John Milton (1608-1674), English Poet and Intellectual

Future Perfect by Felicia Yap

Hardback: Is a perfect future possible in an imperfect world?

A bomb has exploded during a fashion show, killing a beautiful model on the catwalk. The murderer is still at large and he may strike again. Yet this is the least of Police Commissioner Christian Verger's worries. His fiancée Viola has left him. He has to keep his tumultuous past a secret. To make things worse, his voice assistant Alexa is 99.74% sure he will die tomorrow.

Moving from snowy 1980s Montana to chic 1990s Manhattan to a drone-filled 2030s Britain, Future Perfect (2021) is an electrifying race to solve a murder before it is too late. Yet it is also a love story, a riveting portrait of a couple torn apart by secrets, grief and guilt. A twisted tale of how the past can haunt a person's future and be used to predict if he will die... or kill.

About the author: Felicia Yap grew up in Kuala Lumpur. She read biochemistry at Imperial College London, followed by a doctorate in history (and a half-blue in competitive ballroom dancing) at Cambridge University. She has written for The Economist and the Business Times. She has also been a radioactive-cell biologist, a war historian, a university lecturer, a technology journalist, a theatre critic, a flea-market trader and a catwalk model. Felicia's debut thriller, Yesterday (2017), has been translated into multiple languages around the world. Future Perfect is her second novel.

Rating: 3/5

If You Know How To Read

Therese Neumann: Mystic and Stigmatist 1898-1962 by Adalbert Albert Vogl

Paperback: Therese Neumann was perhaps the most visited stigmatist in the history of the Church. Over the years, millions of people saw her briefly in her home or witnessed the Passion ecstasies in which she underwent the sufferings of Christ on Fridays, bleeding from the wounds in her hands, feet, head, side and back.

The author, Adalbert Albert Vogl, a German-born friend of the Neumann family through his three priest-uncles, was privileged to be welcomed into the Neumann home on numerous occasions and to spend many hours visiting with Therese, her family members and her spiritual director, Father Naber. He was chosen as an official witness in the informative process leading up to the Cause for Therese Neumann's beatification (one of only two witnesses chosen from North America) and is in contact with the Postulator. 

In this book he has set down only things he knows from his own experience or things told him by Therese herself, by Father Naber, or by others who also knew Therese. 

Therese Neumann, Mystic and Stigmatist (1987) is thus a primary source of information about this famous mystic and presents a wealth of fascinating stories - many found nowhere else - about her miraculous phenomena and daily life.

Mr Vogl describes Therese's Passion ecstasies, her stigmata, her miraculous receptions of Holy Communion, her abstinence from 1926 to 1962 from all food and drink except the Eucharistic Host, her living without sleep, her visions and the language phenomenon, her mystical recognition of priests and relics, her recognition of the Holy Eucharist and priestly blessings; her cures and prophecies, and her bilocation and other mystical gifts. 

The author also describes her activities during World War II, the official investigation by the Archbishop, conversions through her intercession, the rest of the Neumann family, criticisms by her opponents, the throngs of visitors who came to see her, statements on her by priests, bishops and cardinals the paternal interest of Pope Pius XI and Pope Pius XII, and the progress toward her Cause for beatification.

Also included here are numerous photographs, including photos of Therese in Passion ecstasy. Many of the pictures in the book were given to Mr Vogl personally by a lifelong friend of Terese shortly before this friend died. 

Therese Neumann, Mystic and Stigmatist is particularly valuable for the original source material it contains on this famous 20th-century mystic and for its accounts of Mr Vogl's conversations and experiences with Therese, which are available nowhere else. 

Almost impossible to put down, this book is proof that great sanctity and the unusual gifts and phenomena that often accompany great sanctity exist even in our own day and are not just "legends of a distant and unverifiable past."

