A Waiter In Paris: Adventures In The Dark Heart Of The City by Edward Chisholm

About the book: A waiter's job is to deceive you. They want you to believe in a luxurious calm because on the other side of that door...is hell.

Edward Chisholm's spellbinding memoir of his time as a Parisian waiter takes you below the surface of one of the most iconic cities in the world and right into its glorious underbelly.

He inhabits a world of inhuman hours, snatched sleep and dive bars; scraping by on coffee, bread and cigarettes, often under sadistic managers, with a wage so low you're fighting your colleagues for tips. Colleagues - including thieves, narcissists, ex-Legionnaires, paperless immigrants, wannabe actors and drug dealers - who are the closest thing to family that you've got.

It is physically demanding, frequently humiliating and incredibly competitive. But it doesn't matter because you're in Paris, the centre of the universe, and there's nowhere else you'd rather be in the world.

Inspired by Orwell, A Waiter in Paris (2022) is a brilliant portrait of the underbelly of contemporary Paris through the eyes of a young waiter scraping a living in the city.

About the author: Edward Chisholm was born in Dorset, England, and moved to Paris in 2012 after graduating from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. A resident there for seven years, Chisholm spent the first four of them working all manner of low-paid jobs, from waiting and bar work to museum security and market hand, while trying to build a career as a writer. Now, Chisholm makes a living as a copywriter/pen for hire, with ambitions of writing novels. His work has appeared in The New York Times, the Guardian and the Financial Times magazine. Chisholm is working on his next novel.

St John of Kronstadt (1829-1909), Russian Orthodox Archpriest

Definition: Eremition

Three by Valérie Perrin

About the book: Three (2022) is a compulsive story about the powers and fleetingness of friendship, love and life. 

1986: Adrien, Etienne and Nina are 10 years old when they meet at school and become inseparable. They promise each other they will one day leave their provincial backwater, move to Paris, and never part.

2017: A car is pulled up from the bottom of the lake, a body inside. Virginie, a local journalist with an enigmatic past, follows the case. Step by step she reveals the extraordinary bonds that unite the three childhood friends. How is the car wreck connected to their story? Why did their friendship fall apart?

Valérie Perrin has an unerring gift for delving deep into life’s depths. Following the thread of a sequence of heart-wrenching, inescapable events over the span of three decades, she draws the reader into a compelling story of love and loss, hope and grief, and of the distance that comes with the passing of time.

Three (2022) is a masterly crafted story full of suspense and unexpected plot twists. 

Three is translated from the French by Hildegarde Serle.

About the author: Valérie Perrin was born in 1967 in Remiremont, in the Vosges Mountains, France. She grew up in Burgundy and settled in Paris in 1986. Perrin is a photographer and screenwriter who works with Claude Lelouch. Her first novel, Les Oublies du Dimanche, won numerous prizes including the 2016 Lire Elire and Poulet-Malassis. The Forgotten Sunday (2015), won the Booksellers Choice Award and the paperback edition has been long-selling best-seller since publication. Her English-language debut, Fresh Water for Flowers (Europa, 2020), won the Maison de la Presse Prize, the Paperback Readers Prize, and was named a 2020 ABA Indies Introduce and Indie Next List title. It has been translated into over thirty languages. Figaro Littéraire named Perrin one of the ten best-selling authors in France in 2019, and in Italy, Fresh Water for Flowers was the best selling book of 2020. Perrin now lives in Normandy.

About the translator: Hildegarde Serle graduated in French from Oxford University. After working as a newspaper subeditor in London for many years, she obtained the Chartered Institute of Linguists Diploma in Translation. She is the translator of A Winter's Promise and The Missing of Clairdelune by Christelle Dabos and the novels by Valérie Perrin, including the international best-seller,  Fresh Water for Flowers. She lives in London. 

Rating: 5/5

Melania by Melania Trump

About the book: Melania (2024) is a compelling and inspirational memoir that offers a glimpse into the life of a remarkable woman who has navigated challenges with grace and determination. 

 

In her memoir, Melania reflects on her Slovenian childhood, the pivotal moments that led her to the world of high fashion in Europe and New York, and the serendipitous meeting with Donald Trump, a chance encounter that forever changed the course of her life. 

