Entitlement by Rumann Alam

About the book: But money lights your world up. You're trapped, what can you do? - David Berman

Money talks. But what if it lies?

Brooke wants many things. A sense of purpose, independence, security. To make a difference in the world, and maybe to impress her mother along the way.

Her job assisting an eighty-something billionaire in his quest to give away a vast fortune could be just the ticket to the life she knows she is entitled to.

Intoxicated by this new-found proximity to wealth and power, Brooke soon finds herself rubbing shoulders with the one per cent, as her boss' attention offers a glimpse into a world just beyond her grasp. 

But before long, being under his wing is not enough, and Brooke starts to dangerously blur the lines between what belongs to him, and what should belong to her.

Taut, unsettling and alive to the seductive distortions of money and race, Entitlement (2024) is a biting tale for our new gilded age.

About the author: Rumaan Alam is the author of the New York Times bestselling novel Leave the World Behind, which was a finalist for the National Book Award and adapted into a major motion picture, as well as two other novels. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, New Yorker and elsewhere. He lives in Brooklyn.

Rating: 3/5

Charismania: The Truth About The Charismatic Renewal by Kennedy Hall

About the book: The Charismatic Renewal is an international movement that has made inroads into the Catholic Church and numerous Protestant denominations. The Renewal comes with promises of miracles and spiritual wonders, and participants have long attested to supernatural phenomena taking place as a result of Charismatic practices.

However, there is a dark side to the Renewal, and many of the teachings presented by its defenders are incompatible with historical Christianity.

In Charismania (2024), we take a journey through the history of the Renewal, starting with its ancient roots.

Topics discussed include:

The troubling history of Pentecostalism

The origins of the Renewal in the Catholic Church

Speaking in Tongues

Baptism in the Holy Spirit

Covenant Communities

And more

Whether the reader is a partisan of the Renewal or not, he will undoubtedly be surprised at the information presented in these pages.

About the author: Kennedy Hall is a Canadian Catholic author. His repertoire includes Terror of Demons: Reclaiming Traditional Catholic Masculinity, Lockdown with the Devil and SSPX: The Defence. He is a writer at Catholic Family News, LifeSiteNews, Crisis Magazine and and has a growing YouTube channel where he hosts The Kennedy Report and a Substack called Mere Tradition. He is also a professional narrator and voice-over artist. He is married with six children and lives in Ontario, Canada. 

Bedlam: London And Its Mad by Catharine Arnold

About the book: 'Bedlam!' The very name conjures up graphic images of naked patients chained among filthy straw, or parading untended wards deluded that they are Napoleon or Jesus Christ. 

We owe this image of madness to William Hogarth, who, in plate eight of his 1735 Rake's Progress series, depicts the anti-hero in Bedlam, the latest addition to a freak show providing entertainment for Londoners between trips to the Tower Zoo, puppet shows and public executions.

That this is still the most powerful image of Bedlam, over two centuries later, says much about our attitude to mental illness, although the Bedlam of the popular imagination is long gone. 

The hospital was relocated to the suburbs of Kent in 1930, and Sydney Smirke's impressive Victorian building in Southwark took on a new role as the Imperial War Museum.

Following the historical narrative structure of her acclaimed Necropolis, Bedlam: London and Its Mad (2009) examines the capital's treatment of the insane over the centuries, from the founding of Bethlehem Hospital in 1247 through the heyday of the great Victorian asylums to the more enlightened attitudes that prevail today.

About the author: Catharine Arnold read English at the University of Cambridge and holds a further degree in psychology. Catharine is best known for her London quartet, published by Simon & Schuster and comprising Necropolis, London and its Dead, Bedlam, London and its Mad, City of Sin, London and its Vices and Underworld London, City of Crime. She is also the author of Globe, the World of Shakespeare's London (2015) and Edward VII, the Prince of Wales and the Women He Loved (2017). Catharine’s latest book is Pandemic 1918, the Story of the Deadliest Influenza in History (2018).

