I Deliver Parcels In Beijing (Non-Fiction) by Hu AnYan

About the book: I Deliver Parcels in Beijing (2025) is an authentic and humorous first person account of one worker’s daily life in the huge system that is the Chinese gig economy. The system could crush you unless you, as the author, have a slightly philosophical look on everyday life. 

In 2023, I Deliver Parcels in Beijing became a literary sensation of the year in China. The story of a worker doing odd jobs in various anonymous mega-cities, Hu AnYan’s voice hit a nerve with a generation of young Chinese who feel at odds with an ever growing pressure to perform and succeed.

Hu started posting essays about his experiences online during COVID lockdowns. His recollection of night shifts in a huge logistics center in the South of China went nights so hot that even drinking three liters of water does not require a toilet break; colleagues going for KTV instead of trying to get a few hours' sleep; where are the affordable rooms with proper air conditioning, and what is the best amount of alcohol in order to sleep but not feel drowsy a few hours later? 

The work is brutal, and there is no real sense of future in sight. But Hu is armed with a deadpan sense of humour and a strong idea of self, he moves on when he feels from logistics in the South to delivering parcels in Beijing, over to other odd jobs, all the while also discovering the power of reading and writing.

I Deliver Parcels in Beijing is a bestseller in China in 2023 with over 160, 000 copies sold, 400,000 ebooks read, and 1,360,000 audio versions downloaded. Also sold for local publications in 15 territories. It will be released on 28 October 2025 and is available for pre-order now. 

The book is a unique first person portrait of a society we never hear from but everyone has opinions about and benefits from. Quietly radical, brimming with humanity and humour, this book asks: what does work really mean? What should it mean? And do any of us really know how to live?

I Deliver Parcels in Beijing is translated from the Mandarin by Jack Hargreaves.

About the author: Hu AnYan was born in Guangzhou, China, in 1979. After graduating from secondary school he joined the workforce, moving between cities and odd jobs to make a living. In 2020, a blog post based on his experience as a delivery driver in Beijing went viral, leading to the publication of his first book, I Deliver Parcels in Beijing (Insight Media, 2023). It has since become a major national bestseller in China and will be translated into fifteen languages.

About the translator: Jack Hargreaves is a Chinese-English translator. He has translated work by such writers as Li Juan, Lu Xiaoyu, Chai Jing, Shen Dacheng, Gu Qian, Wen Zhen and Chen Chuncheng, among others.

Some Days

The Next Supper: The End Of Restaurants As We Knew Them, And What Comes After by Corey Mintz

About the book: The Next Supper (2021) is a searing expose of the restaurant industry, and a path to a better, safer, happier meal.

In the years before the pandemic, the restaurant business was booming. Americans spent more than half of their annual food budgets dining out. In a generation, chefs had gone from behind-the-scenes labourers to TV stars. The arrival of Uber Eats, DoorDash, and other meal delivery apps was overtaking home cooking.

Beneath all that growth lurked serious problems. Many of the best restaurants in the world employed unpaid cooks. Meal delivery apps were putting restaurants out of business. And all that dining out meant dramatically less healthy diets. The industry may have been booming, but it also desperately needed to change.

Then, along came COVID-19. From the farm to the street-side patio, from the sweaty kitchen to the swarm of delivery vehicles buzzing about our cities, everything about the restaurant business is changing, for better or worse. 

The Next Supper tells this story and offers clear and essential advice for what and how to eat to ensure the well-being of cooks and waitstaff, not to mention our bodies and the environment. 

The Next Supper reminds us that breaking bread is an essential human activity and charts a path to preserving the joy of eating out in a turbulent era.

About the author: Corey Mintz is a freelance food reporter (New York Times, Globe and Mail, Eater, and others), focusing on the intersection between what we eat with business, politics, farming, ethics, land use, labor (or labour, as it is spelled in Canada), education and culture. He has been a cook and a restaurant critic. For his long-running column Fed, he hosted 192 dinner parties, featuring politicians, refugees, criminals, artists, academics, acupuncturists, high-rise window washers, competitive barbecuers, and one monkey. He is the author of two and a half books including How to Host a Dinner Party. He lives in Winnipeg with his wife, Victoria, and their daughter, Cookie Puss.

