St Nektarios of Aegina (1846-1920)

Gertrude Of Helfta: The Herald Of The Memorial Of The Abundance Of Divine Love

About the book: As iron when it is plunged into fire becomes itself fire, this soul, all on fire with divine charity, became herself charity, desiring nothing but that all men might be saved. - Book 1, Chapter 4 (The Herald of Divine Love)

From her entrance to the Benedictine abbey of Helfta near Eisleben in Saxony, as a child of four in 1260, until her twenty-sixth year, Gertrude lived what she was later to consider a lax and worldly life, following the monastic observance outwardly, but applying her brilliant mind and boundless enthusiasm to secular studies. 

Then, when she was twenty-five, all was changed. 

The Lord appeared to her in the form of a beautiful youth inviting her to a conversion of life and to close union with himself. 

Thenceforth for Gertrude God was all, and her neighbour all in God, and she flung herself into his service with the same wholeheartedness which she had previously brought to her secular studies. 

She was continually granted extraordinary mystical favours, including an intense awareness of God's loving presence in her soul; and despite her great humility and consequent reluctance she understood that she had been granted these graces for the good of others and was therefore required to make them known. 

Gertrude of Helfta: The Herald of Divine Love (1993) is translated and edited by Margaret Winkworth and is dedicated to His Holiness Pope John Paul II.

About Gertrude of Helfta: Gertrude the Great (or Saint Gertrude of Helfta) (1256-c1302) was a German Benedictine, mystic, and theologian. She is recognized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church, and is inscribed in the General Roman Calendar, for celebration throughout the Latin Rite on November 16.

Little is known of the early life of Gertrude. Gertrude was born on the feast of the Epiphany, 6 January 1256, in Eisleben, Thuringia (within the Holy Roman Empire). At the age of four, she entered the monastery school at the monastery of St Mary at Helfta (with much debate having occurred as to whether this monastery is best described as Benedictine or Cistercian), under the direction of its abbess, Gertrude of Hackeborn. It is speculated that she was offered as a child oblate to the Church by devout parents. Given that Gertrude implies in the Herald that her parents were long dead at the time of writing, however, it is also possible that she entered the monastery school as an orphan.

Gertrude was confided to the care of St Mechtilde, younger sister of the Abbess Gertrude, and joined the monastic community in 1266. It is clear from her own writings that she received a thorough education in a range of subjects. She, and the nun who authored Books 1 and 3-5 of the Herald, are thoroughly familiar with scripture, the Fathers of the Church such as Augustine and Gregory the Great, and also in more contemporary spiritual writers such as Richard and Hugh of St Victor, William of St Thierry, and Bernard of Clairvaux. Moreover, Gertrude's writing demonstrates that she was well-versed in rhetoric, and her Latin is very fluent.

In 1281, at the age of twenty-five, she experienced the first of a series of visions that continued throughout her life, and which changed the course of her life. Her priorities shifted away from secular knowledge and toward the study of Scripture and theology. Gertrude devoted herself strongly to personal prayer and meditation, and began writing spiritual treatises for the benefit of her monastic sisters. Gertrude became one of the great mystics of the 13th century. Together with her friend and teacher St Mechtild, she practiced a spirituality called "nuptial mysticism," that is, she came to see herself as the bride of Christ.

Gertrude died at Helfta, near Eisleben, Saxony, around 1302. Her feast day is celebrated on 16 November, but the exact date of her death is unknown; the November date stems from a confusion with Abbess Gertrude of Hackeborn.

How Devices Disturb Sleep

Life And Witness Of Saint Iakovos Of Evia by Dr Nicholas Baldimtsis

About the book: То many а modern man, holiness seems an exceptional, if not exotic, possession of а bygone age.

Even when modern day saints emerge, modern man struggles to connect their lives with his own, to bring the lessons learned from them alive in his own life. This struggle is made "easy'' and the "yoke" of true life in Christ is made light upon encountering the life and witness of Saint Iakovos of Evia.