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The French Ingredient: A Memoir by Jane Bertch

About the book: When Jane Bertch was seventeen, her mother took her on a graduation trip to Paris. Thrilled to use her high school French, Jane found her halting attempts greeted with withering condescension by every waiter and shopkeeper she encountered. At the end of the trip, she vowed she would never return.

Yet a decade later she found herself back in Paris, transferred there by the American bank she worked for. She became fluent in the language and excelled in her new position. 

But she had a different dream: to start a cooking school for foreigners like her, who wanted to take a few classes in French cuisine in a friendly setting, then bring their new skills to their kitchens back home. 

Predictably, Jane faced the skeptical French - how dare an American banker start a cooking school in Paris? - as well as real-estate nightmares, and a long struggle to find and attract clients.

Thanks to Jane’s perseverance, La Cuisine Paris opened in 2009. Now the school is thriving, welcoming international visitors to come in and knead dough, whisk bechamel, whip meringue, and learn the care, precision, patience, and beauty involved in French cooking.

The French Ingredient (2024) is the story of a young female entrepreneur building a life in a city and culture she grew to love. As she established her school, Jane learned how to charm, how to project confidence, and how to give it right back to rude waiters. Having finally made peace with the city she swore to never revisit, she now offers a love letter to France, and a master class in Parisian cooking and living.

The French Ingredient is illustrated by Jessie Kanelos Weiner.

About the author: Jane Bertch has spent more than two decades living and working in Europe. In 2009, she started La Cuisine Paris, which has become the largest nonprofessional culinary school in France. She holds a BA in English, an MA in labour and industrial relations from the University of Illinois, and an executive MA from the French business school INSEAD. The French Ingredient is her first book.

Daily Special: Chinese Restaurant Favourites (Cookbook) by Flo Lum

About the book: With over 400,000 subscribers on her YouTube channel, Flo Lum has years of experience creating simple and delicious recipes that have helped and inspired thousands of viewers.

I am so excited to share this new cookbook with you. It is filled with many of our favourite Chinese menu items that I have recreated at home to help curb our dining out or take out spending, during these inflationary times. As you all have come to expect and love, these recipes are created using simple ingredients and easy to follow instructions.

Daily Special: Chinese Restaurant Favourites (2023) is almost 150 pages, complete with beautiful full-page photos for every recipe. My recipes are simple and never fussy or complicated. With the basic Asian sauces in your pantry, you will be able to handle all the recipes in this cookbook. My goal is to provide a delicious meal for my family with ingredients that are easy to find and readily available. I hope they will deliver the familiar restaurant flavours you may be craving for.

Each recipe has been created using the best tool for the job. Sometimes it’s a wok, an electric pressure cooker, air fryer or the humble stove. When possible, I have included alternative cooking methods.

Eat well. Save money.

About the author: Flo Lum is a wife and mom who loves to laugh, cook, bake and eat. The kitchen is her domain and where most of her creativity takes place. Everything she learned, she learned in Home Economics in high school and cooking shows on TV. She shares her family’s journey to live a Simple, Ordinary & Joyful life on her YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/flolum). 

From fantastic family-friendly recipes, travel, to Vlogs about their perfectly imperfect lives in Vancouver, Canada and beyond.

Ideal Afternoon

I’ll Never Call Him Dad Again by Caroline Darian

About the book: I want this book to sound the alarm about the prevalence of chemical submission in France and around the world. The general public must be made aware that the practice goes far beyond date-rape cocktails in night clubs. Everyone should take a wary look inside their medicine cabinet: anti-anxiety drugs, sleeping pills and a host of other mind-altering substances have been used as arms of sexual assault. It is an epidemic that touches all social classes. Regular memory lapses should set alarm bells ringing. If it happens to you, tell your doctor and ask for toxicology screening. - Caroline Darian, 28 November 2021.

I'll Never Call Him Dad Again (2024) is an astonishingly brave and moving book from Caroline Darian, daughter of infamous Dominique Pelicot, detailing how her mother rebuilt her life as the world follows a trial that will go down in history. It tells the first-hand story of the Gisèle Pelicot trial and gives a voice to women who have been silenced.

