St Elizabeth of the Trinity: The Unfolding of the Message (Volume 2) by Joanne Mosley

About the book: Among the Church's many saints and blesseds, Elizabeth of the Trinity (1880-1906) is one of the most attractive and encouraging for our times. 

Author of the classic prayer, "O my God, Trinity whom I adore', she was a shining example of these words which she wrote at the age of twenty: 'even in the midst of the world one can listen to Him in the silence of a heart that wants to belong only to Him!"

Elizabeth was known for her sparkling vitality, her vibrant social life, her skill at the piano, and especially her love of prayer. She had many close friends, but the passion of her life was Jesus and it was this love that led her to the Carmel of Dijon where, after many trials but also profound joys, she died at the age of only twenty-six: a witness to the Trinity dwelling within each of us, and to God's call for us to be with him at every moment - both now and in eternity.

Here, in the first volume of this informative, engaging and inspiring book, we are introduced to the very human face of Elizabeth in the world and in the cloister as she listened to God's word in silence and in Scripture, and penetrated ever more deeply into the mystery of God.

Joanne Mosley's extensive biography, Elizabeth of the Trinity: The Unfolding of Her Message, offers a detailed examination of the life and spiritual teachings of Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity, a Carmelite nun whose insights into the divine presence within each individual are presented as a significant development in Christian spirituality. Through two volumes rich in historical context and personal anecdotes, Mosley not only narrates Elizabeth's life experiences, including her early struggles and eventual sanctification, but also highlights the efforts to promote her posthumous legacy. 

St Elizabeth of the Trinity: The Unfolding of the Message (Volume 2 - In the Infirmary & After her Death) was published in 2012. 

About the author: Dr Joanne Mosley is an editor, writer, retreat leader, and speaker who specializes in Carmelite spirituality. She is assistant editor of Mount Carmel, the spiritual review published by the Teresian Carmelites and frequently lectures and leads sessions on Carmelite mystics and saints for organizations like the Carmelite Friars in Britain. She is also the author of Edith Stein: Woman of Prayer (2004). 

St Elizabeth of the Trinity: The Unfolding of the Message (Volume 1) by Joanne Mosley

About the book: Among the Church's many saints and blesseds, Elizabeth of the Trinity (1880-1906) is one of the most attractive and encouraging for our times. 

Author of the classic prayer, "O my God, Trinity whom I adore', she was a shining example of these words which she wrote at the age of twenty: 'even in the midst of the world one can listen to Him in the silence of a heart that wants to belong only to Him!"

Elizabeth was known for her sparkling vitality, her vibrant social life, her skill at the piano, and especially her love of prayer. She had many close friends, but the passion of her life was Jesus and it was this love that led her to the Carmel of Dijon where, after many trials but also profound joys, she died at the age of only twenty-six: a witness to the Trinity dwelling within each of us, and to God's call for us to be with him at every moment - both now and in eternity.

Here, in the first volume of this informative, engaging and inspiring book, we are introduced to the very human face of Elizabeth in the world and in the cloister as she listened to God's word in silence and in Scripture, and penetrated ever more deeply into the mystery of God.

Joanne Mosley's extensive biography, Elizabeth of the Trinity: The Unfolding of Her Message, offers a detailed examination of the life and spiritual teachings of Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity, a Carmelite nun whose insights into the divine presence within each individual are presented as a significant development in Christian spirituality. Through two volumes rich in historical context and personal anecdotes, Mosley not only narrates Elizabeth's life experiences, including her early struggles and eventual sanctification, but also highlights the efforts to promote her posthumous legacy. 

St Elizabeth of the Trinity: The Unfolding of the Message (Volume 1 - In the World & In Community) was first published in 2012 and reprinted in 2016. 

About the author: Dr Joanne Mosley is an editor, writer, retreat leader, and speaker who specializes in Carmelite spirituality. She is assistant editor of Mount Carmel, the spiritual review published by the Teresian Carmelites and frequently lectures and leads sessions on Carmelite mystics and saints for organizations like the Carmelite Friars in Britain. She is also the author of Edith Stein: Woman of Prayer (2004). 

The Seven Mansions Of The Soul by Saint Teresa of Ávila (1515-1582)

Fair Son, Set Thine Heart To Love GOD

Photo credit: Humble Flow on X.com

Saint Louis (1214-1270)

Photo credit: Memento Mori on X.com

The Woman Who Lived 60 Years On The Eucharist by Virtus et Veritas

About the booklet: Can faith suspend the laws of biology? 

Discover the fascinating story of Floripes Dornelas de Jesús, known as Lola, who defied science by living for six decades without consuming food or water, sustained solely by the Sacred Host.

In this book, science and theology come together to investigate one of Brazil's greatest mystical phenomena. 

Through medical reports and the insights of the great saints of the Church, delve into the enigma of a life that became a living miracle. 

An essential read for those who seek to strengthen their faith and understand the true power of the Eucharist.

