. She will do everything in her power to avoid starting an unnecessary war. But when one act of aggression leads to another, the most powerful countries in the world are caught in a complex web of alliances they cannot escape.
And once all the sinister pieces are in place, can anyone - even those with the best of intentions and most elite skills - stop the inevitable?
Never (2021) is an extraordinary thriller, full of heroines and villains, false prophets and elite warriors, jaded politicians and opportunistic revolutionaries. It brims with cautionary wisdom for our times, and a delivers a visceral, heart-pounding read that transports readers to the brink of the unimaginable.
About the author: Ken Follett was born in Cardiff, Wales. Barred from watching films and television by his parents, he developed an early interest in reading thanks to a local library. After studying philosophy at University College London, he became involved in centre-left politics, entering into journalism soon after. His first thriller, the wartime spy drama Eye of the Needle, became an international bestseller and has sold over 10 million copies. This World War II thriller set in England, earned him the 1979 Edgar Award for Best Novel from the Mystery Writers of America. It remains one of his most popular books.
He then astonished everyone with his first historical novel, The Pillars of the Earth, the story of the building of a medieval cathedral, which went on to become one of the most beloved books of the twentieth century. One of the most popular authors in the world, his many books including the Kingsbridge series and the Century trilogy - a body of work which together chronicles over a thousand years of history - and his latest novel Never - which envisages how World War III could happen - have sold more than 188 million copies. A father and husband, Ken lives with his wife in England and enjoys travelling the world when he can. More than 195 million copies of the 37 books he has written have been sold in over 80 countries and in 40 languages.
Rating: 5/5
Monday, 18 November 2024
The Screen by Fr Jean-Pierre Boubée, SSPX
About the book: “I can stop whenever I want!” - Are you really sure?
Abbé Boubée’s booklet provides a concise analysis of the inherent dangers found in our screen-centered world.
Our thoughtless use of social media, video games, and even popular news sites in the digital realm have far-reaching consequences that impact both our temporal wellbeing and spiritual journey toward heaven.
By incorporating both scientific studies and the Church’s timeless wisdom, Abbé Boubée offers a set of guidelines for the prudent use of computers, smartphones, and other devices that operate as gateways to the digital realm.
By heeding Abbé Boubée’s advice, readers will hopefully be able to regain control over their lives while avoiding the screen’s seemingly unlimited stumbling blocks.
The Screen (2024) is also available as an ebook from angeluspress.org.
Friday, 15 November 2024
Where The Jackals Howl by Amos Oz
About the book: Where the Jackals Howl (1980) is prize-winning author Amos Oz's first collection of stories.
On publication it received immediate critical acclaim and revealed Oz to be a master craftsman probing the emotional depths of his characters.
The lives of ordinary Israelis are set against the backdrop of community life in a Kibbutz.
The fate of these individuals, their drives, ambitions and idiosyncrasies, are grounded by the physical and social structure of their community as Oz portrays their world as a microcosm of the wider world.
Where the Jackals Howl is translated from the Hebrew by Nicholas de Lange and Philip Simpson.
About the author: Born in Jerusalem in 1939, Amos Oz was the internationally acclaimed author of many novels and essay collections, translated into over forty languages, including his brilliant semi-autobiographical work, A Tale of Love and Darkness. His last novel, Judas, was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2017 and won the Yasnaya Polyana Foreign Fiction Award. He received several international awards, including the Prix Femina, the Israel Prize, the Goethe Prize, the Frankfurt Peace Prize and the 2013 Franz Kafka Prize, amongst many others. He died in December 2018 aged 79.
Rating: 4/5
Wednesday, 13 November 2024
The Snow Killer (A DI Barton Investigation Series) by Ross Greenwood
About the book: A family is gunned down in the snow but one of the children survives. Three years on, that child takes revenge and the Snow Killer is born. But then, nothing - no further crimes are committed, and the case goes cold.
Fifty years later, has the urge to kill been reawakened?
As murder follows murder, the detective team tasked with solving the crimes struggle with the lack of leads. It is a race against time and the weather – each time it snows another person dies.
As an exhausted and grizzled DI Barton and his team scrabble to put the pieces of the puzzle together, the killer is hiding in plain sight.
Meanwhile, the murders continue.
The Snow Killer (2019) is the first instalment in the excellent DI Barton Investigation series set in Peterborough. Currently, there are seven books in the series, the latest being The Village Killer (2024) which is out now.