The trial of Dominique Pelicot, which began on 2 September 2024, has captured the world’s attention. Behind the haunting details of Pelicot’s unthinkable crimes are a mother, Gisèle Pelicot, and daughter, Caroline Darian, who were forced to rebuild their lives.

This is their story.

In November 2020, Caroline Darian received a call from the police in Carpentras. Her father was in police custody. The seizure of his computer equipment revealed the unthinkable: since 2013, he had drugged his wife before handing her over, in a state of unconsciousness, to men, from all ages and stages of life.

With exceptional courage, Darian recounts the earth-shattering discovery that a loved one, her own father, is capable of the worst. But more importantly, she shares the remarkable story of her mother Gisèle and how she carried on living, without self-pity, while learning to manage all of the things her husband once took care of. She shares how her mother managed to maintain her joie de vivre in circumstances none of us could imagine.

Gisèle has won acclaim around the world after she gave up her right to anonymity and opted for a public trial, a trial in which Caroline herself has testified, turning the tables: the shame no longer borne by the victims in silence but directed, at last, to the abusers. Caroline has set up her own campaign, #MendorsPas: Stop Chemical Submission: Don’t Put Me Under, to address the issue of chemical submission in the home. Together, mother and daughter reveal another side to the violence committed against women, as they bravely transform their private trauma into a collective fight.

The book will be released on 14 January 2025.

About the author: Caroline Darian is a senior executive in a large company and the daughter of Dominique Pelicot and Gisèle Pelicot. Her father is currently being tried in France for the terrible crimes against his wife. Since the publication of her testimony, she founded the association '#MendorsPas: Stop Chemical Submission: Don't Put Me Under' in order to campaign for better care of victims and training health professionals.

The Madonna Of Notre Dame by Alexis Ragougneau

About the book: Fifty thousand believers and photo-hungry tourists jam into Notre Dame Cathedral on August 15 to celebrate the Feast of the Assumption. 

The next morning, a stunningly beautiful young woman clothed all in white kneels at prayer in a cathedral side chapel. But when an American tourist accidentally bumps against her, her body collapses. She has been murdered: the autopsy reveals disturbing details. 

Police investigators and priests search for the killer as they discover other truths about guilt and redemption in this soaring Paris refuge for the lost, the damned, and the saved. 

The suspect is a disturbed young man obsessed with the Virgin Mary who spends his days hallucinating in front of a Madonna. But someone else knows the true killer of the white-clad daughter of Algerian immigrants. 

This thrilling novel illuminates shadowy corners of the world’s most famous cathedral, shedding light on good and evil with suspense, compassion, and wry humour.

The Madonna of Notre Dame (2013) is translated from the French, La Madone de Notre-Dame, by Katherine Gregor.

About the author: Playwright and then novelist, Alexis Ragougneau made a remarkable entrance into the literary world with two detective novels: La Madone de Notre-Dame (2014) and Évangile pour un gueux (2016). He then devoted himself more freely to novel creation with Niels (in the running for the Prix Goncourt 2017) and Opus 77 (finalist for the Femina 2019). A key voice in contemporary French literature, his books are acclaimed by booksellers and have been translated into many languages.

About the translator: Katherine Gregor is a British translator and writer. She has translated Italian classics, such as Luigi Pirandello and Carlo Goldoni, and Francesca Melandri, Stefania Auci and Alberto Angela among contemporary authors. She was born in Rome, where she lived on and off for twelve years, spending six years also in France before moving to England in 1988. She is currently based in Norwich. She translates from Italian and French, writes plays and fiction of her own and the blog Scribe Doll (https://scribedoll.com). She also created and wrote for two years the monthly column The Italianist (http://www.eurolitnetwork.com/tag/katherine-gregor/), which focuses on Italian books not yet translated into English.

