Wednesday, 19 June 2019
Wednesday, 5 June 2019
The Department Of Sensitive Crimes (Detective Varg Series) by Alexander McCall Smith
Hardback: In the Swedish criminal justice system, certain cases are considered especially strange and difficult, in Malmö, the dedicated detectives who investigate these crimes are members of an elite squad known as the Sensitive Crimes Division.
These are their stories.
The first case: the small matter of a man stabbed in the back of the knee. Who would perpetrate such a crime and why?
Next: a young woman’s imaginary boyfriend goes missing. But how on earth do you search for someone who doesn’t exist?
And in the final investigation: eerie secrets that are revealed under a full moon may not seem so supernatural in the light of day.
No case is too unusual, too complicated, or too, well insignificant for this squad to solve.
The team: Ulf “the Wolf” Varg, the top dog, thoughtful and diligent; Anna Bengsdotter, who’s in love with Varg’s car (and possibly Varg too); Carl Holgersson, who likes nothing more than filling out paperwork; and Erik Nykvist, who is deeply committed to fly fishing.
With the help of a rather verbose local police officer, this crack team gets to the bottom of cases other detectives can’t or won’t bother to handle. Equal parts hilarious and heartening, The Department of Sensitive Crimes (2019) is a tour de farce from a true master and the first book in the Detective Varg novel series.
About the author: Alexander McCall Smith, often referred to as ‘Sandy’, is one of the world’s most prolific and best-loved authors. His various series of books have been translated into forty-six languages and become bestsellers throughout the world. These include the highly successful The No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, the popular 44 Scotland Street novels, the Isabel Dalhousie novels, the von Igelfeld series and the new Detective Varg novels. He also writes stand-alone novels, children's fiction and libretti for short operas.
Alexander has received numerous awards for his writing and holds twelve honorary doctorates from universities in Europe and North America. In 2007, he received a CBE for services to literature and in 2011 was honoured by the President of Botswana for services through literature to the country. In 2015, he received the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction and in 2017, The National Arts Club (of America) Medal of Honour for Achievement in Literature.
Rating: 5/5
Tuesday, 4 June 2019
For Love Of My People I Will Not Remain Silent: On The Situation Of The Church In China by Joseph Cardinal Zen
Paperback: The relationship of China with the greatest secular world power - the United States of America - and the most universal global spiritual power - the Catholic Church - is in a state of flux. President Trump and Pope Francis are major protagonists in this dramatic period. Although what is happening in China has an impact worldwide, it is hard for the non-specialist to grasp what is underway and its significance for the future.
There are two Catholic communities in China: the "underground", or unofficial, Church and the official, government-controlled Patriotic Church.
Cardinal Joseph Zen is one of the most knowledgeable and credible witnesses to what is happening in China, especially on the relationship between these two communities. He is a courageous defender of the underground Church yet has intimate knowledge of the official Church, in part because he taught in several of its seminaries.
It has been recognized - and Pope Francis himself has confirmed - that the historic 2007 letter of Pope Benedict XVI to Catholics in China remains the magna carta of the Church in that country. On the tenth anniversary of this letter, Cardinal Zen gave a series of eight lectures on its origin, drafting process, and final content, and these enlightening talks are presented in this book. In these lectures, Cardinal Zen explains in detail what he considers is now threatening the fundamental principles of the letter - and therefore 'his people'.
As the title indicates, for the love of his people, he will not remain silent.
For Love Of My People (2018) is a series of eight lectures in defense and clarification of the 2007 Letter of Pope Benedict XVI to the Church in the People's Republic of China. It is translated from the Mandarin by Pierre G Rossi.
About the author: Cardinal Joseph Zen, a native of China, served as the sixth Bishop of Hong Kong. He has been outspoken on issues regarding human rights, political freedom, and religious liberty, often attracting criticism from the Communist Party of China.
Conversation With God: Daily Meditations Volume Three, Ordinary Time (Weeks 1-12) by Francis Fernandez
Paperback: In Conversation with God: Daily Mediations Volume 3, Ordinary Time (Weeks 1-12) (2015) consists of 105 meditations. It is part of the series which offers a meditation for each day of the year.
Man's highest aspiration is to be able to converse with Jesus - to pray.
In Conversation With God helps the reader to pray with piety and confidence. It is aimed not at the 'specialist' but is for the ordinary person - for the housewife, for the teacher, for the secretary, for the shop assistant and so on.
