The new star is published every week with the latest bestsellers: once a month we also present the books reviewed in the print edition online.
It is a bit surprising that so many people still buy “real” reading material despite increasing digitization. On the other hand, it is also a good sign that so many readers still appreciate a good book. For this reason, you will also find the stern orderers for the print editions, which are published every Thursday, online in the future. The new May titles are presented below.
“Freedom for All” by Richard David Precht
Yes, it is quite a slab that the philosopher is presenting here: 539 pages about the great upheaval in our working world. The subject could certainly have been treated a third shorter. But when Precht gets started, it usually has to be the big picture, the whole picture. He doesn’t do it below. This tome is worth reading though. Because the questions that Precht asks (and answers from his point of view) affect us all. Digitization will dramatically change our working world and all of our lives. There will no longer be work for everyone in the traditional sense. But can we manage the transformation into what Precht calls “society of meaning”? Here is the book.
“Oxen. Noctis” von Jens Henrik Rensen
The murderer of this new Oxen crime thriller ponders this “circular cross-section of the moment”, which is scaled “with the help of the best prisms (…) from the Schmidt company, while looking through the rifle scope
“Affenwärme” by Volker Klüpfel and Michael Kobr
In episode twelve of this regional crime series, Commissioner Kluftinger is supposed to greet the Bavarian Prime Minister at an event and, on the advice of a colleague, simply imagines him naked so as not to be so “jittery”. He looks down at his country father and babbles: “…at the moment we even have six, so not sex, I mean, not what you think, but just… departments. You also have quite a long… thing, what do I want to say now, zefix … had access route.” Well… It’s getting more and more unbelievable, even a disappointed fan writes in his online review, “what an infantile idiot this commissioner… is supposed to be”. Even if culture editors are a bit skeptical about user reviews, we have to admit: you can just leave it as it is. Here is the book.
“Tomorrow may come” by Ildikó von Kürthy
As many of her readers know, the esteemed author of Kürthy comes from the Rhineland. People there say about other people who are a little more casual with their schedules: “Kiss de hück nit, kiss de morje.” But it has nothing to do with kissing, it means: If you don’t come today, you’ll come tomorrow. Kürthy’s title suits this quite well, even if the book has nothing to do with Rhenish procrastination, but rather with precrastination, i.e. the endeavor to do as much as possible immediately: Come on, dear tomorrow, I’m expecting you with a ticked to-do list. What type are you: pro or pre? We here in the cozy feuilleton look at the Elbe through our corridor window, postpone our deadlines and think of James Bond: Tomorrow never dies. Here is the book.
“Straight on a crooked path” by Lisa Federle
“Phew.” You watch some people like that and you think, a little worried and a little skeptical: “Phew, how do you do that?” Lisa Federle is such a person, you read the blurb of her book (emergency doctor, work for refugees and the homeless, sports initiative for young people) and get hectic spots. Then you read on in the book (early death of the father, difficult emancipation from a strict family home, high school with three, medical school with four children) and notice how concern turns into sincere admiration and (admittedly: envious) skepticism into a large portion of respect. Only there “”Phew, how do you do that?” stupidly stays that way. Type question, maybe. See column at left. Here is the book.
“Blutland” by Kim Faber and Janni Pedersen
Janni Pedersen and Kim Faber are Danish journalists and are also married to each other. Janni works as a crime reporter, Kim writes for the daily newspaper “Politikken”. So you’d think these two would deal with the serious side of life enough at work. Instead, they also write dark thrillers, apparently at night and on vacation. “Blutland” is her third after “Winterland” and “Todland”. In it, the investigative duo has to deal with a density of atrocities that probably corresponds roughly to that which Pedersen and Faber also work through in their editorial offices. We recommend a little news hygiene for a slightly brighter view of the world. Maybe the two of them will soon write a nice romance novel. Here is the book.
“The Crazy World of Physics” by Ulrich Walter
It’s almost 20 years since Prof. Dr. Ulrich Walter was traveling in space with the “Columbia”. Since then, the Iserlohn-born physicist, who heads the chair for space technology at the Technical Elite University in Munich, has been explaining how the world works in articles, books and on television. Here we learn, for example, why the earth is blue, what a fuel cell can do and how soccer results can be calculated (we know better: Bayern always wins in the end). In the foreword, Walter reflects enlighteningly on the nature of science. And writes a sentence that many narrow-minded people should currently staple to the wall: “Any simple explanation of our complicated world cannot be right.” Here is the book.
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