An Inveterate Traveler

Fresher Conditions

Revelations Of Catalina On The Holy Mass by Catalina Rivas

About the booklet: "In your homes, you have a place for everything and a room for every activity: a bedroom for sleeping, another for the kitchen, another for eating, etc. What place have you prepared for Me? It should not be a place where you have only placed an image that always gathers dust, but a place where at least five minutes a day, the family meets to give thanks for the day and for the gift of life, to ask for the needs of the day, to ask for blessings, protection, health."

In Revelations of Catalina on the Holy Mass: The story of an encounter between the Virgin Mary and the Bolivian Mystic (2025), Catalina reveals the spiritual dimension of the Holy Mass.

Beyond what the eye can see, there is a mystical celebration that the Virgin Mary unveiled to this Bolivian mystic.

From the host that mystically takes on the face of Christ, to the wine that becomes the image of the crucified Jesus, the Virgin Mary reveals the marvelous design of her Son’s love for humanity, which reaches its summit in the Holy Mass.

Reading this book will transform the way you experience Mass - your participation will never be the same again.

Revelations of Catalina on the Holy Mass is translated from the Spanish by Paulo Gomez. 

About the author: Catalina Rivas (b 1944) is a laywoman and mystic, married, living in Bolivia. Around the age of 47 (1993), she received an exceptional mission from the Lord. Christ made her His secretary, giving her numerous messages which she writes by dictation. She also receives visions and revelations that she is charged with transmitting to all, notably revelations concerning the Holy Mass which are illuminating.

On 2 April 1998, the writings of Catalina Rivas received the Imprimatur of the Archbishop of Cochabamba, Mons in Bolivia. Here is what he says: "We have read the books of Catalina and we are sure that their sole object is to lead on the path of an authentic spirituality, whose source is the Gospel of Christ […] For this, I authorize their printing and dissemination, recommending them as aids for meditation."

Terminar un libro

(Google Translation): "Depth is a luxury. Finishing a book. Conversing without a phone on the table. Dedicating more than ten minutes to reflecting on a problem. Listening to a full album. Writing without interruptions. Being in a place without feeling the need to post it. In a world that sells mass distraction, sustained attention has become the privilege of those who choose. And live.”

By The River's Edge (True Crime) by Gregg Olsen

About the book: The decades-long manhunt for a serial killer takes a stunning turn in a haunting and harrowing true crime shocker by Gregg Olsen, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of If You Tell.

In 1990 in Washington state, the bodies of Yolanda Sapp, Nickie Lowe, and Kathy Brisbois were found on the banks of the Spokane River. They were part of a close-knit alliance of sex workers whose oath to protect each other was, in the end, hopeless. 

For twenty-two years their brutal murders went unsolved.

In 2012, a DNA cold hit pointed to Douglas Perry. A repeat assault offender, Douglas was currently incarcerated in Carswell, Texas. 

But there was a twist: The facility was for female prisoners. 

The man authorities hunted for decades was now Donna Perry! Her gender reassignment not only helped to mask the evil deeds of the past, it ended a life of childhood traumas and a pent-up rage unleashed on nearly thirty victims, according to Donna herself. 

Through total reinvention, she believed she had finally slayed the monster within.

By the River's Edge: A True Story of Identity and Serial Murder (2026) is the astonishing true story of an elusive serial killer, an escape plan like no other, and the women who lived and died on the fringes of the Lilac City for whom justice was at long last served.

About the author: Gregg Olsen is the #1 New York Times and Amazon Charts bestselling author of more than forty books, including If You Tell, Out of the Woods, The Amish Wife, I Know Where You Live, The Hive, Lying Next to Me, and The Last Thing She Ever Did; six novels in the Detective Megan Carpenter series; and The Sound of Rain and The Weight of Silence in the Nicole Foster series. His work has received critical acclaim, numerous awards, and prominence on the USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and New York Times bestseller lists. Washington state officially selected his young adult novel Envy for the National Book Festival, and The Deep Dark was named Idaho Book of the Year. The Amish Wife was a finalist for the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime. 