About the author: Adalbert (Albert) Vogl was born in 1910 in Altötting, Bavaria, West Germany. in 1923, at the age of 12, he emigrated to the United States, under the auspices of Father Joseph Steiger, settling down for a few years in Earling, Iowa, where he attended St Joseph's parochial school. In 1927, after acquiring a fairly good command of the English language, he returned to his native Bavaria. It was at this time that he first met Therese Neumann, through his uncle, Msgr Adalbert Vogl. Mr Vogl became very militant in the fight against the Hitler party. As the danger increased, he was finally advised by Msgr Adalbert Vogl to leave Germany; he did so, returning to Earling, Iowa in 1935 and becoming a United States citizen. (It was another of Mr Vogl's uncles, Msgr Karl Vogl, who wrote up the famous exorcism case which has been published as Begone Satan; Mr Vogl had urged his uncle to write this story for publication in the German Catholic press).

During World War II, as a member of the G-2 Section (Intelligence Dept) of the Forward Headquarters of the US Third Army under Gen George Patten, Mr Vogl had an opportunity to renew his acquaintance with Therese Neumann in Konnersreuth, Bavaria. He subsequently had other golden opportunities to visit with Therese, as well as with her pastor, Father Naber, Therere's father and other relatives, and with many priests, prelates and others who knew Therese well. Mr Vogl is now retired. He lives in San Jose, California with his wife, Esther, who was also privileged to know Therese Neumann and who gave most valuable help in recording and organizing information on her. Mr Vogl was one of the official witnesses called to testify in the investigative process of Therese Neumann; it is his great desire that she will soon be beatified.

A Modern Martyr For The Truth by Titus Brandsma

Paperback: In 1985, Titus Brandsma was beatified by Pope John Paul II. The person of Father Brandsma has inspired many people in numerous places throughout the world. Titus has helped them to reflect on what it means to believe in God and to be a Christian in today's society in which God does not seem to be present.

Titus Brandsma continues to reach people in their search for meaning in their lives. For him, God is not "an idea" to be discussed but rather an immense Mystery; a Mystery which invites and challenges every individual to become himself or herself. It is a Mystery which speaks to the heart. For in it is a little flame asking to be kindled into a huge fire of love. This is the way we are being taken out of our loneliness and brought to others, but especially to The Other, the Source of Love.

"The Friends of Titus Brandsma" are presenting the second print of Brother Anthony Vanden Heuvel's book, A Modern Martyr (1996). It is an adaptation of H Aukes' biography (1961) which was published in Holland in 1961. It provides an excellent means to become acquainted with the inspiring personality of Father Titus, true Carmelite in heart and soul. 

It is the fascinating story of his youth in Friesland where he was born until his death in the Nazi concentration camp of Dachau where he was murdered at the age of 61. Titus' suffering and death were the price he paid while defending human and Christian values and truths which were close to his heart. 

His life and death radiate his presence among us. They are a mystery which has a transforming power enabling men and women to reach their rich inner selves. 

Brother Anthony's book about Blessed Titus Brandsma is printed in the hope that it will be an enriching reflection for many people. 

About the author: Brother Anthony Vanden Heuvel belonged to the Brothers of Saint Louis in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada.

Doctors From Hell:The Horrific Account Of Nazi Experiments On Humans (History/World War II/Medicine) by Vivien Spitz

Hardback: There is a Talmudic adage, quite disturbing, that applies to them: Tov she-barofim le-gehinom - "The best doctors are destined for hell." 

This is a chilling story of human depravity and ultimate justice, told for the first time by an eyewitness, court reporter for the Nuremberg war crimes trial of Nazi doctors. This is the account of torture and murder by experiment in the name of scientific research and patriotism. Doctors from Hell (2005) includes trial transcripts that have not been easily available to the general public and previously unpublished photographs used as evidence in the trial. 

