Wednesday, 30 January 2019
Return To Mount Athos by Father Spyridon Bailey
Paperback: Extending out from Northern Greece into the Aegean Sea are three peninsulas, one of which, Mount Athos, has been a monastic republic for over a thousand years.
A pilgrimage to the Holy Mountain is a journey to the heart of Orthodox monasticism, and Father Spyridon takes us with him to hear words of ancient wisdom that may lead us into a deeper sense of God's presence.
Father Ioakeim Oureilidis writes, "This book is primarily a spiritual invitation through this paper object, that our Holy Mary, our Panagia, making good use of Fr Spyridon's skills and talents, extends to us all to visit her earthly home, the Holy Mountain, in order to be rejuvenated through faith and communication with the praying fathers and her grace."
Return To Mount Athos is published in 2018 by FeedARead.com Publishing and financed by the Arts Council of Great Britain.
About the author: Father Spyridon is a Greek Orthodox priest serving in Herefordshire, England. He has previously published a number of books of poetry and novels under his name in the world, Darren Bailey.
As an ordained priest in the Greek Orthodox Church Father Spyridon has focused on spiritual themes: Journey To Mount Athos, his first of these books, details his trip to the Holy Mountain where he encountered monks and hermits and was allowed access to a way of life few of us have encountered
The Ancient Path is a series of reflections on various aspects of life using the Church Fathers as the starting point in which Father Spyridon identifies how far modern man has strayed from an authentic Christian view of the universe.
Trampling Down Death By Death explores various themes relating to death and resurrection. It is deeply hopeful book that brings the reader into a vivid sense of the full reality of God's purpose for us.
Fire On The Lips is his return to the novel. A young couple have a chance encounter with an Orthodox monk which develops into a life-long friendship. The book explores the reality of sainthood in the modern world and drawing on a number of real events takes the reader into the mystery of ancient spirituality. Sub-titled "Encounters With A Saint", it demonstrates that Christian holiness is as real today as it was in the deserts of Egypt sixteen hundred years ago.
Tuesday, 29 January 2019
The Corsican Caper (Sam Levitt Series) by Peter Mayle
Hardback: Here is Peter Mayle at his effervescent best - his master sleuth, Sam Levitt, eating, drinking, and romancing his way through the South of France even as he investigates a case of deadly intrigue among the Riviera's jet set.
When billionaire Francis Reboul finds himself on the wrong side of a Russian tycoon, he is fortunate to have vacationing friends Sam Levitt and Elena Morales on hand to help him out. Now it is up to Sam - who has saved Reboul’s neck before - to negotiate with an underworld of mercenaries, hit men, and Mafioso, to prevent his friend from becoming a victim of “Russian diplomacy.”
As usual, Sam and Elena still find time to enjoy the good life, but as Sam’s sleuthing draws him closer to the truth, he realizes Reboul might not be the only one in trouble.
Rich with clever twists, sparkling scenery, and mouthwatering gustatory interludes as only Peter Mayle can write them, The Corsican Caper is an adventure par excellence!
The Corsican Caper aka Murder In The Med (2014) is the third book in the entertaining and clever lawyer and wine connoisseur Sam Levitt series set in France.
About the author: Peter Mayle (born 14 June 1939, in Brighton) was a British author famous for his series of books detailing life in Provence, France. He spent fifteen years in advertising before leaving the business in 1975 to write educational books, including a series on sex education for children and young people. In 1989, A Year in Provence, was published and became an international bestseller. His books have been translated into more than twenty languages, and he was a contributing writer to magazines and newspapers.
Indeed, his seventh book, A Year in Provence, chronicles a year in the life of a British expatriate who settled in the village of Ménerbes. His book, A Good Year, was the basis for the eponymous 2006 film directed by Ridley Scott and starring actor Russell Crowe. Peter Mayle died in Provence, France on 18 January 2018.