From holy roots in Asia Minor, where а rich spiritual treasure was inherited from holy ancestors, to his ascetic struggle on the island of Evia, where rich spiritual fruit was borne forth, Saint lakovos' life is pure inspiration for the spiritual athlete. 

Herein one will hear his life told in the first person, from his own perspective and in his own way: how his family established а new home as refugees, how God called him from childhood on the path to monasticism and His Grace poured through him for the edification of аll around him; how he lived as а hieromonk and spiritual father to many.

The narrator of this true life is the saint's close spiritual child and physician, an "eye-witness" of the mystery and the miracle that is the theanthropic life incarnate in man. Не helps make this book а bridge to the other side of life, the one hidden in Christ, allowing us insight into the saint's own experience of clinging to reverent piety, cultivating Orthodox faith in Christ, and pursuing holiness even amidst the malaise of modernity.

Life And Witness Of Saint Iakovos Of Evia (2023) is translated from the Greek by Father Nicholas Metrakos. The translator has emended some quotations to better reflect the original Greek text. 

Glory be to God in all things. Amen.

The Storm We Made by Vanessa Chan

About the book:  Besides being a Good Morning America Book Club Pick, The Storm We Made (2024) is one of the “most anticipated books of 2024”. This spellbinding, sweeping novel features a Malayan mother who becomes an unlikely spy for the invading Japanese forces during WWII - with shocking consequences for her family, and her country.

Malaya, 1945. Cecily Alcantara’s family is in terrible danger: her fifteen-year-old son, Abel, has disappeared, and her youngest daughter, Jasmin, is confined in a basement to prevent being pressed into service at the comfort stations. Her eldest daughter Jujube, who works at a tea house frequented by drunk Japanese soldiers, becomes angrier by the day.

Cecily knows two things: that this is all her fault; and that her family must never learn the truth.

A decade prior, Cecily had been desperate to be more than a housewife to a low-level bureaucrat in British-colonized Malaya. A chance meeting with the charismatic General Fuijwara lured her into a life of espionage, pursuing dreams of an “Asia for Asians.” Instead, Cecily helped usher in an even more brutal occupation by the Japanese. Ten years later as the war reaches its apex, her actions have caught up with her. Now her family is on the brink of destruction - and she will do anything to save them.

Spanning years of pain and triumph, told from the perspectives of four unforgettable characters, The Storm We Made is a dazzling saga about the horrors of war; the fraught relationships between the colonized and their oppressors, and the ambiguity of right and wrong when survival is at stake.

About the author: Vanessa Chan was born and raised in Malaysia. Her short stories have been published in Electric Lit, Kenyon Review, Ecotone, and more. She was the 2021 Stanley Elkin scholar at the Sewanee Writers Conference and has also received scholar awards to attend the Bread Loaf and Tin House writers’ conferences. The Storm We Made is her first novel.

Rating: 4/5

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Tangled Vines: Power, Privilege And The Murdaugh Family Murders by John Glatt

About the book: In Tangled Vines (2023), bestselling true crime author John Glatt reconstructs the rise of the prestigious Murdaugh family and the shocking double murder that led to the downfall of its patriarch, Alex Murdaugh.

Among the lush, tree-lined waterways of South Carolina low country, the Murdaugh name means power. 

A century-old, multimillion-dollar law practice has catapulted the family into incredible wealth and local celebrity but it was an unimaginable tragedy that would thrust them into the national spotlight. 

On 7 June 2021, prominent attorney Alex Murdaugh (pronounced Ellick Murdock) discovered the bodies of his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, on the grounds of their thousand-acre hunting lodge. The mystery deepened only months later when Alex himself was discovered shot in the head on a local roadside.

But as authorities scrambled for clues and the community reeled from the loss and media attention, dark secrets about this Southern legal dynasty came to light. The Murdaughs, it turned out, were feared as much as they were loved. And they would not hesitate to wield their influence to protect one of their own; two years before he was killed, a highly intoxicated Paul Murdaugh was at the helm of a boat when it crashed and killed a teenage girl, and his light treatment by police led to speculation that privilege had come into play. 