Rating: 5/5

Notre-Dame: The Soul Of France by Agnès Poirier

About the book: The profound emotion felt around the world upon seeing images of Notre-Dame in flames opens up a series of questions: Why was everyone so deeply moved? Why does Notre-Dame so clearly crystallise what our civilisation is about? What makes ‘Our Lady of Paris’ the soul of a nation and a symbol of human achievement? What is it that speaks so directly to us today?

In answer, Agnès Poirier turns to the defining moments in Notre-Dame’s history. 

Beginning with the laying of the corner stone in 1163, she recounts the conversion of Henri IV to Catholicism, the coronation of Napoleon, Victor Hugo’s nineteenth-century campaign to preserve the cathedral, Baron Haussmann’s clearing of the streets in front of it, the Liberation in 1944, the 1950s film of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, starring Gina Lollobrigida and Anthony Quinn, and the state funeral of Charles de Gaulle, before returning to the present.

The conflict over Notre-Dame’s reconstruction promises to be fierce. Nothing short of a cultural war is already brewing between the wise and the daring, the sincere and the opportunist, historians and militants, the devout and secularists. It is here that Poirier reveals the deep malaise - gilet jaunes and all - at the heart of the France.

Notre-Dame: The Soul Of France (2020) is the winner of the 2022 French Heritage Society Book Award. It is translated into Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Dutch, German, French, and Polish.

About the author: Agnès Poirier is a writer, commentator and broadcaster. She is a regular contributor on politics and arts for the BBC, CNN, Sky News, Channel 4 and France 24, and she writes for the Guardian, Observer, The Times, Evening Standard and The New York Times, among others. Her most recent book is the acclaimed Left Bank: Art, Passion and the Rebirth of Paris, 1940–50. She lives in Paris and visits London regularly. @AgnesCPoirier

Notre-Dame: A Short History Of The Meaning Of Cathedrals by Ken Follett

About the book: ‘Two days after Notre Dame burned, I flew to Paris to appear on the TV programme La Grande Librairie for a discussion about cathedrals. The following morning I had breakfast at the Hotel Bristol with my French publisher and she asked me to write a short book about Notre Dame and what it means to all of us. She said she would donate the publisher’s profits to the rebuilding fund and, if I wished, I could do the same with my royalties. Yes, I said; of course, I’d love to.’ - Ken Follett

In aid of the crucial restoration work to restore Paris’s great cathedral, Notre-Dame: A Short History of the Meaning of Cathedrals (2019) is a moving, short piece of non-fiction celebrating the stunning history of this beloved building, from Ken Follett, author of the multi-million copy selling Kingsbridge series. 

About the author: Ken Follett was born in Cardiff, Wales. Barred from watching films and television by his parents, he developed an early interest in reading thanks to a local library. After studying philosophy at University College London, he became involved in centre-left politics, entering into journalism soon after. His first thriller, the wartime spy drama Eye of the Needle, became an international bestseller and has sold over 10 million copies. This World War II thriller set in England, earned him the 1979 Edgar Award for Best Novel from the Mystery Writers of America. It remains one of his most popular books.

He then astonished everyone with his first historical novel, The Pillars of the Earth, the story of the building of a medieval cathedral, which went on to become one of the most beloved books of the twentieth century. One of the most popular authors in the world, his many books including the Kingsbridge series and the Century trilogy - a body of work which together chronicles over a thousand years of history - and his latest novel Never - which envisages how World War III could happen - have sold more than 188 million copies. A father and husband, Ken lives with his wife in England and enjoys travelling the world when he can. More than 195 million copies of the 37 books he has written have been sold in over 80 countries and in 40 languages.

Marian Veneration: Firm Foundations by Francis Cardinal Arinze

About the book: The Blessed Virgin Mary is venerated by many followers of Jesus Christ as an important part of their practice of the faith. Believing that she is the Mother of God because her Son is the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, who for our salvation took on human nature, Christians of both East and West honor Mary in various ways. They strive to imitate her as a great model of Christian discipleship.

