The Lost Art Of Civil Conversation

Unnatural Causes: The Life And Many Deaths Of Britain's Top Forensic Pathologist (Non-Fiction) by Dr Richard Shepherd

Paperback: Meet forensic pathologist, Dr Richard Shepherd.

As the UK's top forensic pathologist, Dr Richard Shepherd has spent a lifetime uncovering the secrets of the dead. When death is sudden or unexplained, it falls to Shepherd to establish the cause. Each post-mortem is a detective story in its own right - and Shepherd has performed over 23,000 of them. Through his skill, dedication and insight, Dr Shepherd solves the puzzle to answer our most pressing question: how did this person die?

From serial killer to natural disaster, 'perfect murder' to freak accident, Shepherd takes nothing for granted in pursuit of truth. And while he has been involved in some of the most high-profile cases of recent times including some of the most high-profile cases of recent times; the Hungerford Massacre, the Princess Diana inquiry, and 9/11, it is often the less well known encounters that prove the most perplexing, intriguing and even bizarre. In or out of the public eye, his evidence has put killers behind bars, freed the innocent and turned open-and-shut cases on their heads.

But a life in death, bearing witness to some of humanity's darkest corners, exacts a price and Shepherd does not flinch from counting the cost to him and his family.

Unnatural Causes (2018) is a gripping and brilliant memoir which tells the story of not only the cases and bodies that have haunted Dr Shepherd the most, but also how to live a life steeped in death.

About the author: Richard Shepherd was born in West London but grew up in Watford. At the local grammar school he was introduced to a medical textbook smuggled into the classroom by a friend which opened his eyes to the world of crime and murder, setting him on a lifelong quest to understand death in its many forms. He trained as a doctor at St George's Hospital medical school at Hyde Park Corner, qualifying in 1977 and then completed his postgraduate training as a forensic pathologist in 1987. He immediately joined what was then the elite forensic department at Guy's Hospital. He has been involved nationally and internationally in the forensic investigation of thousands of deaths from unnatural causes, from headline-making murders to mass natural disasters, and many sudden and unexplained deaths that his investigations showed were from natural causes or due to accidents. His skills and expertise still remain in demand around the world.

Old-Fashioned Habits That Will Make Our Lives Better In 2020

New Year Office Chit-Chat by Brian Bilston

Prejudice

Life Is Precious

In Conversation With God: Daily Meditations Volume Six, Special Feasts (January-June) by Father Francis Fernandez

Paperback: In Conversation with God: Daily Mediations Volume 6, Special Feasts (January-June) (2005) consists of 58 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 VI first published in 1989 by Ediciones Palabra, Madrid, and in 1991 by Scepter with ecclesiastical approval.

About the author: Francis Fernández-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.

The End Of The Present World And The Mysteries Of The Future Life by Father Charles Arminjon

Paperback: Reading this was one of the greatest graces of my life. I read it at the window of my study, and the impression I received from it is too intimate and too sweet for me to express... All the great truths of religion, the mysteries of eternity, plunged my soul into a happiness not of this earth... - St Thérèse of Lisieux

All things pass. Glory fades. Nature groans in labour. The day of the Lord is coming and with it will come the end of the entire created order.

And yet so many of live with our eyes fixed on this passing world only, rather than on the everlasting world to come. Preoccupied with earthly pleasures and cares, we ignore our eternal destiny.

This was no less true in the late nineteenth century, when Father Charles Arminjon, a priest from the mountains of southeastern France, assembled his flock in the town cathedral to preach a series of conferences to help them turn their thoughts away from this life's mean material affairs - and toward the next life's glorious spiritual reward.

His wise and uncompromising words deepened in them the spirit of recollection that all Christians must have: the abiding conviction that heavenly aims, not temporal enthusiasms, must guide everything we think, say, and do.

When Father Arminjon's conferences were later published in a book, many others were able to reap the same benefit - including fourteen-year-old Thérèse Martin, then on the cusp of entering the Carmelite convent in Lisieux. Reading it, she says, "plunged my soul into a happiness not of this earth." Young Thérèse, filled with a sense of "what God reserves for those who love Him, and seeing that the eternal rewards had no proportion to the light sacrifices of life," copied out numerous passages and memorized them, "repeating unceasingly the words of love burning in my heart."

Now the very book that so inspired the Little Flower is available for the first time in English. Let the pages of The End of the Present World and the Mysteries of the Future Life fill you with the same burning words of love, with the same ardent desire to know God above all created things, that St Thérèse gained from them. Let them also enrich your understanding of certain teachings of the Faith that can often seem so mysterious, even frightening:

• the signs that will precede the world's end
• the coming of the Antichrist and how to recognise him
• the Judgment and where it may send us: heaven, hell and purgatory
• Biblical end-times prophecy: how to read it and not be deceived

Jesus commands us to be ever-watchful for his return, and ever-mindful that we have no lasting city on earth. The End of the Present World and the Mysteries of the Future Life is an invaluable aid to inculcating in your spirit that heavenly orientation, without which true human happiness cannot be found - in this world or the next.