About the author: Ross Greenwood is the award-winning mystery and crime thriller author from Peterborough, UK, where he spent his childhood and most of his early adulthood years. After he left his hometown, he lived and worked all over the United States and across the world. Nonetheless, he found himself going back to Peterborough many times over the years. Before becoming a full-time writer, he was, for four years, a prison officer and so worked everyday with murderers, rapists and thieves. His other works include the DS Ashley Knight series, the Dark Lives series and several stand-alone books.
Rating: 5/5
Monday, 11 November 2024
Friday, 8 November 2024
Thursday, 7 November 2024
J'Accuse: Shedding Light On My "Excommunication" by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò
About the book: For the Catholic believer, the Church is One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic, for Bergoglio the Church is conciliar, ecumenical, synodal, inclusive, immigrationist, eco-sustainable, and gay-friendly. - Jerome R Corsi, PhD (Foreword)
Following his excommunication by Pope Francis, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò accuses Jorge Mario Bergoglio (Pope Francis) of being a heretic to the true Catholic Church. Archbishop Viganò argues that Bergoglio has departed from Christ's message of salvation and redemption in favour of a "woke" LGBTQ+ agenda that traces back to the progressive nature of Vatican II in the 1960s.
Presenting here, for the first time, the Criminal Decree the Vatican issued as a prelude to an excommunication hearing, we can see for ourselves that the Vatican sought to silence Archbishop Viganò because of his strong denunciation of Bergoglio's embrace of a New World Order ideology that His Excellency Archbishop Viganò has condemned as Satanic.
In J'Accuse (2024), Archbishop Viganò presents a breathtaking examination of the Catholic Church's fall from grace since Vatican II. In these pages, Archbishop Viganò details how Bergoglio and the Vatican hierarchy have propagated a "Deep Church" scandal that has made Bergoglio's "conciliar church" a "counterfeit" of the true Catholic theology that the Archbishop brilliantly articulates and defends.
About the author: His Excellency Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò was born in Varese, Italy, on 16 January 1941. Ordained priest on 24 March 1968, for the Diocese of Pavia, he received a Licentiate in Sacred Theology and a Doctorate In Utroque Jure. His Excellency began his service in the Holy See’s Diplomatic Corps as attaché in Iraq and Kuwait in 1973, then he was appointed to the Apostolic Nunciature in the United Kingdom. From 1978 to 1989, he worked at the Secretariat of State of the Holy See and was then appointed Special Envoy with the functions of Permanent Observer to the Council of Europe, in Strasbourg. He was consecrated Bishop on 26 April 1992, by John Paul II, appointed Titular Archbishop of Ulpiana and Pro-Nuncio Apostolic in Nigeria. In 1998, he was promoted Delegate for Pontifical Representations in the Secretariat of State. From 2009 to 2011, he served as Secretary General of the Governorate of Vatican City State, and in 2011 Pope Benedict XVI appointed him Apostolic Nuncio to the United States of America. He ceased his service to the Holy See in May 2016 due to age limit.
Today, he is the only free voice in the Catholic Church, boldly continuing his episcopal ministry in protecting the Church’s unchanging Tradition and preserving the Catholic Priesthood.
Tuesday, 5 November 2024
A Bishop Speaks: Writings And Addresses 1963-1976 Marcel Lefebvre
About the book: "We hope that this English edition will be widely read. May it also help many Catholics - bishops, priests, and laity - to understand the tragedy that is ruining the Church, and the new betrayal of which Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Victim," said Archbishop Lefebvre in the first English edition.
A Bishop Speaks (2007) is a chronological collection of Archbishop Lefebvre's key letters, sermons, conferences, and interviews (1963-1976) that are critical to understanding his founding of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), his defense of Catholic Tradition, and his opposition to the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II) and the New Mass. It includes those parts unpublished in the original English edition.
A Bishop Speaks is originally published in two volumes as Un Évêque parle: Mgr Marcel Lefebvre, écrits et allocutions-tome I: 1963-1974, and Un Évêque parle: Mgr Marcel Lefebvre, écrits et allocutions-tome II: 1975-1976.
About the author: Marcel Lefebvre was born in 1905. In 1923 he entered the French Seminary in Rome. Having completed his doctorate in philosophy and theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University, he was ordained a priest on September 21, 1929. After one year spent as curate in a working-class suburb of Lille (France), he joined the Holy Ghost Fathers, a missionary congregation. In 1932 he was sent as a missionary to Gabon. Later he was appointed Rector of the scholasticate in Mortain (France) in 1945. Consecrated a bishop on September 18, 1947, he was appointed Apostolic Vicar of Dakar as well as Apostolic Delegate for French-speaking Black Africa and Madagascar in 1948. In 1955 he became Archbishop of Dakar. In 1960 he was appointed Assistant to the Pontifical Throne and member of the Preparatory Commission for the Council.