Floripes Dornellas de Jesús (1913-1999) was a Brazilian Roman Catholic mystic. She is now a Servant of God after the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints issued the nihil obstat ("nothing against") in November 2005. Her home, known as Recanto Sítio de Lola in Rio Pomba, is a place of pilgrimage, welcoming the faithful from across Brazil on the first Friday and third Sunday of every month for Masses and prayer. The room where Lola lived for over 60 years remains preserved and can be viewed through a glass partition.

The Woman Who Lived 60 Years on the Eucharist was independently published on 3 January 2026.

The French Illusion by John Grisham

About the book: Bestselling author John Grisham delivers a new gripping, suspenseful page-turner about a Paris honeymoon gone horribly wrong - and the nightmare that follows.

Paul and Chelsea Tanner are riding a euphoric high after their fairytale wedding. But when they fly to Paris for their honeymoon, they are very quickly brought back down to earth. While on a day trip to the idyllic French countryside, they are suddenly and brutally kidnapped. Both of their families are in shock: who would target them - and why?

It quickly becomes clear that this is not the first crime of its kind. The search for answers soon stretches across borders, with the FBI, CIA and French intelligence working together to solve the puzzle. Struggling to find answers, a young lawyer is recruited to be the bait in an elaborate CIA operation.

Propulsive and surprising, The French Illusion is an unmistakable Grisham thrill ride - gripping and impossible to put down.

The French Illusion will be on sale on 29 September 2026.

About the author: John Grisham is the author of more than fifty consecutive #1 bestsellers, which have been translated into nearly fifty languages. His recent books include The Widow, Framed, and Camino Ghosts. Grisham is a two-time winner of the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction and was honoured with the Library of Congress Creative Achievement Award for Fiction. When he is not writing, Grisham serves on the board of directors of the Innocence Project and of Centurion Ministries, two national organizations dedicated to exonerating those who have been wrongfully convicted. Much of his fiction explores deep-seated problems in our criminal justice system. John lives on a farm in central Virginia.

Rating: 5/5

Wife Of The Chef by Courtney Febbroriello

About the book: Wife of the Chef: The True Story of a Restaurant and a Romance is at once a no-holds-barred memoir of restaurant life and a revealing look at married life. 

For Courtney Febbroriello, the two are intertwined. She and her husband own an American bistro in Connecticut. He is the chef, so naturally he gets all the credit. She has the role of keeping things running, but she is the wife, so she remains anonymous or invisible or both.

Febbroriello comes front and center here, detailing the everyday challenges she faces - taking over dish-washing duty, bailing waiters out of jail, untangling the immigration laws, cajoling lazy suppliers, handling unreasonable customers, and a host of other emergency duties. 

She pokes fun at people who take food and wine - and the chef - too seriously, with witty comments on everything from "chef envy" to the much-ballyhooed James Beard Awards.

Spiced with a healthy spoonful of feminism and enriched with a cup of humour, Wife of the Chef: The True Story of a Restaurant and a Romance (2010) is the tastiest "dish" of the season.

About the author: Courtney Febbroriello and her husband, Christopher Prosperi, opened Metro Bis in Simsbury, Connecticut, in 1998. This is her first book.

More Things In Heaven And Earth (A Novel of Watervalley) by Jeff High

About the book: Tucked away in the rolling Tennessee countryside is the charming community of Watervalley, whose inhabitants are quirky and captivating and more surprising than you might expect…

As an ambitious young doctor with a penchant for research, Luke Bradford never wanted to set up practice in a remote rural town. But to pay back his student loans and to fulfill a promise from his past, he heads for Watervalley, Tennessee - and immediately stumbles into one disaster after another.  Will he be labeled the town idiot before he is even introduced as the new doctor? 

Very quickly he faces some big challenges - from resuscitating a three-hundred-pound farmer who goes into cardiac arrest to not getting shot by a local misanthrope for trespassing. He expects the people of Watervalley to be simple, but finds his relationships with them are complicated, whether he is interacting with his bossy but devout housekeeper, the attractive schoolteacher he consistently alienates, or the mysterious kid next door who climbs trees while wearing a bike helmet. 

When a baffling flu epidemic hits Watervalley, Luke faces his ultimate test. Whether the community embraces him or not, it is his responsibility to save them. And he will soon discover that while living in a small town may not be what he wants, it may be just what he needs…

For stories, recipes, and anecdotes from your favourite Watervalley characters, visit watervalleybooks.com.

About the author: After growing up on a farm in rural Tennessee, Jeff High attained degrees in literature and nursing. He is the three-time winner, in fiction and poetry, of an annual writing contest held by Vanderbilt Medical Center. He lived in Nashville for many years, and throughout the country as a travel nurse, before returning to his original hometown, near where he now works as an operating room RN in open-heart surgery. He is the author of the first Watervalley Novel, More Things In Heaven and Earth (2013). The other books in the Watervalley novels are Each Shining Hour (2014); The Splendor of Ordinary Days (2015) and The Fullness Of Time (2019).