Blood In The Water: The Untold Story Of A Family Tragedy by Casey Sherman

About the book: A troubled young man, a seven million dollar fortune, and a murder at sea...

When Nathan Carman, a young man with a complicated past, is miraculously rescued from a lifeboat bobbing in the unforgiving North Atlantic, questions swirl about the fate of his mother, who is presumed to have drowned when their fishing boat sank. 

Nathan is in remarkably good shape for being lost at sea for a week, and his account of what exactly happened out there on the waves raises questions from family members and law enforcement.

Nathan's story of a fishing trip gone awry doesn't quite add up, and suspicion mounts. The mysterious murder of Nathan's multi-millionaire grandfather a few years before had made Nathan's mother an extremely wealthy woman. With a seven-million-dollar fortune at stake, did Nathan commit the ultimate betrayal? Or is there more to this tragic tale than meets the eye?

From New York Times bestselling author Casey Sherman comes a gripping contemporary true crime narrative - Blood in the Water (2025) - for everyone who was fascinated by the Murdaugh murders, and for anyone compelled by the intersection between money, power, and family.

In May 2023, federal prosecutors charged Nathan Carman with the murders of his grandfather and his mother, and he died of apparent suicide in prison in June 2023.

About the author: Casey Sherman is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today & Boston Globe Bestselling Author of 17 books including “The Finest Hours” (now a major Walt Disney Studio motion picture starring Chris Pine & Casey Affleck), and “Patriots Day” (now an acclaimed motion picture from CBS Films starring Mark Wahlberg and Kevin Bacon). Sherman’s 2023 true crime bestseller “Helltown,” is now in development as a limited television series for Amazon Studio. Sherman will serve as Executive Producer on the project, which is slated to star Oscar Isaac (“Dune”), with director Edward Berger (Netflix – “All is Quiet on the Western Front”), and produced by Team Downey (Robert Downey, Jr. & Susan Downey - HBO’s “Perry Mason”). 

Sherman’s other books include James Patterson’s “The Last Days of John Lennon,” which spent more than 23 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, “12: The Inside Story of Tom Brady’s Fight for Redemption,” and “Hunting Whitey: The Inside Story of The Capture & Killing of America’s Most Wanted Crime Boss. Sherman has appeared on more than 100 television and radio programs and is a contributing writer for TIME Magazine, Esquire, The Washington Post, The Daily Beast, Boston Magazine and the Boston Herald. 

Sherman is a graduate of Barnstable High School (Cape Cod), Fryeburg Academy (Fryeburg, ME) and Boston University.

Cellar Rat: My Life In The Restaurant Underbelly by Hannah Selinger

About the book: In Cellar Rat (2025), Hannah Selinger chronicles the rise and fall of her career in the restaurant business, beginning with the gritty hometown pub where she fell in love with the industry and ending with her final post serving celebrities in the Hamptons classic Nick & Toni's.

In between recipes, Selinger's emotional journey takes readers through the joys of fine fine dining, the allure and danger of power, and what it takes to walk away from a career you love when it no longer serves you. 

What happens when a career you love does not love you back? 

As Hannah Selinger will tell you, to be a good restaurant employee is to be invisible.

At the height of her career as a server and then sommelier at some of New York's most famed dining institutions, Selinger was the hand that folded your napkin while you were in the bathroom, the employee silently slipping into the night through a side door after serving meals worth more than her rent.

During her tenure, Selinger rubbed shoulders with David Chang, Bobby Flay, Johnny Iuzzini, and countless other food celebrities of the early 2000's.

Her position allowed her access to a life she never expected; the lavish parties, the tasting courses, the wildly expensive wines - the rare world we see romanticized in countless movies and television shows.

But the thing about being invisible is that people forget you are there, and most act differently when they think no one is looking.

About the author: Hannah Selinger is a James Beard Award-nominated lifestyle writer and mother of two based in Boxford, MA. Her print and digital work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the Boston Globe, the Washington Post, Eater, Travel + Leisure, Food & Wine, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and elsewhere. Her 2021 Bon Appétit essay, "In My Childhood Kitchen, I Learned Both Fear and Love," is anthologized in the 2022 Best American Food Writing collection, published by HarperCollins and edited by Sohla El-Waylly.

