The Way Of The Cross by Donagh O'Shea OP

Paperback:  Christian awareness is shaped by a particular death, the death of Jesus: his living and dying and rising are the energies that shape Christian identity.

The Way of the Cross (2003) offers reflections on the fourteen traditional stopping-places or stations which mark out a path by which Christians may walk in the footsteps of Jesus, identifying themselves spirituality with him. 

And, as many do today, The Way of the Cross adds a fifteenth station, the resurrection.

Part Two is a resource for more leisurely reflection on each station.  It provides scriptural texts, and it also brings us into the company of saints and mystics who have travelled this path before us.

About the author:  Donagh O' Shea OP, director of the Dominican Centre Cork, has conducted retreats not only in Ireland and Britain but also in countries as diverse as Albania, Iceland, Norway, Pakistan, the Philippines and South Africa.  His other books include In A Fitful Light:  Conversations on Christian Living and I Remember Your Name In The Night:  Thinking About Death.

The Imitation Of Mary by Thomas à Kempis

Hardback:  The Imitation of Mary is an excellent companion to The Imitation of Christ that comprises writings about Our Lady carefully culled from the works of Thomas à Kempis and set forth in the style of The Imitation of Christ.  It offers a splendid way to grow in the imitation of Jesus through the imitation of His holy Mother.  It is a profoundly spiritual road map for readers who wish to travel with Mary and Jesus.

About the author:  Thomas à Kempis (1379/80-1471) was a member of the Brethren, priest, Augustinian monk, author of a dozen books, and copyist extraordinaire.  He lived at and was a member of the Windesheim congregation at Agneitenberg monastery in the Netherlands for more than seventy years.  He is most famous for his The Imitation of Christ.

Victor Marie Hugo (1802-1885), French Poet And Novelist

All In (High Stakes Series) by Simona Arhnstedt

Paperback:  Trust is the most precious commodity of all.

In the cutthroat world of Sweden's financial elite, no one knows that better than corporate raider David Hammar. 

Ruthless. 

Notorious. 

Unstoppable.

He is out to hijack the ultimate prize, Investum.  After years of planning, all the players are in place; he needs just one member of the aristocratic owning family on his side - Natalia De la Grip.

Elegant, brilliant, driven to succeed in a man's world, Natalia is curious about David's unexpected invitation to lunch.  Everyone knows that he is rich, dangerous, unethical;  she soon discovers he is also deeply scarred.

The attraction between these two is impossible, but the long Swedish nights unfold an affair that will bring to light shocking secrets, forever alter a family, and force both Natalia and David to confront their innermost fears and desires.

All In (2016) is the first instalment in the commercial/romantic High Stakes fiction series.  It is followed by Falling (2017) and High Risk (2018).

About the author:  Simona Ahrnstedt is a bestselling author, licensed psychologist and cognitive behavioural therapist.  Her novels are published in over 20 countries including her native Sweden, where she has been credited as the country’s first major romance author.  As her novels have swept bestseller lists in Sweden and throughout Europe, she has become an international spokesperson for books by women, for women, and about women.

Rating:  5/5

A Massacre In Mexico: The True Story Behind The Missing Forty-Three Students (Politics) by Anabel Hernández

Hardback:  They sought to bury them, not knowing that they were seeds. - Anon

A Massacre in Mexico is the definitive account of the disappearance of forty-three Mexican students.

On 26 September 2014, a party of students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College were en route to a protest when intercepted by local police.  A confrontation ensued.  Come the morning, the students were nowhere to be found.  The crime that had transpired and the resultant cover-up brought the profound depths of corruption in the Mexican government and police force - as well as the vulnerability of ordinary Mexicans - into stark relief.

Investigative reporter Anabel Hernández reconstructs the terrible events of that night and its aftermath, giving us the most complete picture available.  Her sources are unparalleled.  

In researching this book, she secured access to internal government documents that have not been made public and to surveillance footage the government has tried to hide and destroy.  Hernández demolishes the Mexican state’s official version of events, which the Peña Nieto government cynically dubbed the “historic truth.”  As her research shows, state officials at all levels, from police and prosecutors to the upper echelons of government, conspired to put together a fake case, concealing and manipulating evidence, and arresting and torturing dozens of “suspects,” procuring forced confessions to back up the official lie. 

By following the role of the various Mexican state agencies through the events in such remarkable detail, A Massacre in Mexico shows with exacting precision precisely who is responsible for this monumental crime and who needs to be held accountable.

A Massacre In Mexico (2018, English) is translated - with an Introduction - from the Spanish by John Washington.  

About the author:  Anabel Hernández is one of Mexico’s leading investigative journalists.  She has worked on national dailies, including Reforma, Milenio, El Universal and its investigative supplement, La Revista, where the work on the alleged collusion of government officials and drug lords won her the Golden Pen of Freedom award, presented by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers.  Her previous books include the award-winning Narcoland.