Rating: 5/5

A Panoramic View Of Holy Scripture (Volume 2) by Augoustinos N Kantiōtēs, Bishop of Phlorina, Greece

About the book: A Panoramic View of Holy Scripture, Volume 2: Orthodox Homilies Introducing All the Books of the Old Testament (2001) is a special commentary on and summary of the 27 books of the New Testament, written by the preeminent clergyman and preacher of the Orthodox Church, Bishop Augustinos Kantiotes of Phlorina, Greece. 

This preacher and teacher par excellence in his long ministry in the Church has never failed to teach and expound Holy Scripture, recognizing the fact that God's Word will not return back again to God, void and without any effect. 

His marvellous knowledge, his unshakeable faith, and his appreciation of the laws of pedagogy have made him a giant among the Church's homilists. 

The present homilies are practical, inspirational, filled with instructions, and rightly helps the readers in their everyday lives. 

The author hopes that readers, after reading each homily, will then read the relevant text in the Holy Bible thoughtfully and prayerfully. The whole Bible for him is a single revelation with beginning, middle, and end. Christ is the center of the axis, around which all of Holy Scripture, both the Old and New Testaments, turns. Angels, patriarchs, kings, prophets, and all the saved speak about the Lord Jesus Christ. The author is sure that Holy Scripture, as the Orthodox Church interprets it, is a unique guide for the solution of all the problems that confront humanity today and the only way for man to find salvation.

The present edition (2019) of A Panoramic View of Holy Scripture, in two volumes, will be enjoyed by all Christians and in particular priests, preachers, Sunday School teachers, and Bible class students of the English-speaking Orthodox Church.

A Panoramic View of Holy Scripture is translated from the Greek by Asterios Gerostergios from the Institute of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, Inc.

About the author: His Eminence Metropolitan Augustinos Kantiotes (Greek: Αυγουστίνος Καντιώτης)(1907-2010) was bishop of the Holy Metropolis of Florina, Prespai, and Eordaia in northern Greece, renowned as a defender of traditional Orthodoxy both in Greece and abroad, and a prolific writer of spiritual literature, publishing 82 books, several of which have appeared in English and in other languages.

A Panoramic View Of Holy Scripture (Volume 1) by Augoustinos N Kantiōtēs, Bishop of Phlorina, Greece

About the book: A Panoramic View of Holy Scripture, Volume 1: Orthodox Homilies Introducing All the Books of the Old Testament (2001) is a special commentary on and summary on the first 49 books of the Old Testament (the historical, instructive and prophetic ones), written by the preeminent clergyman and preacher of the Orthodox Church, Bishop Augustinos Kantiotes of Phlorina, Greece. 

This preacher and teacher par excellence in his long ministry in the Church has never failed to teach and expound Holy Scripture, recognizing the fact that God's Word will not return back again to God, void and without any effect. 

His marvellous knowledge, his unshakeable faith, and his appreciation of the laws of pedagogy have made him a giant among the Church's homilists. 

The present homilies are practical, inspirational, filled with instructions, and rightly helps the readers in their everyday lives. 

The author hopes that readers, after reading each homily, will then read the relevant text in the Holy Bible thoughtfully and prayerfully. The whole Bible for him is a single revelation with beginning, middle, and end. Christ is the center of the axis, around which all of Holy Scripture, both the Old and New Testaments, turns. Angels, patriarchs, kings, prophets, and all the saved speak about the Lord Jesus Christ. The author is sure that Holy Scripture, as the Orthodox Church interprets it, is a unique guide for the solution of all the problems that confront humanity today and the only way for man to find salvation.

The present edition (2019) of A Panoramic View of Holy Scripture, in two volumes, will be enjoyed by all Christians and in particular priests, preachers, Sunday School teachers, and Bible class students of the English-speaking Orthodox Church.

A Panoramic View of Holy Scripture is translated from the Greek by Asterios Gerostergios from the Institute of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, Inc.

About the author: His Eminence Metropolitan Augustinos Kantiotes (Greek: Αυγουστίνος Καντιώτης)(1907-2010) was bishop of the Holy Metropolis of Florina, Prespai, and Eordaia in northern Greece, renowned as a defender of traditional Orthodoxy both in Greece and abroad, and a prolific writer of spiritual literature, publishing 82 books, several of which have appeared in English and in other languages.

Dianaworld: An Obsession by Edward White

About the book: In February 1981, a 19-year-old nursery teacher’s assistant overnight became globally famous. In a frenzy of excitement, jumping every barrier of language and class, a new, overwhelming icon was conjured up.

This is a guide to Dianaworld - the extraordinary hall-of-mirrors through which one young woman, the world’s media, the royal family, and everybody else stalked one another. Fashion-plate, breeder of heirs, role model, fantasy object, saint and sinner, Diana gripped the minds of millions of people in ways which were unique, complex and distressing. After her death, chased by paparazzi through a Paris traffic tunnel, an estimated 2.5 billion people watched her funeral.