Your Table Is Ready: Tales of a New York City Maître D' by Michael Cecchi-Azzolina

About the author: From the elegant to the entitled, from royalty to the financially ruined, everyone who wanted to be seen - or just to gawk - at the hottest restaurants in New York City came to places Michael Cecchi-Azzolina helped run. 

Your Table Is Ready (2022) drops us back in time in the most vibrant city in the world, taking us places we would never have been able to get into on our own: Raouls in Soho with its louche club vibe; Buzzy O’Keefe’s casually chic River Café (the only outer-borough establishment to make the grade), from Keith McNally’s Minetta Tavern to Nolita’s Le Coucou, with its French Country Auberge-meets-winery look and the most exquisite stands of eternally fresh flowers.

From his early career serving stars like Tennessee Williams and Dustin Hoffman at La Rousse right through to the last pre-pandemic full houses at LeCouCou, Cecchi-Azzolina breaks down how restaurants really run (and don’t), and how the economics work for owners and overworked staff alike. 

The professionals who gravitate to the business are a special, tougher breed, practiced in dealing with demanding patrons and with each other, in a distinctive ecosystem that is somewhere between a George Orwell “down and out in….” dungeon and a sleek showman’s smoke-and-mirrors palace.

Like Stanley Tucci’s “Big Night”, Your Table Is Ready (2022) is a history of the era when maitre d’s rather than chefs were the culinary world’s stars. It is a rollicking, raunchy, revelatory memoir. 

About the author: Michael Cecchi-Azzolina has been in the restaurant industry for more than thirty-five years. From his early career at La Rousse, he has gone on to run the front of house at New York's most famous and influential restaurants, including The Water Club, The River Cafe, Raoul's, and Le Coucou. He lives in Manhattan.

John of the Cross: a Living Flame by Blessed Marie-Eugène of the Child Jesus

About the book: “Periods of deChristianisation like the one we are enduring are liable to provoke a reaction by the Spirit, who takes hold of certain souls and breathes into them this thirst and this appetite for perfection ...”

These words of Blessed Marie-Eugène of the Child Jesus testify to the pressing need that he felt all his life to spread the spiritual doctrine of the Reformer of Carmel (St John of the Cross). 

His living teaching is rooted in an experiential knowledge of St John of the Cross, constantly enriched by his familiarity with Thérèse of Lisieux, the most authentic disciple of the Doctor of the nights. 

John of the Cross: a Living Flame (2023) brings together the key points in this teaching, which has never had any other purpose than to lead individuals to the perfection of love, in the purest tradition of the Teachers of Carmel.

John of the Cross: a Living Flame is translated from the French by Cyprian Blamires OCDS. 

About the author: Blessed Marie-Eugène of the Child Jesus (1894-1967) – born Henri Grialou – was a French Roman Catholic priest and a professed member of the Discalced Carmelites of which he was a member since just after his ordination (24 February 1922). Fr Marie-Eugène held several positions of leadership within his Order, and because of his responsibilities in Rome, he travelled extensively visiting the different Carmelite convents and monasteries across the world. He founded the Secular Institute of Notre-Dame de Vie. He is also a noted spiritual author and wrote at great length on the Carmelite Doctors (his main opus: “I Want to See God”). He is considered amongst the most important authors of Spiritual Theology.

Fr. Marie-Eugène’s life was driven by his devotion to Carmelite Spirituality and to the spreading it with great zeal. His motto in life was “Traditus Gratiae Dei” (Surrendered to the Grace of God). He ensured that Carmelite teachings and its Spirituality was promoted amongst the faithful. He died on 27 March 1967. He was beatified on 19 November 2016 in Avignon, France.

Sins Of The Tongue: The Backbiting Tongue by Father Bélet of the Diocese of Basle

About the book: Originally written in French in 1870, Fr Bélet wages war against one of the worst sins of his (and our) time - backbiting - better known to us as detraction (telling the faults of others without cause). 

Most of us do not realize how evil this sin is. 

In fact, many of us don't think it is a sin at all. 

After ruining someone's reputation, or satisfying our anger (and yes, hatred) by spewing out every bad thing we can say about someone, we justify ourselves by saying, "Well, it's true!" 