Rating: 5/5
The Marseille Caper (Sam Levitt Series) by Peter Mayle
Hardback: Lovable rogue and sleuth extraordinaire Sam Levitt is back in another beguiling, as-only-Peter-Mayle-can-write-it romp through the South of France.
At the end of The Vintage Caper (2009), Sam had just carried off a staggering feat of derring-do in the heart of Bordeaux, infiltrating the ranks of the French elite to rescue a stolen, priceless wine collection. With the questionable legality of the adventure - and the threat of some very powerful enemies! - Sam thought it would be a while before he returned to France, especially with the charms of the beautiful Elena Morales to keep him in Los Angeles.
But when the immensely wealthy Francis Reboul - the victim of Sam's last heist but someone who knows talent when he sees it - asks our hero to take a job in Marseille, it is impossible for Sam and Elena to resist the possibility of further excitement, to say nothing of the pleasures of the region.
Soon the two are enjoying the coastal sunshine and the delectable food and wine for which Marseille is known. Yet as a competition over Marseille's valuable waterfront grows more hotly disputed, Sam, representing Reboul, finds himself in the middle of an increasingly intrigue-ridden and dangerous real-estate grab, with thuggish gangsters on one side and sharklike developers on the other.
Will Sam survive this caper unscathed?
Will he live to enjoy another bowl of bouillabaisse?
All will be revealed - with luck, savvy, and a lot of help from Sam's friends - in the novel's wonderfully satisfying climax.
The Marseille Caper (2012) is the second instalment in this clever and pleasurable lawyer and wine connoisseur Sam Levitt series set in France.
About the author: Peter Mayle (born 14 June 1939, in Brighton) was a British author famous for his series of books detailing life in Provence, France. He spent fifteen years in advertising before leaving the business in 1975 to write educational books, including a series on sex education for children and young people. In 1989, A Year in Provence was published and became an international bestseller. His books have been translated into more than twenty languages, and he was a contributing writer to magazines and newspapers.
Indeed, his seventh book, A Year in Provence, chronicles a year in the life of a British expatriate who settled in the village of Ménerbes. His book, A Good Year, was the basis for the eponymous 2006 film directed by Ridley Scott and starring actor Russell Crowe. Peter Mayle died in Provence, France on 18 January 2018.
Rating: 5/5
Lullaby by Leïla Slimani
Paperback: She has the keys to their apartment.
She knows everything.
She has embedded herself so deeply in their lives that it now seems impossible to remove her.
When Myriam decides to return to work as a lawyer after having children, she and her husband look for the perfect nanny for their son and daughter. They never dreamed they would find Louise: a quiet, polite, devoted woman who sings to the children, cleans the family’s chic Paris apartment, stays late without complaint, and hosts enviable kiddie parties. But as the couple and the nanny become more dependent on one another, jealousy, resentment, and suspicions mount, shattering the idyllic tableau.
Building tension with every page, Lullaby (2018) is a compulsive, riveting, bravely observed exploration of power, class, race, domesticity, motherhood, and madness - and the American debut of an immensely talented writer.
Lullaby - The Perfect Nanny (USA) - is the #1 international bestseller and winner of France’s most prestigious literary prize, the Goncourt, in 2016.
Lullaby is translated from the French by Sam Taylor.
Slimani's second novel, Adèle (about a young mother addicted to sex), will be out on 27 February 2019.
About the author: Leïla Slimani is a French writer and journalist of Moroccan ancestry. In 2016 she was awarded the Prix Goncourt for her novel Chanson douce.
Slimani was born in Rabat, Morocco and studied later political science and media studies in Paris. After that she temporarily considered a career as an actress and began to work as a journalist for the magazine Jeune Afrique. In 2014, she published her first novel Dans le jardin de l’ogre, which two years later was followed by the psychological thriller Chanson douce. The latter quickly turned into a bestseller with over 600 000 copies printed within a year even before the book was awarded the Prix Goncourt.
