5 book tips for the deckchair
Vacation time is reading time. After all, idle hours on the beach, on the balcony or in the garden are ideal for browsing through a book or two undisturbed. We have selected five book tips for you – from non-fiction to thrillers.
Book tip #1: The tyranny of the minority. Why American democracy is on the brink and what we can learn from it
The future of democracy is not only at stake in the US elections, but also in many other countries, even in Europe. Steven Levitsky, Professor of Latin American Studies and Government at Harvard University, and Daniel Ziblatt, Professor of Government at Harvard, get to the bottom of this development in their new book. Using the USA as an example, the authors of the bestseller “How Democracies Die” use numerous examples to show how the forces that shake democratic principles to their foundations and pave the way for authoritarian tendencies arise and when and why political parties turn against democracy. For example, they describe the great paradox of Western democracies, namely the fact that inclusivity and diversity often generate exclusionary counter-movements. At the same time, however, they also show how these trends can be recognized and counteracted at an early stage.
Steven Levitsky, Daniel Ziblatt: The Tyranny of the Minority. Why American democracy is on the brink and what we can learn from it. Translated by Klaus-Dieter Schmidt, 352 pages, DVA, 2024. ISBN 978-3-421-07003-6
Book tip #2: Mother Earth and her daughters. Why we need to unleash the power of women for a better world
With her book “Mother Earth and Her Daughters”, Sevilay Wilhelm, founder of BeyondEqual, follows in the tradition of ecofeminism, which was founded in the 1970s and is currently experiencing a resurgence, and which assumes that the exploitation of the earth and the exploitation of women have the same cause – patriarchal structures. In her stirring appeal, the author describes what is needed to finally allow female potential to blossom. Accompanied by photos and illustrations, she takes readers along on her adventure in a male-dominated world, which leads her not only to the floors of international high finance, but also back to the apricot fields of her eastern Anatolian homeland. On her trip, Wilhelm also visits five female founders that she supports and presents their green business models.
Sevilay Wilhelm: Mother Earth and her daughters. Why we need to unleash the power of women for a better world. 208 pages, Scorpio Verlag, 2024. ISBN 978-3-95803-596-6
Book tip #3: The last dream
Film director Pedro Almodóvar has now, at the age of 74, joined the ranks of authors and published a collection of stories entitled “The Last Dream”. Almodòvar writes in his foreword that he saw himself and wrote as a writer from an early age. The twelve stories, which he sees as a complement to his film work, are about birds of paradise and singers, about strokes of fate and radical breaks, about abysses, but also about the beauty of life. Last but not least, Almodóvar’s literary debut also contains autobiographical texts such as the story that gives the film its title.
Pedro Almodóvar: The Last Dream. Translated by Angelica Ammar. 224 pages, Verlag S. Fischer, 2024. ISBN 978-3-10-397569-7
Book tip #4: White spots
In her latest novel, Lene Albrecht takes readers to Africa, or more precisely to Togo. A young woman, Ellen, travels to Togo with a recording device and the task of researching the causes of flight and migration. On site, she meets people who tell her about themselves: a seamstress who avoided deportation from Germany, a young man who struggles with his work in an orphanage, and the librarian who draws her attention to the Europeans who populate the country like ghosts. She increasingly doubts her role in the country and begins to question her own family: Why did an uncle go to Nigeria and become wealthy there? Why did her great-great-grandfather only bring one of his three children from Panama to Germany? Why does she know so little about her great-grandmother Benedetta?
Lene Albrecht: White spots. 256 pages, Verlag S. Fischer, 2024. ISBN 978-3-10-397538-3
Book tip #5: When she lies
To round off our 5 book tips, we have a thriller. After “Das Loft” and “Die Verborgenen”, bestselling author Linus Geschke published his latest thriller at the end of May: In “Wenn sie lügt”, Goran embarks on a journey into the past: after almost 20 years, he returns to his hometown in the Thuringian Forest to help his best friend. Norah has recently started receiving threatening letters that sound as if they come from her childhood sweetheart David. But wasn’t he killed almost 20 years ago while on the run – shortly after killing a couple in a remote parking lot? To find out what is behind the letters, Goran has to delve into the past. Norah’s, but also his own.
Linus Geschke: When she lies. 416 pages, published by Piper, 2024. ISBN 978-3-492-06486-6
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