The author, Vivien Spitz, describes the experience of being in bombed-out, dangerous, post-war Nuremberg, where she lived for eighteen months while working on the trial. Once a Nazi sympathiser tossed bombs into the dining room of the hotel where she lived moments before she arrived for dinner. She takes us into the courtroom to hear the dramatic testimony and see the reactions of the defendants to the proceedings. The witnesses tell of experiments in which they were deprived of oxygen; frozen; injected with malaria, typhus, and jaundice; subjected to the amputation of healthy limbs; forced to drink sea water for weeks at a time; and other horrors.

This landmark trial resulted in the establishment of the Nuremberg Code, which sets the guidelines for medical research involving human beings. 

Doctors from Hell is a significant addition to the literature on World War II and the Holocaust, medical ethics, human rights and the barbaric depths to which human beings can descend.

About the author: Vivien Spitz (1924-2014), the youngest court reporter at the Nuremberg Trials, gave over 500 speeches on the lessons of the Holocaust to schools, churches, synagogues, and professional groups internationally. She was honoured numerous times for her work, including commendations from Bill Clinton, Al Gore, US Senator Christopher Dodd, and the state of Israel. She was the first woman to report on the US Senate floor and has taken down the words of four presidents in Congress. In 2006, Spitz was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame.

She died in Texas in 2014 aged 89. In 2017, she appeared in older footage in the documentary Caring Corrupted: The Killing Nurses of the Third Reich. There is a collection of items donated by Spitz, including transcripts and photographs, in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives.

Literally

Picture Of The Day

 

Think!

Journalism: The Commitment Of The Writer

What's A Library Table?

Spending Every Penny

Go On, I Can Still Hear You

Blood And Oil: Mohammed bin Salman's Ruthless Quest For Global Power by Bradley Hope and Justin Scheck

Hardback: No dynasty lasts beyond the lifespan of three generations. - Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah

Blood and Oil (2020) is longlisted for the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award 2020.

Thirty-five-year-old Mohammed bin Salman's sudden rise stunned the world. Political and business leaders such as former UK prime minister Tony Blair and WME chairman Ari Emanuel flew out to meet with the crown prince and came away convinced that his desire to reform the kingdom was sincere. He spoke passionately about bringing women into the workforce and toning down Saudi Arabia's restrictive Islamic law. He lifted the ban on women driving and explored investments in Silicon Valley.

But 'MBS' began to betray an erratic interior beneath the polish laid on by scores of consultants and public relations experts like McKinsey & Company. The allegations of excess and about the brutality of his regime began to slip out. Then there was the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. While stamping out dissent in the Saudi royal family by holding three hundred members in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel for months, he continued to exhibit his extreme wealth, including the purchase of a $70 million chateau in Europe and one of the world's most expensive yachts. It seemed that he did not understand or care about how the outside world would react to his flexing of autocratic muscle.

Blood and Oil is a gripping work of investigative journalism about the precipitous ascent of one of the world's most decisive and dangerous new leaders, and the simultaneous fraying Western-Saudi relations. Caught in his net are well-known US bankers, Hollywood figures, and politicians, all eager to help the charming Crown Prince with extraordinary powers, hunger for lucre, a tight relationship with President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, and an apparent willingness to break anything - and anyone - that gets in the way of his vision. If his bid fails, Saudi Arabia has the potential to become an unstable failed state and a magnet for Islamic extremists. And if his bid to transform his country succeeds, even in part, it will have consequences around the world.

From co-author of Billion Dollar Whale Bradley Hope and fellow award-winning Wall Street Journal reporter Justin Scheck, a revelatory look at the inner workings of the royal family of Saudi Arabia, the world's most powerful ruling clan, and how the struggle for succession produced the charismatic but ruthless Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

About the authors: Bradley Hope, based in London, is the New York Times bestselling coauthor of Billion Dollar Whale and covers finance and malfeasance for the Wall Street Journal. Before that he spent six years as a Middle East correspondent. Hope is a Pulitzer Prize finalist and Gerald Loeb Award winner.

Justin Scheck, based in New York, has worked at the Wall Street Journal since 2007, covering white collar crime across four continents. He has been writing about Saudi Arabia since 2016 and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2020.