In 1962, after having been appointed Bishop of Tulle (France) and consultant of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, he was elected Superior General of his religious congregation, which at the time numbered over 5,000 members. In 1968 he resigned from his post during the Extraordinary Chapter called to implement aggiornamento. He was then 63 years old.
At the repeated requests of seminarians, in 1970 he founded the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X, with the approval of the Bishop of Fribourg (Switzerland). The seminary was moved to Ecône and received a canonical visitation in 1974. Scandalized by the remarks made by the Roman visitators in matters of faith, he composed a declaration dated November 21, 1974. The document, widely publicized by the media, led to the suppression of the Society with no regard for canonical procedures. Archbishop Lefebvre considered it illegal, and never took any account of it.
In July 1976 Archbishop Lefebvre was suspended a divinis because he had ordained priests even though Rome had forbidden him to do so. Years of controversies with Rome followed. Given the attitude of the Holy See, which promised to give him a successor but without providing him with sufficient guarantees, Archbishop Lefebvre consecrated four bishops on June 30, 1988. Invoking the grave state of necessity from which the Church was suffering, he carried out what he called “Operation Survival of Tradition” to safeguard the Catholic priesthood and the sacraments, while assigning neither jurisdiction nor canonical mission to the bishops that he consecrated. Together with Bishop de Castro Mayer and the four newly consecrated bishops, he was officially excommunicated, which he deemed unjust and invalid, like the preceding censures.
Archbishop Lefebvre spent his final years in Ecône until his death on March 25, 1991. There his body was laid to rest. According to his request, the following words were engraved on his tombstone: “Tradidi quod et accepi, I handed on what I received.” ("Short Biography of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre" taken from The Society of Saint Pius X of Great Britain at https://fsspx.uk/en/short-biography-archbishop-marcel-lefebvre-31771)
Fr Gabriele Amorth: Rome's Exorcist, The Official Biography by Domenico Agasso
About the book: “Among men, a special role is played by exorcists. They are like the tips of diamonds in this army that counters evil with good. They are priests chosen to drive out the extraordinary presence of Satan and his army.” - Fr Gabrielle Amorth
When Fr Gabriele Amorth passed away on September 16, 2016 at the age of ninety, he had given everything to Christ and His Church. He performed as many as twelve exorcisms in a day. He faithfully served sixty-nine years in the Pauline religious order, sixty-two as a priest, and thirty years as the pope’s exorcist.
In this official biography, Father Amorth’s extraordinary life is revealed for the first time in English. In these pages, you will learn about a humble priest who initially refused the appointment of exorcist. You will discover how this spiritual son of Saint Padre Pio trained to be an exorcist and the details of his first exorcism and how he single handedly spearheaded the consecration of Italy to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. He later founded what became the International Association of Exorcists (IAE), the only organization of its kind recognized by the Church.
Father Amorth once said about exorcisms, “The battle can last for hours. And it almost never ends with deliverance. It takes years to free a possessed person. Many years. Satan is difficult to defeat.”
Although the world knows him only as an exorcist, he was so much more. His profound prayer life, his simplicity, his love for poverty, his sense of humour, his fearlessness, his friendship with many saints, and his esteemed love for Our Lady set him apart. Because of Our Lady’s protection, he once declared, “I always say that it is the devil who is afraid of me.”
Everyone is called to do battle with devil, but only few people are given the power over the demons. And “despite the fatigue, disappointments, and losses, he would never retreat from the enemy.”
In Fr Gabriele Amorth: Rome's Exorcist, The Official Biography (2023, English translation), you will find the remarkable story of the most renowned exorcist of the last century, a warrior for Christ. “Those who knew him, already consider him a saint.”
Fr Gabriele Amorth: Rome's Exorcist, The Official Biography is translated from the Italian by Brett Thomas OFS with a Foreword by Fr Chad Ripperger, PhD.
About the author: Domenico Agasso has a degree in political science and works as a journalist and writer. Currently, he is Vatican correspondent for Vatican Insider, a project run by the daily newspaper La Stampa, providing information on the Holy See and the Catholic Church. He has authored numerous works.
Monday, 4 November 2024
Saturday, 2 November 2024
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