Melania opens up about their courtship, life in the spotlight, and experiencing the joy of motherhood. She shares behind-the-scenes stories from her time in the White House, shedding light on her advocacy work and the causes close to her heart.

Melania offers an unprecedented look into her time as a First Lady who was born outside the United States - a role she embraced with honour and dedication. It brings readers into her world and presents an in-depth account of a woman who has led a remarkable life on her own terms.

Melania Trump's story is one of resilience and independence, showcasing her strength and unwavering commitment to her true self. 

Melania is an instant #1 New York Times Bestseller and a #1 Publishers Weekly Bestseller.

About the author: First Lady Melania Trump, a successful model, businesswoman, author and children’s advocate, is the wife of the 45th and 47th President, Donald J Trump and the mother to their son, Barron Trump. Born in Slovenia in 1970, she moved to New York in 1996 and became a US citizen 10 years later. She is the second First Lady born outside of the United States after Louisa Adams in the 1820s, and the only First Lady to become a naturalized United States citizen. As a businesswoman, she launched the Melania Trump Timepieces and Jewelry collection and her philanthropic work includes serving as a goodwill ambassador for the American Red Cross. As first lady from 2017–2021, Melania Trump focused on issues affecting children. Her BE BEST initiative, established in 2018, promotes the well-being of children and highlights programs dedicated to a better future for the next generation. She also engaged with the US military and their families, traveling to US military bases domestically and overseas. This biography is adapted from one on whitehouse.gov.

The Devil Behind The Badge by Rick Jervis

About the book: The Devil Behind The Badge (2024) is the shocking true-crime story of a US Border Patrol agent turned serial killer, the four sex workers whom he mercilessly killed, and the upended border town of Laredo where his heinous crimes occurred.

Twelve days is all it took.

Melissa Ramirez, Claudine Anne Luera, Guiselda Hernandez, and Janelle Ortiz were four marginalized women striving to make ends meet as sex workers. They looked out for one another. 

But they would soon share a connection that none of them could have imagined. 

When Melissa was found dead, the other three women were on edge but assumed they were safe. Twelve days later, they too were dead and police had detained an unlikely suspect - Juan David Ortiz, a ten-year veteran of the US Customs and Border Protection, where he carried a badge, a service revolver, and was entrusted to protect the community in which he eventually killed. 

From September 3 through 15 September 2018, Ortiz, a husband and doting father to three children, lured his victims into his white Dodge truck and drove them to the outskirts of town where he violently executed them, leaving them dead or dying on the sides of dark, rural roads.

In this fast-paced, electrifying tick-tock, Pulitzer Prize–winning USA Today journalist Rick Jervis tells the gripping story of the four murders that shook the small border town of Laredo, and the quest to unmask a cold, calculated killer who was hiding in plain sight. 

The Devil Behind the Badge is also a deeply human portrait of the four lives lost and an attempt to uncover what motivated Ortiz’s descent into darkness. Along the way, it raises serious questions about the border crisis, the abuse of law enforcement, and the challenges of a federal agency to police its own ranks.

About the author: Rick Jervis is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist with more than two decades of experience working at the Miami Herald, the Wall Street Journal Europe, the Chicago Tribune, and USA Today, where he has worked since 2005. He lives in Austin, Texas. The Devil Behind the Badge is his first book.

Simon The Athonite (d 1287), Orthodox Monk of the 13th Century

The Waiting (Ballard and Bosch Series) by Michael Connelly

About the book: In cold cases, it is not the hope that kills you. It is the waiting.

Renée Ballard and the LAPD’s Open-Unsolved Unit get a hot shot DNA connection between a recently arrested man and a serial rapist and murderer who went quiet twenty years ago. The arrested man is only twenty-four, so the genetic link must be familial: His father was the Pillowcase Rapist, responsible for a five-year reign of terror in the city of angels. 

But when Ballard and her team move in on their suspect, they encounter a baffling web of secrets and legal hurdles.

Meanwhile, Ballard’s badge, gun, and ID are stolen - a theft she cannot report without giving her enemies in the department ammunition to end her career as a detective. She works the burglary alone, but her mission draws her into unexpected danger. With no choice but to go outside the department for help, she knocks on the door of Harry Bosch.