As bombshells of financial fraud were revealed and more suspicious deaths were linked to the Murdaughs, a new portrait of Alex Murdaugh emerged: a desperate man on the brink of ruin who would do anything, even plan his own death, to save his family’s reputation.

The trial in the fourteenth circuit of the South Carolina Circuit Court began on 25 January 2023, and ended on 2 March 2023 with a guilty verdict on all four counts. Murdaugh, who had pleaded not guilty, was sentenced to two life sentences to run consecutively without the possibility of parole. Murdaugh's attorneys have filed a notice of appeal.

Local media called the trial South Carolina's "trial of the century" and "arguably one of the most high-profile and sensational cases in South Carolina legal history".

There have been TV episodes, podcasts, and documentaries about the case. Some notable examples include Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal (2023; Netflix).

About the author: English-born John Glatt is the author of more than thirty books including The Lost Girls and My Sweet Angel, and has over thirty years of experience as an investigative journalist in England and America. He has appeared on television and radio programs all over the world, including Dateline NBC, Fox News, ABC’s 20/20, BBC World News, and A&E Biography.

Conversation With Motovilov by St Seraphim of Sarov

Slenderman: Online Obsession, Mental Illness, And The Violent Crime Of Two Midwestern Girls by Kathleen Hale

About the book: On 31 May 2014, in the Milwaukee suburb of Waukesha, Wisconsin, two twelve-year-old girls attempted to stab their classmate to death. Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier’s violence was extreme, but what seemed even more frightening was that they committed their crime under the influence of a figure born by the internet: the so-called “Slenderman.”

Yet the even more urgent aspect of the story, that the children involved suffered from undiagnosed mental illnesses, often went overlooked in coverage of the case.

Slenderman: Online Obsession, Mental Illness, and the Violent Crime of Two Midwestern Girls (2022) tells that full story for the first time in deeply researched detail, using court transcripts, police reports, individual reporting, and exclusive interviews. Morgan and Anissa were bound together by their shared love of geeky television shows and animals, and their discovery of the user-uploaded scary stories on the Creepypasta website could have been nothing more than a brief phase. 

But Morgan was suffering from early-onset childhood schizophrenia. She believed that she had been seeing Slenderman for many years, and the only way to stop him from killing her family was to bring him a sacrifice: Morgan’s best friend Payton “Bella” Leutner, whom Morgan and Anissa planned to stab to death on the night of Morgan’s twelfth birthday. 

Bella survived the attack, but was deeply traumatized, while Morgan and Anissa were immediately remanded into jail, and the severity of their crime meant that they would be prosecuted as adults. There, as Morgan continued to suffer from worsening mental illness after being denied antipsychotics, her life became more and more surreal.

Slenderman is both a page-turning true crime story and a search for justice. It is the first full account of the Slenderman stabbing, a true crime narrative of mental illness, the American judicial system, the trials of adolescence, and the power of the internet.

About the author: Kathleen Hale grew up in Wisconsin, attended Harvard University and is a crime writer based in Los Angeles. Her reporting has been featured in Vanity Fair, among other outlets. Hale’s article on Gabby Petito was Vanity Fair’s most read piece of 2022. Slenderman is Hale's first true crime book. Slenderman was nominated for an Edgar Prize and won the 2023 Midland Writers Award for Non Fiction. Her other books include two Young Adult murder mystery novels and one essay collection. She is also a writer and producer for Outer Banks (3 seasons) on Netflix. Her favourite authors are Shirley Jackson and Ann Rule.

Close The Door

While Idaho Slept: The Hunt For Answers In The Murders Of Four College Students by J Reuben Appelman

About the book: From the author who brought you The Kill Jar (2018), who also happens to be a PI and a trusted source on true crime, While Idaho Slept (2023) is rich with fresh insights and a unique lens into the investigation and the case built around the murders. It is a rewarding read for fans of the genre.