Edward White examines Princess Diana as the complex figure she was: a scion of a great aristocratic house, wife of the future king, mother of his heirs, an inspiration and delight to countless people for many years. 

And yet, of course: a human being inevitably and woefully underequipped either to deal with the horrors of the House of Windsor or control, or even lightly supervise, the Dianaworld she and others had created. 

Dianaworld: An Obsession (2025) is a wonderful book, both admiring and incredulous, exuberant and melancholy.

About the author: Edward White is the author of widely praised The Twelve Lives of Alfred Hitchcock and The Tastemaker: Carl Van Vechten and the Birth of Modern America. He has written for publications including the Paris Review. He lives in Kent.

Right To Life

The Miracle In Naju, Korea: Heaven Speaks To The World

About the book: The Miracle In Naju, Korea: Heaven Speaks To The World (1992) is about Mother Mary's messages to Julia Kim, a humble housewife, mother, and victim soul, from 1985 to 2002.

The Miracle In Naju, Korea: Heaven Speaks To The World is translated from the Korean by Sang M Lee.

The Miracle In Naju, Korea: Heaven Speaks To The World is consecrated to Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, the patron saint of Korea and America, and dedicated to the ten thousand Korean martyrs who died for their Catholic Faith.

Solar Eclipse

No Contact by Noelle Mering

About the book: No Contact: How a Seductive Ideology Broke Families and Friendships and How We Can Repair Them is an incisive exposé of the widespread, politically motivated “no contact” movement that deconstructs the ideology behind this trend and equips readers to avert estrangement and repair broken relationships from the acclaimed author of Awake, Not Woke.

There is a new form of relationship estrangement afoot. While in the past, relationships tended to rupture over issues like abuse, today increasingly people are estranged because of politics. More than 68 million Americans are currently estranged from close family members. Though going “no contact” is frequently framed as an act of empowerment and self-care, behind the numbers are millions of hurting people - and an ideology that threatens not just relationships but the entire fabric of society.

In No Contact, author Noelle Mering weaves interviews and historical research to identify five major factors that have given rise to the no contact movement: 

1) identity politics 

2) demythologization of the family 

3) therapeutic culture

4) infallibility of victimhood, and 

5) cultural narcissism alongside spiritual decline. 

By laying bare the forces behind this destabilizing movement - and how they affect us on personal, familial, and social levels - Mering helps readers to see clearly what is happening, confront it, and work with their families to heal, repair, and strengthen relationships.

More than just a critique, this book is a call to action. By bringing light to an experience that is often shrouded in shame or presented far too reductively to a cheering online audience, No Contact empowers readers with a clear-eyed and compassionate perspective that rejects the pernicious ideology undermining our most intimate and necessary relationships. The stakes are high. If we cannot hold fast to one another in the face of disagreement, we risk losing not only our most intimate bonds, but the foundation of a free and humane society.

No Contact: How a Seductive Ideology Broke Families and Friendships and How We Can Repair Them will be on sale on 8 September 2026.

About the author: Noelle Mering is a fellow at the Washington DC-based Ethics and Public Policy Center. She is author of Awake, Not Woke: A Christian Response to the Cult of Progressive Ideology and co-author of the popular Theology of Home book series. She writes on culture, politics, and religion and has published in National Review, Newsweek, Daily Wire, The Federalist, The American Mind, Catholic World Report, and National Catholic Register. Noelle has been featured multiple times on Fox News (including Primetime), EWTN, in various documentaries, and numerous radio shows and podcasts. She is a highly sought-after public speaker on topics of family, human flourishing, and navigating the complexities of hot-button ideologies with grace. Noelle is a wife and mother of six children in Southern California.

Lost In The Valley Of Death by Harley Rustad

About the book: In the vein of Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild, Lost in The Valley of Death: A Story of Obsession and Danger in The Himalayas (2022) is a riveting work of narrative nonfiction centering on the unsolved disappearance of an American backpacker in India - one of at least two dozen tourists who have met a similar fate in the remote and storied Parvati Valley.

For centuries, India has enthralled westerners looking for an exotic getaway, a brief immersion in yoga and meditation, or in rare cases, a true pilgrimage to find spiritual revelation. Justin Alexander Shetler, an inveterate traveler trained in wilderness survival, was one such seeker.

In his early thirties Justin Alexander Shetler, quit his job at a tech startup and set out on a global journey: across the United States by motorcycle, then down to South America, and on to the Philippines, Thailand, and Nepal, in search of authentic experiences and meaningful encounters, while also documenting his travels on Instagram. His enigmatic character and magnetic personality gained him a devoted following who lived vicariously through his adventures. But the ever restless explorer was driven to pursue ever greater challenges, and greater risks, in what had become a personal quest - his own hero’s journey.

In 2016, he made his way to the Parvati Valley, a remote and rugged corner of the Indian Himalayas steeped in mystical tradition yet shrouded in darkness and danger. There, he spent weeks studying under the guidance of a sadhu, an Indian holy man, living and meditating in a cave. At the end of August, accompanied by the sadhu, he set off on a “spiritual journey” to a holy lake - a journey from which he would never return.