Rating: 5/5
Saturday, 26 January 2019
Force of Nature (Aaron Falk Series) by Jane Harper
Paperback: Five women reluctantly pick up their backpacks and start walking along a muddy track.
Only four come out on the other side.
The hike through the rugged Giralang Ranges is meant to take the office colleagues out of their air-conditioned comfort zone and encourage teamwork and resilience. At least, that is what the corporate retreat website advertises.
Federal Police investigator Aaron Falk has a keen interest in the whereabouts of the missing hiker, Alice Russell. Because Alice knew secrets, about the company she worked for and the people she worked with.
The four returning women tell Falk a tale of fear, violence and fractured trust during their days in the remote Australian bushland. And as Falk delves into the disappearance of Alice, he begins to suspect some dangers ran far deeper than anyone knew.
Force of Nature (2017) is the second instalment in the excellent Federal Police Agent Aaron Falk series set in Melbourne, Australia. It clearly demonstrates her background of more than a decade in journalism and is an Observer Book of the Year 2018.
About the author: Jane Harper is the author of The Dry, winner of various awards including the 2015 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript, the 2017 Indie Award Book of the Year and the 2017 Australian Book Industry Awards Book of the Year Award. Rights have been sold in 27 territories worldwide, and film rights optioned to Reese Witherspoon and Bruna Papandrea.
Jane worked as a print journalist for thirteen years both in Australia and the UK. In 2014, she submitted a short story which was one of 12 chosen for the Big Issue's annual Fiction Edition. That inspired her to pursue creative writing more seriously, and that year she applied for an online 12-week novel writing course. She was accepted with a submission for the book that would become The Dry. Jane lives in St Kilda with her husband and daughter.
Rating: 5/5
The Serpent Papers (Serpent Papers Trilogy) by Jessica Cornwell
Paperback: Barcelona, Summer 2003.
Three women are sacrificed to an unknown purpose, skin carved with a cryptic alphabet, tongues cut from their mouths. Sent beautiful, sinister letters - clues, or confessions? - Inspector Fabregat cannot decipher the warnings within.
As Barcelona explodes in revelry on the Festival of St Joan, Natalia Hernandez, flower of the National Theatre and Catalan idol, lies broken on the steps of the Cathedral. The city bays for blood, Fabregat chases a shadow-like suspect and signs that whisper of secrets beyond his grasp.
Barcelona, Winter 2014.
Anna Verco - academic, book thief, savant - unearths letters hidden for centuries from a lightning-struck chapel in Mallorca. What they reveal compels her and Fabregat to reignite the Hernandez investigation. Every page she turns conceals a coded message; every street she treads leads her deeper into the labyrinth.
As Fabregat baits her with suspects, and threats darken her steps, Anna hunts her own prey - the book that began it all, a medieval revelation written in the language of witches and alchemists: The Serpent Papers.
Anna believes this book will unlock the mystery. She does not yet know she is the key.
The Serpent Papers (2015) combines the intrigue of The Da Vinci Code with the mysticism of a Carlos Ruiz Zafón novel. The narrative shifts between the 12th century and the present day, using storytelling devices including letters, ancient scribes, complex web of codes, medieval references and mystified former detectives. It is the first book in the gripping Serpent Papers Trilogy series set in Barcelona, Spain.
About the author: Jessica - granddaughter of John le Carré - majored in English at Stanford University. While there, she won a prestigious Angel Art Grant and participated in research projects in Andalusia, New Delhi and Oxford. After graduating, she completed her masters in drama at the Institute of Theatre and the Autonomous University of Barcelona before training with the Catalan theatre company La Fura dels Baus.
Since moving to London, Jessica Cornwell has worked as a runner at Working Title Films, a freelance researcher and a program director for the Santozeum, a start-up museum and art hub based between London and Santorini. She is an Observer Debut Author of the Year for 2015, and has written for The Independent and The Sunday Times.
Jessica was raised with her seven siblings in Ojai, California. The Serpent Papers is her first novel.
Rating: 4/5
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