The author of the acclaimed true-crime memoir, The Kill Jar, tells the inside story of the “University of Idaho Murders,” offering a memorable, thoughtful dive into our societal fascination with true crime, the media’s seeming blood-frenzy, and the future of homicide investigations, while cultivating an intimate look into the minds and hearts of the victims and their suspected killer alike. 

Just after 4:00 am on 13 November 2022, four University of Idaho students were viciously stabbed to death in an off-campus house. The killings would shake the small blue-collar college town of Moscow, Idaho, dominate mainstream news coverage, and become a social media obsession, drawing millions of clicks and views. 

While a reticent Moscow Police Department, the FBI, and the Idaho State Police searched for the killer, unending conjecture and countless theories blazed online, in chatrooms and platforms from Reddit and YouTube to Facebook and TikTok. For more than a month, the clash of armchair investigators and law enforcement professionals raged, until a suspect - a 28-year-old PhD candidate studying criminology - was arrested at his family home 2,500 miles away in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania on the day before New Year’s Eve.

While Idaho Slept is a thought-provoking, literary chronicle of a small-town murder investigation blistering beneath the unceasing light of international interest, as traditional investigators, citizen sleuths, and the true-crime media acted - sometimes together, often in conflict - to uncover the truth. 

As J Reuben Appelman brings this terrible crime into focus, he humanizes the four victims, examining the richness of their lives, dissects the mind and motivations of their presumed killer, and explores the world of northern Idaho, a rugged, deeply conservative stronghold steeped in Christian values and American patriotism. 

Going deep inside the case, Appelman addresses a crucial question: With so many millions of citizens armed by access and hungry to take part in a true crime hunt of their own, has the nature of homicide investigations permanently changed? Rising above the sensational, While Idaho Slept illuminates the intrinsic connection between today’s media, citizen sleuths, our societal mania for murder tales, and an impatient public’s insatiable appetite for spectacle as never before. Running beneath, the pulse of the story is a heartbreaking narrative of the people we love, the dreams we all share, and the uncertain time left for sharing them.

At the time that this book went to press, Bryan Kohberger was awaiting trial for the King Road homicides and had maintained his innocence. The prosecution was seeking the death penalty for his alleged crimes.

About the author: J Reuben Appelman's true-crime crime memoir, The Kill Jar, was published by Gallery/Simon & Schuster in 2018 and was among the first of the new true-crime memoir genre. Published in all formats, The Kill Jar inspired the popular Hulu docuseries, “Children of the Snow” (2020), with Appelman serving as on-camera investigator and Executive Producer. The TV Series based on Appelman’s book has streamed tens of millions of times in America and abroad, and The Kill Jar was noted as among the best true-crime books of the year by The New York Times Book Review, Elle, Oxygen, Bustle, Crime Reads, and the USA Today network of newspapers.

Appelman has also written for a variety of successful film projects, including the Netflix-streamed documentaries, Jens Pulver | Driven and Playground: The Child Sex Trade in America, produced by George Clooney, Steven Soderberg, and Abigail Disney and now used as a tool for law enforcement studying the commercialized sex industry. Appelman’s scholarly research and practical experience in the field have earned him a multi-year guest lectureship on the issue of Human Trafficking for the Honor’s College at Boise State University, where he received his MFA. He has published across all genres, is a two-time State of Idaho Literature Fellow, and has been labeled a “full-grown oracle of language” by National Public Radio literary critic, Andrei Codrescu. 

His additional film and TV content has streamed on many major platforms, including Netflix, Hulu, Discovery+, and Amazon Prime.

Appelman spent five years working as a rigidly vetted fraud investigator, packaging felony-level referrals for prosecution in the states of Idaho, Montana, Washington, Oregon, California, and Nevada. A native Detroiter, he currently works as a private investigator from his base in Boise, Idaho, where he has lived for almost 25 years. 

The Object Of A New Year