Lost in the Valley of Death is about one man’s search to find himself, in a country where for many westerners the path to spiritual enlightenment can prove fraught, even treacherous. But it is also a story about all of us and the ways, sometimes extreme, we seek fulfilment in life.

Lost in the Valley of Death is the Winner of the 2023 Poland Mountain Literature Festival Award for Best Non-Fiction Book and Overall Grand Prix; Winner of the 2023 Religion News Association Award for Nonfiction Books; Finalist for a 2023 Crime Writers of Canada Award for Nonfiction Crime Book; Finalist for the 2022 Banff Mountain Book Award for Adventure Travel; and CBC best Canadian Nonfiction of 2022.

Lost in the Valley of Death includes 16 pages of colour photographs.

About the author: Harley Rustad is is an award-winning and bestselling author, journalist, and magazine editor. His first book was Big Lonely Doug: The Story of One of Canada's Last Great Trees. It was named a best book of 2018 by the Globe and Mail and was nominated for several awards including the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing. 

His writing has appeared in numerous publications, including Outside, the Guardian, the Globe and Mail, and Geographical. He is a features editor and writer at The Walrus magazine (where he has worked for more than ten years), a faculty editor at the Banff Centre Mountain and Wilderness Writing residency, Canada, and the founder of the Port Renfrew Writers' Retreat in Canada. In 2024, he was awarded a gold National Magazine Award for Editor Grand Prix. A fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, Rustad is originally from Salt Spring Island, British Columbia.

Big Apple Farm by Megan Clawson

About the book: What is Big Apple Farm (2026) by Megan Clawson about? It is the perfect book for fans of small town romance.

Beatrice Norton is a country girl. Working on a farm by day and pulling pints at the Big Apple pub by night, her simple life suits her just fine.

Arthur Redgrave is city boy. Raised in luxury by acting royalty, he dreams of conquering the Big Apple - New York - and is not afraid to trade off his parents’ name to get there.

But fed up with his entitled attitude, his parents ship him off to his dad's childhood farm for a reality check. Tasked with showing Arthur the ropes, Beatrice finds herself stuck with man who cannot tell a pitchfork from a salad fork.

Despite their efforts to remain at odds, Arthur finds himself respecting the straight-talking farm girl and Beatrice wonders whether there is more beneath his polished (and handsome) exterior. Can love bridge the gap between rural roots and big-city dreams, or will their hearts remain worlds apart?

About the author: Megan Clawson was born and raised in Boston, Lincolnshire in the United Kingdom. A beefeater’s daughter, her heart was ensnared by the city of London at a young age, and she moved to study English with Film at King’s College in 2018. Whilst there, she fell in love with her own royal guard. Now, she still resides in the Tower of London, alongside her little dog Ethel - and works as an English Tutor and a TV and film extra, alongside her writing. Big Apple Farm is her fourth novel.

Rating: 5/5

Hell Hath No Fury by Bryna Taubman

About the book: Dan Broderick was one of California's most successful attorneys; his wife, Betty, a beautiful socialite. But when Betty discovered Dan's hidden life, the façade of LaJolla's golden couple was shattered. 

What followed was a vicious five-year battle that finally ended in a shocking double murder.

A Harvard Law School graduate, Dan manipulated the law to strip Betty of everything she loved: her home, her friends - even her children. When she frantically tried to fight back, he had her committed to a mental hospital. His new wife, Linda, even sent the once-beautiful Betty wrinkle cream ads and weight loss pamphlets.

Consumed by hatred and thoughts of revenge, Betty's rage exploded on the night of 5 November 1989. Before the sun rose the next day, Dan Broderick and his gorgeous new wife were dead - their bullet-riddled bodies wrapped in the blood-soaked sheets of their bed.

Hell Hath No Fury: A True Story of Wealth and Passion, Love and Envy, and a Woman Driven to the Ultimate Revenge (1992) is a true-crime book that details the infamous 1989 case of Betty and Dan Broderick.

About the author: Bryna Taubman is an American journalist and writer. She graduated from Miami University Ohio and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She worked at the New York Post. Taubman is the author of four books: How to Become an Assertive Woman - the key to self-fulfillment; The Preppy Murder Trial; Lady Cop: True Stories of Police Women in America's Toughest City; and Hell Hath No Fury: A True Story of Wealth and Passion, Love and Envy, and a Woman Driven to the Ultimate Revenge.

Up On Cove Mountain by Earl Swift

About the book: From the New York Times bestselling author of Chesapeake Requiem comes an intricately plotted tale of two end-to-end adventures through the Appalachian Trail’s twenty-two hundred miles, braided around a third strand, that of the trail’s most notorious tragedy that has haunted Earl Swift for thirty years.