Edith Stein: The Life of a Philosopher and Carmelite by Teresia Renata Posselt, OCD

Paperback:  Teresa Renata Posselt OCD was the Novice Director, then Mother Prioress of the Cologne Carmel when Edith Stein lived there.  Edith Stein (2005) is Posselt’s tribute to Saint Edith Stein, a wreath of recollections, lovingly woven together.  It is also the first-ever biography published about that “Great Woman of the Twentieth Century.”

Having been out of print for half a century, the original text is here re-edited and enhanced by scholarly perspectives and updated and corrected in the light of knowledge which was not available to the author at the time.

Enriched by a broader range of contemporary literature about the philosopher, educator, spiritual writer, and victim of the catastrophe that engulfed her as part of her Jewish people, this new presentation of the biography everyone cites so frequently brings the reader closer to the real Edith Stein.

The editors have avoided weighing down this engaging life story with intrusive scholarly notes and commentaries.  Instead, they have relegated such material to a separate section of “Gleanings.”  This gives the reader the option of enjoying the biography unencumbered by supplementary matter or delving into the Gleanings when desired.

The three editors/translators are close to the Stein family as well as to her Carmelite family which she entered in 1933.  Susanne Batzdorff is Edith Stein’s niece, who has known her in person.  Josephine Koeppel and John Sullivan are both Carmelites who have occupied themselves with the life and work of the saint and have talked with several Carmelite religious who lived with Edith Stein.

Complementing their notes and comments that deepen the knowledge of the famous phenomenologist and Carmelite is an insightful “Foreword” contributed by Sr Amata Neyer OCD, who knew Posselt personally.  She has served as prioress of the Cologne Carmel and as archivist for its Edith Stein Archive.

In Germany, and in many other countries too, this long-out-of-print book - Edith Stein - is sought after again and again.  Pope John Paul II beatified Edith Stein in Cologne in 1987 and canonized her in Rome in 1998.  In 1999, he declared Edith Stein, together with Bridget of Sweden and Catherine of Siena, as patron saints of Europe.  It is the devout wish of the editor and the translators that Edith Stein may be a role model of awe for God and love of truth, justice and peace, not just for Europe but also for all the world, especially for young people whose task it will be to build the future. 

May Saint Edith Stein/Teresa Benedicta De La Cruz (1891, Breslau - 1942, Auschwitz) become ever widely known and honoured.

Empathy

Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives: The Life And Teachings Of Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica

Paperback:  Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica was one of the most renowned spiritual guides of Serbia in the twentieth century. 

As a novice he lived in obedience to Elder Ambrose of Miljkovo Monastery, a disciple of the Optina Elders.  From him Fr Thaddeus learned the Prayer of the Heart and the selfless love that came to characterize his whole ministry to the suffering Serbian people.

Born in 1914, Elder Thaddeus lived through all the suffering endured by Serbia in the twentieth century.  Over the course of two World Wars, during the Communist takeover, and through the NATO bombings of 1999, he co-suffered with his people.  He taught, counseled, and prayed for all who came to him in pain and sorrow.  His words of love and hope provided spiritual balm for people from all classes of society.

In 2002, Elder Thaddeus reposed, leaving behind a large collection of his teachings, preserved by his faithful spiritual children.

His life, teachings, and spiritual conversations are presented here for the first time in English -compiled primarily from materials originally published in the Serbian book Peace and Joy in the Holy Spirit (Mir i radost u Duhu Svetom by Matej Arsenijevic) - by the St Herman of Alaska Brotherhood. 

Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives (2009, 2017, seventh reprint) is translated from the Serbian by Ana Smiljanic.

May this book bring relief to all those burdened by the sorrows and uncertainties of our times, that they may turn their gaze to the One Who Is, our eternal Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ. 

The Practice Of The Presence Of God by Brother Lawrence

Paperback:  The Practice Of The Presence Of God:  The Best Rule Of A Holy Life (2015) is a collection of letters and transcriptions of conversations, compiled by a disciple of Brother Lawrence.

Brother Lawrence was a 17th-century Carmelite monk and head cook in his monastery's kitchens.  He quickly gained an international reputation as a mystic and spiritual counselor.

The Practice Of The Presence Of God records and includes includes 15 short letters and his last words of advice to his friends and disciples, as he suffered from an unnamed illness which would eventually take his life.

The Practice Of The Presence Of God is translated from the French and has been a means of blessing to many souls.  It is as practical today as it was almost four hundred years ago.  It contains very much of that wisdom which only lips the Lord has touched can express, and which only hearts He has made teachable can receive.

May this edition also be blessed by God and redound to the praise of the glory of His grace.

About Brother Lawrence:  One of the most adored books on living in God’s presence comes from an unlikely source - a man who was maimed as a young soldier and later became a footman “who was clumsy and broke everything.”  That is the early life of Nicholas Herman before he became Brother Lawrence.