Born in Seattle, Olsen lives with his wife in rural Washington state and is already at work on his next book. Visit him at www.greggolsen.com.

Aging Out by Lucy Schiller

About the book: Aging Out: An Exploration of Caregiving, Community, and How Americans Grow Old is a deeply personal investigation into the current state of eldercare and what it means to grow old in America.

Unlike many other cultures, our collective stance toward older people in the United States has long been one of casual avoidance and neglect. This attitude became brutally clear during the height of the COVID pandemic, when too many people saw elderly deaths not as tragedies but as foregone conclusions.

Like many of us, Lucy Schiller experienced this callousness firsthand when her grandmother passed away during the pandemic. In the wake of this trauma, propelled by equal parts grief and curiosity about her own fear of aging, Schiller embarked on an investigative journey to understand why the prospect of aging is so frightening and how being "old" in America intersects with class, race, disability, and public policy.

From profit-driven networks of care facilities to systemic failures in economic support, the future of older Americans looks increasingly uncertain. In Aging Out, Schiller reports this crisis, sharing the human toll of inadequate housing, health care, and community, while simultaneously excavating her own complicated relationship with aging.

Combining the incisive reporting of Evicted with the beautifully rendered introspection of The Empathy Exams, Aging Out is an intimate and unflinching exploration of what it means to age in this country and why Americans - including Schiller herself - are so terrified of getting old.

Aging Out will be released on 14 July 2026.

About the author: Lucy Schiller is a nonfiction writer. Her work has been published at the Columbia Journalism Review, The New Yorker, The Iowa Review, West Branch, Speculative Nonfiction, DIAGRAM, and elsewhere. She was the Olive B O'Connor Fellow in Nonfiction at Colgate University (2020-2021) and the Provost's Visiting Writer in Nonfiction at the University of Iowa (2018-2019). She received her MFA from the University of Iowa's Nonfiction Writing Program, where she was an Iowa Arts Fellow.

Matchsticks And Rosary As Mnemonic Tools

In Minor Matters

Arctic Predator: The Crimes Of Edward Horne Against Children In Canada's North by Kathleen Lippa

About the book: Arctic Predator (2025) is the shocking crimes of a trusted teacher wrought lasting damage on Inuit communities in Canada’s Arctic.

In the 1970s, a young schoolteacher from British Columbia was becoming the darling of the Northwest Territories education department with his dynamic teaching style. He was learning to speak the local language, Inuktitut, something few outsiders did. He also claimed to be Indigenous — a claim that would later prove to be false. 

In truth, Edward Horne was a pedophile who sexually abused his male students.

From 1971 to 1985, his predations on Inuit boys would disrupt life in the communities where he worked — towns of close-knit families that would suffer the intergenerational trauma created by his abuse.

Journalist Kathleen Lippa, after years of research, examines the devastating impact the crimes had on individuals, families, and entire communities. Her compelling work lifts the veil of silence surrounding the Horne story once and for all. 

Arctic Predator is a Finalist in the 2026 Kobo Emerging Writer Prize (Nonfiction) and also a Finalist in the 2026 Brass Knuckles Award for Best Nonfiction Crime Book (Crime Writers of Canada).

About the author: Kathleen Lippa grew up in St John’s, Newfoundland. She has worked as a reporter at newspapers across Canada, and eventually served as Bureau Chief for Nunavut News/North in Iqaluit. She lives with her husband in Ottawa.

Lake Effect by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

About the book: From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Nest (2017), Lake Effect (2026) is a stunning new novel about adultery, first love and other family secrets.

It is 1977 and an air of restlessness has settled on the residents of Cambridge Road in Rochester, New York. When Nina Larkin is given a copy of The Joy of Sex by her newly divorced friend, she can no longer dismiss the nearly non-existent intimacy of her marriage. Just as her oldest child, Clara, is falling in love for the first time, Nina finds herself longing for the forbidden: a midlife awakening. An intoxicating fling with a neighbour brings Nina a freedom she never thought possible - but also risks the reputations of both families and unravels Clara’s world, just as she stands on the threshold of adulthood.