Following the thread of the Liturgy, this book gives many practical hints for deepening in one's relationship with God and those around one, improving one's character in and through daily work and family life. The author has clearly succeeded in not creating a straitjacket; rather the book, rich as it is in quotations from spiritual writers throughout the ages, is a source of open suggestions for daily meditation on every aspect of Christian life. Sales of this series, running to several hundred thousand copies in all the main languages, are a testimony to its popularity.
In Conversation With God is a translation of Hablar con Dios - Vol III first published in 1987 by Ediciones Palabra, Madrid, and in 1990 by Scepter with ecclesiastical approval.
About the author: Francis Fernandez Carvajal was born in Granada in 1938. A graduate in History from the University of Navarre, he also holds a doctorate in Canon Law from the Angelicum in Rome. He is a priest of the Opus Dei Prelature. Since his ordination in 1964, much of his pastoral ministry has been with university students. For more than ten years, he has been Editor of the monthly magazine PALABRA. Among his published works are an Anthology of texts (with more than 600 quotations from spiritual writers throughout the ages), Lukewarmness - the Devil in Disguise, and Commentaries on the Gospels of St Matthew and St Luke.
Monday, 3 June 2019
Dead In The Water (True Crime) by Penny Farmer
Paperback: In 1978, two tortured corpses were discovered in the sea off Guatemala. Hooded, bound with ropes and weighted down with heavy engine parts, Chris Farmer and his girlfriend Peta Frampton were still clinging to life when they were thrown from a yacht on which they had been crewing.
This is the gripping account of how Chris's family painstakingly gathered evidence against the boat’s Californian skipper, Silas Duane Boston, working alongside the FBI, Interpol, and police in the UK and the USA. Almost four decades later in 2015, there was a major breakthrough in the case when, using Facebook, Chris’s sister Penny tracked Boston down.
Following the testimony of his two sons who, as young boys, had witnessed the horrific murder of Chris and Peta at the hands of their father, Boston was finally arrested and charged with two counts of maritime murder.
Chillingly, Boston was later linked to several other killings on US soil - at one point he was even the FBI’s prime suspect in the notorious Golden State Killer case, until DNA ruled him out. The list of crimes for which he was suspected put him in the league of America’s most prolific and elusive serial killers.
Not just a story of murder on the high seas, Dead in the Water (2018) is a tale that offers insights into the minds of the killer and his two sons. And it reveals a family’s fortitude and diligence in tracking down a monster of a man, a task which ultimately fell to the author to complete. It exemplifies that life can be senselessly snuffed out but love never dies. Dead in the Water is the chilling and oldest international cold case ever to be solved!
About the author: Penny Farmer is a freelance journalist and public-relations consultant. With the assistance of her family and law-enforcement agencies in both Britain and the USA, she eventually saw the man who murdered her brother and his girlfriend brought to justice. In December 2018, some months after Dead in the Water was published top wide acclaim, she travelled to Guatemala with a BBC journalist and crew to record the podcast Paradise, which revisits the murders and retraces the last days of the victims and what happened afterwards. The murderer's son, a young boy at the time and a crucial witness to the killings on board the yacht Justin B, also took part in recordings for the podcast.
Sunday, 2 June 2019
Frequent Confession: Its Place In The Spiritual Life by Benedict Baur
Paperback: Frequent Confession (1999) presents convincing and strong evidence for the benefits of frequent reception of the sacrament of Penance for the health and growth of the spiritual life of all faithful.
"To win the battles of the soul, the best strategy often is to bide one's time and apply the suitable remedy with patience and perseverance." So wrote Saint JosemarÃa Escrivá de Balaguer y Albás, the founder of Opus Dei who tirelessly urged the practice of frequent confession for spiritual advancement.
The book is divided into two parts. The first shows the purposes and practice of confession from the aspect of confessor and penitent. The second examines the many areas where confession applies.
An extensive introduction was written by Reverend Salvador Ferigle, who as a layman in 1949 began the apostolate of Opus Dei in the US and died in 1997 at 72. The book is newly indexed.
Frequent Confession is originally published under the title Die haufige Beicht in 1922.
Frequent Confession is translated from the German by Patrick C Barry, SJ.
About the author: Dom Benedict Baur OSB (1877-1963) was a German theologian and Archabbot of St Martin's Abbey in Bueron in the upper Danube valley in Baden-Württemberg in Germany.
Saturday, 1 June 2019
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