Herman was born around 1610 in Herimenil, Lorraine, a Duchy of France.  His birth records were destroyed in a fire at his parish church during the Thirty Years War, a war in which he fought as a young soldier.  It was also the war in which he sustained a near-fatal injury that left him quite crippled and in chronic pain for the rest of his life.  Brother Lawrence was educated by a parish priest whose first name was Lawrence and who was greatly admired by the young Nicolas.  He was well read and, from an early age, drawn to a spiritual life of faith and love for God.

At mid-life he entered a newly established monastery in Paris where he became the cook for the community which grew to over one hundred members.  After fifteen years, his duties were shifted to the sandal repair shop but, even then, he often returned to the busy kitchen to help out.  While repairing sandals or working in the kitchen, Brother Lawrence discovered and then followed a pure and uncomplicated way to walk continually in God’s presence.  For some forty years, he lived and walked with God at his side.

It was not until after his death that a few of his letters were collected.  Joseph de Beaufort, representative and counsel to the local archbishop, first published the letters in a small pamphlet.  The following year, in a second publication which he titled, ‘The Practice of the Presence of God’, de Beaufort included, as introductory material, the content of four conversations he had with Brother Lawrence.  Brother Lawrence never advanced beyond being the cook at the Paris monastery.

Damaged Goods: The Rise And Fall Of Sir Philip Green by Oliver Shah

Paperback:  In this jaw-dropping exposé, Oliver Shah uncovers the truth behind one of Britain's biggest business scandals, following Sir Philip Green's journey to the big time, the wild excesses of his heyday and his dramatic demise.

Sir Philip Green was once hailed one of Britain's best businessmen.  As chairman of Arcadia Group, home to brands such as Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Miss Selfridge, Green had prime ministers and supermodels on speed dial.  But the retail magnate's reputation came crashing down when Shah, a Sunday Times journalist, uncovered the methods Green used to amass his gigantic offshore fortune, and the desperation that drove his doomed BHS deal.

In 2015, Green sold British Home Stores for £1 to Retail Acquisitions, owned by Dominic Chappell, a charlatan who siphoned off BHS's remaining millions before filing for administration.

By the time it went under in April 2016, BHS had debts of £1.3bn, including a pension deficit of £571m.  Its collapse left 11,000 employees without jobs and 20,000 pension fund members facing the loss of their benefits, prompting the government to launch an inquiry into Green's sale of the company.

While one of Britain's oldest department stores boarded up its shop fronts, former employees and shoppers protested in the streets and MPs rallied in parliament, demanding Green be stripped of his knighthood.  The furore over the sale subsided in 2017 when Green agreed a £363m deal with the Pensions Regulator, but with revelations surrounding Topshop's pension deficit now surfacing, could tragedy strike again?

Damaged Goods (2018) - a story of corruption, ego, greed and one terrible misjudgment - is longlisted for the FT and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award.

About the author:  Oliver Shah is the award-winning Business Editor of the Sunday Times and one of the most respected national commentators on business and the high street.  He was named business journalist of the year at both the Press Awards and London Press Club Awards in 2017 for his investigation into Sir Philip Green.  Shah studied English at Cambridge University and journalism at City University before joining City AM in 2009 and the Sunday Times in 2010.  Starting out at the newspaper as a retail correspondent, Shah became City Editor in 2016 and was recently promoted to Business Editor.

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Sunday Siesta

Happy Non-Brexit Day!

In Your Defence: Stories Of Life And Law by Sarah Langford

Hardback:  Sarah Langford is a barrister.  It is a job is to stand in court, representing the mad and the bad, the vulnerable, the heartbroken and the hopeful.  She must become their voice:  weave their story around the black and white of the law and tell it to the courtroom.  These stories may not make headlines but they will change the lives of ordinary people in extraordinary ways.  They are stories which, but for a twist of luck, might be yours.

To work at the Bar is to enter a world shrouded by strange clothing, archaic rituals and inaccessible language.  So how does it feel to be an instrument of such an unknowable system?  And what does it mean to be at its mercy?

With remarkable candour, Sarah describes eleven cases which reveal what goes on in our criminal and family courts.  She examines how she feels as she defends the person standing in the dock.  She tells compelling stories - of domestic fall out, everyday burglary, sexual indiscretion, and children caught up in the law - that are sometimes shocking and they are often heart-stopping.  She also shows how our attitudes and actions can shape not only the outcome of a case, but the legal system itself. 

And her book, In Your Defence (2018), asks us to consider, in our increasingly polarized world, what is truth, and what is justice.

About the author:  Sarah Langford has been a practising barrister since 2006, both in London and around the country, principally in criminal and family law.  She studied English at the University of the West of England.  She worked as a barmaid, legal secretary and note-taking clerk before completing a law conversion, in which she gained a distinction.  She was awarded a scholarship from Gray's Inn of Court and went on to train as a barrister.  She lives with her husband and two small boys in London and Suffolk.