Years later Clara, now a successful food stylist in New York City, has never been able to move past the long-ago scandal. Drawn back home by the pull of a family wedding and wrestling with her own demons, she makes a pivotal decision that turns her life upside down.

Written with Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney’s signature humour and insight, Lake Effect (2026) is a wise and probing look at love and desire, mothers and daughters, loss and grief, and what we owe the people we love most.

About the author: Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney lives in Los Angeles with her husband and children. She has an MFA from Bennington.

Rating: 3/5

The Lake Club by Lina Patton

About the book: The Lake Club is a sizzling, soapy summer debut, in which two women in a wealthy lakeside suburb clash over a cute male nanny, pulling the town’s darker secrets to the surface.

When Danika Crawley attends events at the Aldon Lakes Country Club, heads turn. Danika has it all - beauty, money, a successful husband, and two perfect children. She plans on making this summer her best season yet and has a secret weapon to secure the envy of her neighbours.

Augie Elling has lost it all. Reeling from a post-grad scandal amidst her now-former life in New York, she returns to Aldon Lakes with her tail between her legs. Augie wants to keep her head down, save money, and find a way to leave her hometown for good, but someone keeps distracting her.

Danika and Augie have one thing in common: they are both a little obsessed with Chat, the male nanny Danika hired for the summer. But, unbeknownst to either woman, Chat’s appearance in town sets off a chain reaction that threatens Aldon Lakes' carefully maintained ecosystem. As the heat rises between the three of them, the truth behind a long-buried scandal comes to light, and everyone at the club must reckon with the consequences.

The Lake Club is both an addictive, rollicking beach read, and a stylish, deft exploration of a lesser-known region of American wealth.

The Lake Club is available for pre-order and will be released on 30 July 2026. 

About the author: Lina Patton is a writer, illustrator, and teacher. Originally from Maine, she moved to Minnesota at thirteen, trading the ocean for 10,000 lakes. She holds a BA from Elon University and an MFA from George Mason University. Her work has appeared in ELLE, The Cut, Narrative Magazine, and Driftwood Press, among others. After seven years living abroad, she and her husband currently reside in Washington, DC, with their two very good, very bad dogs. The Lake Club is her first novel.

Rating: 5/5

Little Wonder by Sophie Chen Keller

About the book: Song is a nobody - just a food delivery worker from a village in Northeast China - but her son, River, is a little wonder.

At the age of four, he toddles to a piano and taps out his favorite song. At eight, he masters Liszt’s three Liebestraume; at ten, he blazes through the complete set of Chopin’s études. And at every step, through the valleys of loss, illness, and poverty, Song is there to light his way, until finally, at the age of eleven, River is invited to study with a preeminent teacher in Beijing.

But in the chaos of Beijing Railway Station on the busiest day of the year, Song faces every mother’s nightmare: She loses her grip on River’s little hand and is unable to find him after a desperate, harrowing search.

Over the next days, weeks, and eventually, years, Song and River fight to forge a path back to each other as they carve out new lives that carry them farther apart. An evocative exploration of a mother’s love and a son’s yearning, Little Wonder takes us on an extraordinary journey through a modern Beijing that pulses with the music of humanity and its impossible - and impossibly brave - hopes.

As every musician knows: You start in one key. You wander to other keys, strange and distant places. But in the end, you always come back home.

Little Wonder (2026) is a powerful, heartbreaking story of hope, perseverance and love between a son and mother. The book will be released in the UK on 11 February 2027.

About the author: Sophie Chen Keller is the author of The Luster of Lost Things, which was also released in Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands. Her first publication came at the age of fifteen, with a short story in Glimmer Train literary magazine. A classically trained pianist, she was born in China and raised in California; after graduating from Harvard, she lived in New York City and Beijing before moving to Germany, where she currently resides with her husband and two children.