We even think we are acting justly by giving someone what they deserve... little do we see things from God's point of view, to whom these are vile sins - a form of hatred of neighbour - a failure to do the two things necessary - to love God and our neighbor (Mt 22:37-40).

In his war on detraction, Fr. Bélet drafts into his army all the best men of Western Civilization: Aristotle, Plato, Horace, Seneca, Pliny, the Roman Emperor Constantine, King David, Isaiah, Saints James, Luke, Matthew, Paul, John Chrysostom, Jerome, Cassian, Gregory the Great, Augustine, Bernard, Thomas Aquinas, and many, many others. 

A fascinating little book - well worth its cost.

Sins Of The Tongue: The Backbiting Tongue (2021, 5th edition) is an ODM translation of the French book, La langue médisante drawn from Les défauts de la langue published in 1870.

A Very British Christmas by Rob Temple

About the book: A Very British Christmas (2025) is a one-of-a-kind survival manual for everybody's least favourite aspect of the holiday season: having to spend it with your family.

Christmas, as we all know, is a minefield. 

What the hell do you buy your mother-in-law? 

How to deal with the inevitable arguments provoked by a simple game of Monopoly? 

And where should you sit at the dining table to best avoid Grandad when he starts going off about politics?

From navigating the awkwardness of marrying into a Presents After Dinner family to the terrors of staying in someone else's house (especially when they have a weak flush), Very British Problems creator Rob Temple is here to ensure you will be invited back next year.

A Very British Christmas is available for pre-order and is expected to be released on 25 October 2025. 

About the author: Rob Temple, the man behind Very British Problems, is a Cambridge-based journalist who started @soverybritish in December 2012, and now has over 5 million followers across X, Instagram and Facebook. Crippled by social anxiety, he enjoys writing about being awkward because it is therapeutic to read comments which assure him that he is very far from alone when it comes to awkward behaviour.

The Ghosts of Malta by Joseph Attard

About the book: On a dark stormy night, a sudden cracking flash of lightning threw the road in bright light. Flittering along there was a procession of hooded figures wearing the white habit of the Archconfraternity of the Misericordia.

It is not anything one might care to meet on any night. But then, this was only one of the many cases of denizens of the occult that make a story which has been replayed throughout the ages of Malta's history, right to our time. 

 

Joseph Attard, one of Malta's most accomplished writers, had, with his well-known painstaking ability for research, assembled an impressive chronicle. It is more of a fantastic narrative of the Maltese occult interwoven with the island's glorious history. Complete with theories and arguments, and also bolstered by personal experiences, it is a strange and eerie story, bound to quicken the most intrepid of hearts; combining the legendary with the authentic. But nonetheless, it forms a coherent whole to explain at last the spectral population of the Ghosts of Malta.

The Ghosts of Malta was first published in 1983. This edition was published with additions in 2019.

About the author: Joseph Attard was born in Vittoriosa and received his education at the Malta Lyceum and The Royal University of Malta. He entered the Civil Service making a brilliant career. Nevertheless, his heart was always in the art of writing which he cultivated since his early formative years. His first successes in this field were in freelance journalism and short-story writing for the English press in the fifties, when he was also given two foreign assignments with UNESCO. His first novel, I Chased a Ghost, was published in the United Kingdom in 1968.

This was followed by Oleanders in the Wind. But as if to establish his equal versatility with his own language, Joseph Attard then wrote four books in Maltese - It-Toroq Kollha Jwasslu għal Ruma (All Roads Lead to Rome), Taħt is-Sinjal ta' Taurus (Under the Sign of Taurus), Ix-Xitan Wasal fit-Tlettax (The Devil Came on the Thirteenth), L-Aħħar Appuntament (The Last Appointment). His next book, The Battle of Malta, was a bestseller. It was published in hardback by William Kimber in 1980 and in two paperback editions in 1982. After that, there were The Ghosts of Malta, Industrial Relations in Malta, Britain and Malta - The Story of an Era, another bestseller, The Atlantis Inheritance, The Angel of Death, The Knights of Malta and The Struggle for the Mediterranean. He has also written several radio plays as well as a television serial.