In 1990, a youthful Earl Swift backpacked the Appalachian Trail from Maine to Georgia, a transformative experience that coloured every aspect of his later life. He emerged from his hike across the rugged, sky-high roof of fourteen eastern states a sharper and more organized thinker, a better problem solver, and a committed outdoorsman.

But he also left the AT with baggage: Early in his odyssey, he spent time with a couple of other southbounders, who were friendly, capable, and doing everything right, but who were nonetheless murdered weeks later at a mountaintop campsite in Pennsylvania - a fit of violence that the killer never explained.  

Half a lifetime later, Swift returned to the trail to find out whether he was still, in his sixties, equal to the AT’s roller-coaster terrain. Driving him, too, was a quest for answers that had nagged at him since that first hike: What had happened at that campsite to turn two smart, bighearted people into prey? Why had fate chosen them, when other hikers - Swift included - seemed more likely candidates? And how could such a grisly episode have unfolded in the backcountry’s sylvan loveliness, not to mention one of the safest places around?

Up on Cove Mountain: Adventure, Tragedy, and a Quest for Meaning on the Appalachian Trail is the arresting account of Swift’s 2024 trek through the AT’s enduring wonders and the ghosts of its past, a chronicle of swashbuckling adventure coupled with a meditation on the nature of risk and the risks of nature.

Up on Cove Mountain: Adventure, Tragedy, and a Quest for Meaning on the Appalachian Trail will be on sale on 18 August 2026.

About the author: Earl Swift is the author of the New York Times bestseller Chesapeake Requiem, which was named to ten best-of-the-year lists. His most recent book, Hell Put to Shame, was a finalist for the Edgar Award (Best Fact Crime) and the Virginia Literary Award. A former reporter for The Virginian-Pilot and a contributor to Outside and other publications, he lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains west of Charlottesville.

Treasured Island by Michael Gross

About the book: Treasured Island: The Story of St Barth . . . and Its Barbarians, Billionaires, and Beauties (2026) is a hugely entertaining social history of the elite and exclusive Caribbean island of St Barthélemy from the New York Times bestselling author of Model and 740 Park.

St Barthélemy is revered for its luxury, its stunning beaches and its VIP fans. Those who have either been there or hope to go, know St Bart’s - or St Barth, depending on your level of Francophilia - as the place for the beautiful people, the ultimate see-and-be-seen scene.

Over three decades, acclaimed social chronicler Michael Gross has taken dozens of extended trips to this gorgeous, sultry paradise and knows it almost as a local. In his captivating and detailed history, this “premier chronicler of the rich” (Gay Talese) reveals how the island grew from a barren volcanic island with sometimes in-bred, impoverished residents and no creature comforts to an elite port of call where entertainment, tech, and fashion celebrities, old money, nouveau riche, and international oligarchs vie for tables in chic, expensive restaurants; where pristine beaches, superyachts, and spectacular hotels and lavish private villas are playgrounds for the American, European, and Asian upper class. And some locals have gotten rich off them all.

This is an enticing and entertaining work that combines impeccable reporting and delicious commentary. It is essential reading for everybody who is anybody - or wants to be.

About the author: Michael Gross is the New York Times bestselling author of Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women; 740 Park: The Story of the World’s Richest Apartment Building; and House of Outrageous Fortune: Fifteen Central Park West, the World’s Most Powerful Address. He is the editor-at-large of Palmer: The Palm Beach Reader, and has written for publications around the world, including the New York Times, New York, GQ, Esquire, Vanity Fair, Air Mail and The Daily Beast. He lives in New York City.

The River's Grave (The French Mystery Series) by Christophe Villain

About the book: Lieutenant de Police Armand de Varenne, the son of an influential Parisian family, stumbles upon a series of missing persons cases that strike him as suspicious. 

Is there a serial abductor in the Ardèche region who is abducting young women? 

Or are the missing girls simply runaways after all?

Armand uses a clever manoeuvre to get appointed as a special investigator on the case. There is just one catch: he is paired with Margaux David, an unconventional officer who refuses to conform. They have just one thing in common: both are outsiders within the Paris force, which would be only too happy to see the back of them.

What divides them is their mutual distrust. Only if they overcome it will they stand a chance of tracking down the ruthless kidnapper - someone who knows the region inside out and is always one step ahead of them. And the closer they get, the more dangerous the investigation becomes for them both.

The River's Grave (2026) is the first instalment in this new French Mystery series set in the stunning and remarkably beautiful Ardèche region of France.

The second instalment in the French Mystery series, Deadly Underworld, will be released on 19 December 2026, this time, set in the gloomy underworld of Paris.

About the author: Christophe Villain has spent his summers in France since childhood. After completing his studies, he worked for several years in Paris and along the French Atlantic coast. Now, as a lawyer, he combines his favourite hobbies: traveling to France, enjoying good food, and indulging in exciting crime novels. Armand de Varenne and Margaux David work on cold cases in some of Christophe Villain's favourite locations throughout France.

Rating: 5/5

"The Hermit"

Until the Last Penny (Novella) by Steve A Brous

About the book: "Pauli, don't do this."