Strangers: A Memoir Of Marriage by Belle Burden

About the book: How do we go on when a loved one betrays us? 

More crucially, is it possible to truly know someone else, even in marriage?

On a chilly day in March of 2020, in the early days of the pandemic, Belle Burden’s husband of twenty years announced, with no prior warning, that he was leaving her.

His decision shocked Belle to her core: she believed he was a happy man, a committed partner, and a devoted father to their three children. She thought he was a man who had settled into the life he had always wanted: a successful career, summers spent at their beloved home on Martha’s Vineyard, lots of tennis.

Overnight, he transformed from her steady companion into a stranger.

As she pieces her life together in the wake of a loss she had never imagined coming, she finds she is much stronger than she ever expected. Belle reflects on her transformation from a shy, quiet girl, nicknamed ‘Belle the Good’ to a powerful, brave, determined woman. A woman who has learned to use her voice to expose the patriarchal structures that have forced women to be discreet and compliant for far too long.

Based on Belle’s popular ‘Modern Love’ essay, Was I Married to a Stranger?, Strangers:A Memoir of Marriage (2026) is the emotional and empowering memoir of self-discovery and what it means to finally be heard.

Strangers is the instant No 1 New York Times bestseller and after a bidding war, Netflix purchased rights to produce an adaptation of the book, starring and executive produced by Gwyneth Paltrow.

About the author: Belle Burden was born in New York City. She holds a BA from Harvard College and a law degree from NYU. Currently, she is a pro bono immigration lawyer specializing in juvenile cases. She lives with her children in New York City. 

I've Never Been Happier: Pedro Ballester Arenas by Jorge Boronat

About the book: Pedro Ballester Arenas died of osteosarcoma in Manchester at the age of 21 in 2018 but his life spoke volubly of a greatness beyond his years and of a life well lived. 

A few weeks before Pedro died, after three long years of treatment, chemotherapy, travel, spells in hospital, pain and suffering, Pedro was speaking with Tom, a 15-year-old boy who had decided to follow his vocation as a numerary in Opus Dei. Pedro asked him in a faint voice, "Are you happy?" "Yes, I am," Tom replied. And with great frankness, he put the same question to Pedro: "What about you?" Pedro smiled and said with conviction, "I've never been happier."

At his funeral, the now Cardinal Arthur Roche explained: "Pedro has touched the lives of many – and most without him knowing it – through his patient, faith-filled, happy and loving endurance during these last three years of an illness, which he bore uncomplainingly and with considerable courage and which has been both a witness to the beauty of life at whatever stage or condition and a great example and encouragement to all who were close to him... When Pedrito committed himself as a celibate lay member of Opus Dei, with that generosity which is so characteristic of youth, he could not have known how the Lord would call him to follow in His steps even to the sharing of His Cross and His Sacrifice for others. But we know, that as he rose each morning, even from his hospital bed when able, he kissed the ground and uttered the word of Michael the Archangel, serviam! – I will serve! And so he did, with great magnanimity, with patience and good humour."

I've Never Been Happier: Pedro Ballester Arenas (2023) brings together some memories of his parents and siblings, of family and friends, of those who knew him and lived with him, and who witnessed the adventure of a "Yes" to God until his last breath.

The Diocese of Salford (Manchester, United Kingdom) has formally opened Pedro's cause for beatification and canonisation, meaning that his life, writings and the testimonies of those who knew him will be thoroughly examined before having Pedro Ballester declared a saint. Following the opening of his cause, Pedro Ballester's grave in the Southern Cemetery in Manchester has become a site of pilgrimage. 

About the author: Reverend Jorge Boronat M.D. S.T.D is a Catholic priest from the Prelature of Opus Dei, working in the Archdiocese of Westminster in London. He is the Chaplain of Netherhall House and Ashwell House, university halls of residence. He also works in the parish of St Thomas More, Swiss Cottage, and has developed his pastoral ministry mainly with young people.