Joseph Attard passed away in March 2011 aged 87.

Bramard's Case by Davide Longo

About the book: Once a year, Corso Bramard receives a message from the man who destroyed his life.

He left the police after a serial killer he was tracking murdered his wife and daughter, but fifteen years later he is still taunted by his old adversary. Mocking letters arrive at his home outside Turin, always from a different country, always typed on the same 1972 Olivetti.

But this time the killer may have gone too far. A hair left in the envelope of his latest letter provides a vital clue.

Bramard is a teacher now – no gun, no badge, just a score to settle. Isa, an academy graduate whose talent just about outweighs her attitude is assigned to fight his corner.

They are a mismatched team, but if they work together they have a chance to unmask the killer before he strikes again – and to uncover a devastating secret that will cut Corso Barmard to the bone.

Bramard's Case is first published in the Italian language as Il Caso Bramard (2014) and then translated into the English (2016) by Silvester Mazzarella. 

About the author: Born in 1971, Davide Longo is a writer, documentary maker and teacher of Creative Writing at the Scuola Holden in Turin. For his debut novel, Un mattino a Irgalem (Marcos y Marcos, 2001), he was awarded the Premio Grinzane and the Premio Via Po in 2001. With his next works, he came to be considered one of the best Italian writers to emerge in recent years. Il mangiatore di pietre  (Fandango, 2004) won the Città di Bergamo and the Viadana prizes and was adapted into a movie starring Luigi Lo Cascio. His third novel, L’uomo verticale (Fandango, 2010), was awarded the Premio Lucca and is optioned for film. Einaudi Stile Libero is publishing the widely acclaimed crime series starring detectives Bramard and Arcadipane. His work has been translated into five languages, including English. He has also written for publications such as La Repubblica, for radio and for theatre.

About the translator: Born in Manchester in 1936, educated at the King's School Canterbury and the University of Oxford, Silvester Mazzarella (1936-2025) was a lecturer in English at Helsinki University and a prize-winning translator of Italian and Swedish literature. An avid fan of cricket and the Goon Show, an aficionado of trad jazz and classical music, Silvester was at heart a historian. He learned English from his mother, Italian from his father, and Swedish while teaching English literature at the University of Helsinki in Finland. His most recent translation from the Swedish is Tove Jansson: Life, Art, Words by Boel Westin (2014). He passed away on 17 January 2025 at home in Canterbury, England.

Rating: 5/5

Right Wing Revolution: How To Beat the Woke And Save The West by Charlie Kirk

About the book: The United States of America has long been the lone beacon of freedom and sensibility in a chaotic world. 

Now, she is under threat from a lethal ideology that seeks to humiliate and erase anyone who does not bow at its altar. 

The threat in question? 

Wokeism. 

In Right Wing Revolution: How to Beat the Woke and Save the West (2024), Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk drags wokeism out of the shadows and details the exact steps needed to stop its toxic spread. 

Right Wing Revolution is not a cautionary tale. 

Wokeism has already seeped into every aspect of American society. 

Instead, Charlie Kirk looks to inform and prepare every reader for the coming confrontation against one of the most existential threats the United States has ever faced.

Right Wing Revolution is sold out almost everywhere except on eBay and Amazon US. 

About the author: Charles James Kirk (1993-2025) was an American right-wing political activist, author, and media personality. He briefly attended Harper College near Chicago before dropping out to pursue political activism full-time, influenced by Tea Party member Bill Montgomery. He co-founded the conservative organization Turning Point USA in 2012 and was its executive director. He was the chief executive officer of Turning Point Action and a member of the Council for National Policy. Kirk's social media reaches over 100 million people per month, and Axios has named Charlie Kirk as one of the "top 10 most engaged" handles in the world. The best-selling author of The College Scam and The MAGA Doctrine, Kirk was also the host of The Charlie Kirk Show podcast, which reaches millions of downloads monthly and regularly ranks among the top-10 shows on Apple podcast news charts. In May 2019, Kirk was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Humanities (DHum) from Liberty University. (Source: Wikipedia)

Stronger Than Evil: The Devil – Recognizing Him, Overcoming Him, And Avoiding Him by Fr Gabriele Amorth and Roberto Italo Zanini

About the book: There is no doubt that evil exists and that the devil's potency has increased in our modern culture of death. The rise in demonic afflictions - from harassment and obsession to oppression and possession - is an alarming testament to the reign of the prince of this world.