Paul Ranzinni has spent his life as a made man in the Romano crime family. He has stolen, cheated, and killed. He has broken every commandment more than once.

But when his dying mother extracts one final promise, a confession to his priest brother Anthony, Paul finds himself face to face with a mercy he never expected.

Hours later, he is dead.

Now Paul stands on the shore of eternity, his sins laid bare before the judgment seat of Christ. Saved by the skin of his teeth, he is sentenced to five hundred years in Purgatory, beginning at the lowest level, where Hell and Purgatory overlap and the demons are allowed to torment him.

What follows is a journey through fire, confrontation, grief, and ultimately mercy, as Paul faces the consequences of every choice he ever made and discovers that salvation is only the beginning.

Until The Last Penny: A Catholic Novella of a Soul's Journey Through Purgatory (2026) is a gripping Catholic novella of sin, judgment, and the purifying love of God.

"You shall not leave until you have paid the very last penny." - Matthew 5:26

About the author: Steve Brous is a Catholic author and content creator from Springfield, Missouri. A convert to Catholicism in the early 90s, Steve's faith journey led him to the Traditional Latin Mass, which has been the cornerstone of his spiritual life ever since.

Steve is the host of I Miss Christendom, a YouTube channel dedicated to Traditional Catholicism, where he had built a community of nearly 26,000 subscribers around the beauty and depth of the traditional faith.

Until The Last Penny is his debut novel - a story born from his deep conviction that the ancient truths of sin, confession and Purgatory are not dusty theological abstraction, but living realities that touch every human soul.

A Mother's Letters: A Vision of Faith In Everyday Life by Concepción Cabrera de Armida (Conchita)

About the book: Readers who have enjoyed Conchita: A Mother's Spiritual Diary will not want to miss this remarkable collection of her letters to her family.

Blessed Concepción Cabrera de Armida (Conchita) lived all of the states of life possible for a Christian woman: she was a single young woman, a wife, the mother of nine children, a widow and a professed religious (at the hour of her death, by special permission of the Pope). 

Her life of continuous and intimate relationship with the Lord was expressed in a remarkable number of ways. She inspired the five Works of the Cross: 

1) the Apostleship of the Cross and the Covenant of Love with the Sacred Heart of Jesus (both for laity), 

2) the Fraternity of Christ Priest (for priests and bishops), 

3) the Sisters of the Cross of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (a contemplative congregation), and 

4) the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit (priests and brothers). 

In addition, she wrote one remarkable book after another, expressing her profound religious insights and her devotion to the Eucharist. 

But Conchita was not a cloistered religious or hermit writing in tranquillity. She was a busy wife, mother, and grandmother who lived during one of the most turbulent times in Mexican history - an age of religious persecution, revolution and economic depression.

These letters to her large and extended family express not only her spiritual wisdom but also her warm, human side as she lovingly guides, advises, and rejoices with the members of her family in good times and bad. 

A Mother's Letters: A Vision of Faith In Everyday Life (2004, 2022 current printing) is compiled and annotated by Sister Dolores Icaza Conrey, RCSCJ. Originally published in Spanish under the title Cartas de una madre de familia - Concepción Cabrera de Armida (1986), it has been translated into the English by Mary McCandless. 

A Mother's Letters: A Vision of Faith In Everyday Life is dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

About the author: Blessed Concepción Cabrera de Armida, better known as Conchita, was born in San Luis Potosi on 8 December 1862 and died in Mexico, DF, on 3 March 1937. 

As a writer, she often aimed to show her readers how to love the Catholic Church:

"To love the Church is not to criticize her, not to destroy her, not to try to change her essential structures, not to reduce her to humanism, horizontalism and to the simple service of a human liberation. To love the Church is to cooperate with the work of Redemption by the Cross and in this way obtain the grace of the Holy Spirit come to renew the face of this poor earth, conducting it to its consummation in the design of the Father's immense love."

Wife, mother, widow, lay apostle, Catholic mystic and writer, Conchita was beatified in Mexico City on 4 May 2019 as the first Mexican laywoman to receive this recognition.

Who Is The Rich Man That Shall Be Saved? (The Early Church Today Series, Volume 7) by St Clement of Alexandria

About the booklet: “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God,” said the Lord Jesus Christ, a statement that greatly astonished the disciples at that time and has continued to astonish many throughout the generations. 

St Clement expounded on the encounter between the rich young ruler and Christ, an encounter that showed high hopes at the start, yet ended with the rich man walking away in despair. 

Is it sinful to be rich? 

Can a rich person be saved? 

St Clement of Alexandria, a Church Father, who was born in the second century AD and became the head of the Catechetical School at Alexandria, answers these questions and others in this treatise, providing an understanding that is as relevant and applicable to us today as it was many centuries ago.

St Clement of Alexandria wrote the treatise Who Is the Rich Man That Shall Be Saved? (often titled Quis dives salvetur?) around 203 AD. Minor editing of the original translation was done by St Mary and St Moses Abbey, mainly changing archaic words to their modern counterparts. 