The End of the Present World and the Mysteries of the Future Life was originally published in 1881 in French under the title Fin du Monde Présent et Mystères de la Vie Future.

The End of the Present World and the Mysteries of the Future Life is translated from the French by Susan Conroy and Peter McEnerny.

About the author: Father Charles Arminjon (1824-1885) was a priest from the town of Chambéry in the French Alps. After years as a seminary professor, Father Arminjon took up the mission of full-time preacher, and he went on to gain great renown for his ability to inspire in his listeners a deeper and more ardent love for Christ. Throughout France and abroad he delivered sermons, ran retreats, and preached at conferences – the most famous of which form the basis for The End of the Present World.

A Walk In The Dark (Guido Guerrieri Series) by Gianrico Carofiglio

Paperback: A Walk In The Dark (2010) is the second book in the appealing Guido Guerrieri part-legal series set in Bari, Puglia.

When Martina accuses her ex-boyfriend-the son of a powerful local judge-of assault and battery, no witnesses can be persuaded to testify on her behalf, and one lawyer after another refuses to represent her. 

Guido Guerrieri knows the case could bring his legal career to a messy end, but he cannot resist the appeal of a hopeless cause. Nor can he deny an attraction to Sister Claudia, the young woman in charge of the shelter where Martina is living, who shares his love of martial arts and his virulent hatred of injustice.

A Walk In The Dark is translated from the Italian by Howard Curtis.

About the author: Gianrico Carofiglio, born in 1961, was an anti-Mafia prosecutor in the southern Italy city of Bari, Puglia, for many years. He has been responsible for some of the most important indictments in the region involving organized crime, corruption and the traffic in human beings. He is now a member of the Italian Senate. He has sold over 2.5 million books and Involuntary Witness, his debut novel and the first in a series with defence lawyer Guido Guerrieri, is in its 49th edition in Italy. It won numerous literary prizes and has been translated into eleven languages.

About the translator: Howard Curtis is one of the top translators working in the UK and the USA and has been translating professionally since 1985. He translates from French, Spanish and Italian, and many of his translations have been awarded or shortlisted for translation prizes. He has mostly translated contemporary fiction, but is particularly pleased to be involved with the Penguin project to retranslate the works of his favourite writer, Georges Simenon.

Rating: 5/5

Without

New Year Resolutions - Give Back

The Night Fire (Ballard and Bosch Thriller Series) by Michael Connelly

Hardback: First read of 2020.

Harry Bosch and LAPD Detective Renée Ballard come together again on the murder case that obsessed Bosch’s mentor, the man who trained him - new from #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly.

Back when Harry Bosch was just a rookie homicide detective he had an inspiring mentor, John Jack Thompson, who taught him to take the work personally and light the fire of relentlessness for every case. Now John Jack is dead and Harry inherits a murder book that Thompson took with him when he left the LAPD 20 years before - the unsolved killing of a troubled young man in an alley used for drug deals.

Bosch brings the murder book to Renée Ballard and asks her to help him find what about the case lit Thompson’s fire all those years ago. That will be their starting point.

The bond between Bosch and Ballard tightens as they become a formidable investigative team. And they soon arrive at a worrying question: Did Thompson steal the murder book to work the case in retirement, or to make sure it never got solved?

The Night Fire (2019) is the second instalment in the excellent Ballard and Bosch thriller series set in Los Angeles.

About the author: A former police reporter for the Los Angeles Times, Michael Connelly is the international bestselling author of the Harry Bosch thriller series and the legal thriller series featuring Mickey Haller, as well as several stand-alone bestsellers. His most recent #1 bestseller is Dark Sacred Night, in which the legendary Harry Bosch joins forces with Connelly's newest LAPD protagonist, Detective Renee Ballard.

Michael Connelly’s books have sold more than seventy-four million copies worldwide. They have been translated into 40 languages and have won awards all over the world, including the Edgar and Anthony Awards. Michael Connelly has also been awarded the 2018 CWA Diamond Dagger, the highest honour in British crime writing.

Connelly is the executive producer of the successful TV series, Bosch, starring Titus Welliver. Bosch Seasons 4 and 5 are now available on SBS in Australia, with Season 6 also going into production.

Michael Connelly’s new true crime podcast, Murder Book, premiered on 28 January 2019.

Michael Connelly spends his time in California and Florida.

To find out more, head to:
Website: www.michaelconnelly.com.au
Facebook: www.facebook.com/MichaelConnellyBooks
Twitter: @Connellybooks

Rating: 5/5

New Year Resolutions!

Happy New Year 2020