For decades, Vatican exorcist Fr Gabriele Amorth has been the leading voice on the demonic, spiritual warfare, and spiritual protection. Even after his death, newly published writings from his extensive archives remain as relevant as ever in our fallen world.

In this fresh work, Fr Amorth conveys a hopeful message about the supreme power of God over Satan and his minions. Stronger Than Evil (2024) draws from Fr Amorth's exorcism ministry, affirming that the power over demons lies in Jesus Christ Himself.

Fr Amorth highlights some of the most powerful experiences in his deliverance ministry, giving concrete examples of divine intervention in desperate cases. He reveals:

+ The key differences between mental illness and demonic influence

+ How serious sin opens the door to demonic attack

+ Whether curses or evil spells are real, and what can be done about them

+ Why Satan is behind the pro-choice movement and the scourge of abortion

+ Evidence of the diabolical in modern music

+ The dangers and temptations of modern technology

While recognizing the real threat of the diabolical, especially in a society that has rejected God, Fr Amorth does not fall into the pit of despair. He leaves readers with a hopeful message: that grace is the "decisive defense" against our spiritual enemy. Here, Fr. Amorth personally testifies to the miraculous intervention of the saints, Our Lady, and the Holy Trinity in spiritual warfare, assuring readers that God is always in control. 

God keeps His promise to deliver us from evil.

Stronger than Evil (2024) is translated from the Italian by Nicholas Reitzug. 

About the authors: Father Gabriele Amorth SSP (1925-2016), acclaimed exorcist and Mariologist, was born in Modena, Italy, in 1925. He fought in the Italian resistance during World War II. After the war, he received a degree in jurisprudence and served as the chief assistant to Giulio Andreotti, helping him in the formation of Italy's postwar government and in the writing of its constitution. He entered the Society of St Paul and was ordained a priest in 1954. In 1985, he became an exorcist for the Diocese of Rome, a ministry he practiced until he died. In 1990, he founded the International Association of Exorcists, of which he was president until 2000. He wrote more than thirty books in Italian, which have been translated into numerous languages. Two others have been published by Sophia Institute Press: An Exorcist Explains the Demonic and Father Amorth: My Battle against Satan.

Roberto Italo Zanini is an editor and writer for Avvenire, the daily newspaper of the Italian bishops. His articles have appeared in many Italian publications, both Catholic and nonreligious. He has written several other biographies of modern Catholics both in Italian and English (Bakhita: From Slave to Saint (2013)).

(Saint) Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati: An Ordinary Christian by Maria Di Lorenzo

About the book: Athletic, handsome, and always up for a laugh, Pier Giorgio Frassati (1901-1925) was the charismatic leader of a band of rowdy friends. He smoked, pulled pranks, relished extreme sports, and fiercely debated politics into the night but he also secretly gave his wealth to the poor and plunged into intense experiences of Eucharistic prayer. 

An inspiring biography that captures Frassati's spirit, Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati: An Ordinary Christian (2003) explores the adventuresome personality and forthright love of a man who succeeded in wresting holiness from everyday life and whom John Paul II has called "a man of the Eight Beatitudes."

On 7 September 2025, along with Carlo Acutis, Frassati was canonized by Pope Leo XIV in Rome. He is a significant global patron for youth, young adults, athletes, and "ordinary people" - and has a special place in the hearts of many young people across the United States and around the world.

Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati: An Ordinary Christian is sold out everywhere! 

However, the publisher anticipates that this book will be reprinted in early October 2025. 

Update (6 November 2025): Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati: An Ordinary Christian can now be purchased from Pauline Book Centre.

Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati: An Ordinary Christian is translated from the Italian by Robert Ventresca.

About the author: Maria Di Lorenzo, a graduate in Modern Languages and a journalist, has worked for the daily newspaper, Il Tempo, for RAI, and for Vatican Radio. An expert in spirituality and religious issues, she is a regular contributor to various Catholic publications, an editor of websites dedicated to saints and exemplary people of our day, and author of several books.