Who is the Rich Man That Shall be Saved? (1983, 2025) is translated by G W Butterworth.

About the author: Neither Clement's birthdate or birthplace is certain. It is speculated that he was born sometime around 150 AD. According to Epiphanius of Salamis, he was born in Athens, but there is also a tradition of an Alexandrian birth. His parents were pagans and Clement was a convert to Christianity. In the Protrepticus, he displays an extensive knowledge of Greek religion and mystery religions, which could have arisen only from the practice of his family's religion. Having rejected paganism as a young man due to its perceived moral corruption, he travelled in Greece, Asia Minor, Palestine, and Egypt. Clement's journeys were primarily a religious undertaking. In Greece, he encountered an Ionian theologian, who has been identified as Athenagoras of Athens; while in the east, he was taught by an Assyrian, sometimes identified with Tatian, and a Jew, possibly Theophilus of Caesarea.

In around 180 AD, Clement reached Alexandria, where he met Pantaenus, who taught at the Catechetical School of Alexandria. Eusebius suggests that Pantaenus was the head of the school, but controversy exists about whether the institutions of the school were formalized in this way before the time of Origen. Clement studied under Pantaenus, and was ordained to the priesthood by Pope Julian before 189. Otherwise, virtually nothing is known of Clement's personal life in Alexandria. He may have been married, a conjecture supported by his writings.

During the Severian persecution of 202–203, Clement left Alexandria. In 211, Alexander of Jerusalem wrote a letter commending him to the Church of Antioch, which may imply that Clement was living in Cappadocia or Jerusalem at that time. He died AD 220 at an unknown location. (Source: Wikipedia)

Beyond Possible (Autobiography) by Nimsdai Purja (1983-2026)

About the book: I wanted to show the world a new truth: that with bravery and enough heart and drive, the impossible is possible. Fourteen mountains on Earth tower over 8,000 metres above sea level, an altitude where the brain and body withers and dies. Until recently, the world record for climbing them all stood at nearly eight years. So I announced I was summiting them in under seven months . . .

People laughed. They told me I was crazy, even though I'd sharpened my climbing skills on the brutal Himalayan peaks of Everest and Dhaulagiri. But I possessed more than enough belief, strength and resilience to nail the job, having taken down enemy gunmen and terrorist bomb makers while serving with the Gurkhas and the UK Special Forces.

Beyond Possible (2020) is the brave and inspiring true story of renowned climber Nirmal Purja's mission to summit the fourteen highest peaks on Earth - as seen on Netflix.

About the author: Nirmal Purja, also known as Nims or Nimsdai, was a Nepali and British mountaineer. Before beginning a career in mountaineering, he served in the British Army with the Brigade of Gurkhas and later in the Special Boat Service (SBS), the special forces unit of the Royal Navy.

Purja climbed all 14 eight-thousanders (peaks above 8,000 metres or 26,000 feet) in six months and six days with the aid of bottled oxygen between April and October 2019; this was a record until it was broken in 2023. Purja was the first person to reach the summits of Mount Everest, Lhotse, and Makalu within 48 hours. In 2021, he and a team of nine other Nepalese climbers completed the first winter ascent of K2. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest mountaineers in history and a pioneer of modern mountaineering.

In 2018, Purja was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for outstanding achievement in extreme high-altitude mountaineering.

In 2023, he received an honorary degree from Loughborough University for his military service and his achievements as a multi-world record-breaking mountaineer.

On 30 July 2026, Purja and nine other climbers died in an avalanche on Pakistan's Broad Peak.

At The Foot Of The Cross by John Burger

About the book: Through times of trial, division, repression, and new growth, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church has remained faithfully at the foot of the Cross.

The leader of this Eastern Catholic Church, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, grew up in Ukraine during a time when his Church was illegal, and his family had to carry out their religious practices in secret. Born in the western Ukrainian city of Stryi on May 5, 1970, he grew up hearing stories of his parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents who had to deal with the demands of shifting political situations and the conflicts of Eastern Europe. He studied for the priesthood in an underground seminary and learned from the witness of priests and bishops who were imprisoned for their faith - including some who lost their lives on account of their fidelity to Christ and his Church.

Today, in the interviews contained in this book, His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk offers deep insights about the direction in which the world is going, including the struggle the Church once again faces, thirty years after the fall of the Soviet Union, in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

At the Foot of the Cross:Lessons From Ukraine, An Interview with Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk (2023) is dedicated to the People of Ukraine. 

About the author: John Burger has been working in religious journalism for almost three decades, beginning as a reporter for the New York archdiocesan weekly newspaper Catholic New York and later as a reporter and news editor at the National Catholic Register. Since 2013, he has written for the international Catholic website Aleteia.org. A graduate of Iona College in Rochelle, New York, Burger holds a Master's degree in English from Iowa State University. 

An 1847 Letter