At the same time, Ballard takes on a new volunteer to the cold case unit: Bosch’s daughter Maddie, now a patrol officer. But Maddie has an ulterior motive for getting access to the city’s library of lost souls - a case that may be the most iconic in the city’s history.

The Waiting is the sixth instalment in the outstanding Renee Ballard and Harry Bosch series set in Los Angeles. 

The Waiting (2024) is now available in print, eBook, and audiobook in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and Ireland. The audiobook is read by Christine Lakin, Titus Welliver, and Madison Lintz.

About the author: Michael Connelly is the bestselling author of thirty-eight novels and one work of non-fiction. His books, which include the Harry Bosch series, the Lincoln Lawyer series, and the Renée Ballard series, have sold more than eighty million copies worldwide. Connelly is a former newspaper reporter who has won numerous awards for his journalism and his novels. He is the executive producer of three television series: Bosch, Bosch: Legacy, and The Lincoln Lawyer. He is also the creator and host of the podcasts Murder Book and The Wonderland Murders and the Secret History of Hollywood. He spends his time in California and Florida. 

To find out more, visit Michael's website at www.michaelconnelly.com.au, or follow him on Facebook (MichaelConnellyBooks) or Twitter @ConnellyBooks. 

Rating: 5/5

James E Faust (1920-2007), American Religious Leader, Lawyer and Politician

"We are bombarded on all sides by a vast number of messages we don’t want or need. More information is generated in a single day than we can absorb in a lifetime. To fully enjoy life, all of us must find our own breathing space and peace of mind." - James E Faust

Extraordinary: From Stay-at-Home Mum To World-Class Entrepreneur by Yvon Bock

About the book: How did an "ordinary" stay-at-home mother unlock her full potential and build a hundred-million-dollar global business? 

Leaving the corporate world to become a stay-at-home mother, Yvon Bock thought she was settling for an ordinary life. 

However, a death-defying experience inspired her to make a difference. 

She now aims to empower 100 million mothers with her invention, the Hegen feeding bottle.

Through her experiences as a daughter, sister, wife, mother, and visionary entrepreneur, she shares a message of hope, urging us all to embrace the extraordinary within ourselves too. 

Through her breastfeeding experience and innovative spirit, Yvon demonstrates the essence of human potential and the transformative power of intention. 

Extraordinary (2025) will inspire you to embark on a journey of courage, compassion, and relentless pursuit of greatness to unlock your full potential!

About the author: Yvon Bock is currently the Founder, CEO and Chief innovator at Hegen, an award-winning baby bottle brand. Hailing from the small city-state of Singapore, she is an ordinary mum with an extraordinary mission - to empower 100 million mothers worldwide. With her simple desire of giving the best to her child by breastfeeding, Yvon created a global revolution with the invention of the world's first patented no-screw thread Press-to-Close, Twist-to-Open™ (PCTO™) baby bottle. Her brand, Hegen, was birthed from her personal pain points as a working mum who breastfed for 10 years. It has been taking the world by storm since 2015 and has since become the number 1 feeding bottle brand on China e-commerce platforms, surpassing established global competitors. Hegen was the first Singapore brand to be invited to take part in the Alibaba Singles Festival event in 2017 when the hype of Singles Day was at its peak.

Yvon's commitment to supporting mothers extends beyond product innovation. She founded the Hegen Lactation Centre, providing parents with science-backed information, antenatal classes, and lactation consultations to help them confidently navigate parenthood. In 2022, she became an International Board-Certified Lactation Consultant, joining a select group of 84 in Singapore.

Her entrepreneurial achievements have earned her numerous accolades, including the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Class of 2024, Entrepreneur of the Year 2023 (Consumer Products & Overall Singapore Winner), The Stevie Awards for Women in Business 2020 and Fortune Times Asia's Women Empowerment Award 2021. Hegen has also been recognized with prestigious design and enterprise awards, such as the Red Dot Design Award and the Enterprise 50 (E50) award.

Yvon's dedication to excellence and her passion for empowering mothers continue to drive her global expansion efforts, with Hegen now present in 24 markets. Balancing her thriving business and her role as a mother of four teenagers, Yvon remains steadfast in her mission to support and uplift mothers worldwide.