Cardinal Arinze wrote Marian Veneration: Firm Foundations (2017) for both those devoted to the Blessed Mother and those who do not yet know or understand her. Based on the Scriptures, the teachings of the Church, and the sacred liturgy, the cardinal provides a solid foundation for Marian veneration - one that can benefit all Christians, regardless of their church affiliation.

Cover art: Our Lady of Perpetual Help, 16th century Greek Byzantine icon.

About the author: Cardinal Francis Arinze, the former Prefect for the Congregation for Divine Worship, is a highly regarded prelate, teacher and churchman. He has written numerous books on theology, spirituality and prayer, including Meeting Jesus and Following Him, Radical Discipleship, The Layperson's Distinctive Role, and his biography, God's Invisible Hand, all published by Ignatius Press.

Fantastic Recipes From My Favourite People by Poppy Fraser

About the book: "Without doubt, the worst cook I have ever come across" - Henry Hughes, the author's husband, 2004.

Discovering that she was expecting her first baby, Poppy Fraser decided that it was time to learn how to cook. Having no idea where to begin, she wrote to all the people she could think of, asking them to provide her with their favourite (and most foolproof) recipes. 

The response was staggering, and prompted her to collect the replies together for those of her friends who found themselves in a similar predicament.

Fantastic Recipes from my Favourite People (2006) is the result. From breakfast to lunch, tea-time to dinner, with an extensive section on puddings, the book provides pretty much every recipe one could ever need. There is no pretence at helping you lose weight or being trendy; the food described is simple, fattening, and delicious.

With introductions to the various characters who supplied the recipes, and charming illustrations by Leonora Grosvenor, Fantastic Recipes from my Favourite People could well become the only cookbook you will ever need!

About the author: Since writing her first book, Fantastic Recipes from my Favourite People, in 2006, a lot has changed for Poppy, both inside and outside the kitchen. Things have been busy: Poppy moved with her two elder children out of London to Dorset, settling in a beautiful little village beneath the Downs. She won two gold stars from the Great Taste Awards for her chocolate biscuit cake, which she sells each week locally. 

Poppy’s second cookbook, 10 Minute Suppers for Children, is a celebration of natural, unprocessed ingredients, ideal for whisking up a delectable supper for your brood and for any grown-up who happens to be in the kitchen. And all in just ten minutes. No one understands the pressures of a kitchen full of tired, hungry children better than Poppy, who has four of her own, two of them Irish twins.

Poppy’s first book, Fantastic Recipes from my Favourite People, was published by Foxcote Books. Its director, Rob Huntington, is tragically no longer alive, but is remembered and missed all the time by his many devoted friends.

Same As It Ever Was by Claire Lombardo

About the book: At fifty-seven, Julia Ames has found herself with an improbably lovely life. Despite her inclination towards self-sabotage, she has a husband she loves, two happy children and a quiet, contented existence in the suburbs.

But, out of the blue, things begin to change.

Her always well-behaved son is acting strangely. Her beloved but belligerent teenage daughter is about to depart for college.

And, in the local grocery store, Julia encounters a woman she has not seen for twenty years - a woman whose friendship was once both her lifeline and, very nearly, her downfall.

All of a sudden, Julia's peaceful family setup and her long, affection-filled marriage face imminent derailment from events both past and present.

The author of The Most Fun We Ever Had (2020) returns with another brilliantly observed family drama - Same As It Ever Was (2024), which examines the complete and complicated trajectory of one woman's life and asks what it takes to make - and to not break - a family.

About the author: Claire Lombardo earned her MFA in fiction at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her debut novel, The Most Fun We Ever Had, debuted on the New York Times Bestseller List, and has been translated or is forthcoming in over a dozen languages. It has been optioned for television by Reese Witherspoon. Same As It Ever Was is her second novel. Claire has worked as a social worker. Currently, she teaches fiction writing and works as a bookseller at Prairie Lights Books. She was born and raised in Oak Park, Illinois, and now lives in Iowa City, Iowa.

Rating: 5/5