What happens, when an Israeli writer and a Palestinian journalist meet? Will personalized robots be the love interest of the future? And how is life on the Mexican side of the fence?
24 times this Advent we open up to a new topic - stories to laugh, to wonder and to rethink, stories from Berlin, from distant continents and from Middle-earth. And 24 times every hotel guest gets the chance to win - just have a look at the reception and see if maybe you can take today’s book home.
To everyone else we recommend the bookstore Leseglück (= happy reading) in Kreuzberg – here you will not only find delicious cappuccinos, a lot of passion for reading and selected books from small publishers, but also a piece of real Berlin that is not to be found in any travel guide. All books can also be ordered online and sent to your home.
Happy holidays and cozy days,
The Book of Legendary Lands
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In the tradition of his acclaimed History of Beauty, On Ugliness, and The Infinity of Lists, renowned writer and cultural critic Umberto Eco leads us on a beautifully illustrated journey through these lands of myth and invention, showing us their inhabitants, the passions that rule them, their heroes and antagonists, and, above all, the importance they hold for us.
Die Nacht war bleich, die Lichter blinkten
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Berlin, in a near future. The city is pulsating thanks to the Hubot industry: robotics companies create artificial partners that are indistinguishable from real people; every kind of desire for a relationship is achievable, unrestricted private happiness and the complete abolition of loneliness are on the verge of becoming reality. But the number of suicides has increased tenfold. Language: German
This Is Not A Drill
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Extinction Rebellion are inspiring a whole generation to take action on climate breakdown. Now you can become part of the movement - and together, we can make history. It's time. This is our last chance to do anything about the global climate and ecological emergency. Our last chance to save the world as we know it.
Deutschland, ein Wirtschaftsmärchen
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Germany is rich, but the common explanations are wrong. So was the German reunification supposedly incredibly expensive. In fact, she has not tasted a penny. It's time to say goodbye to the legends. Otherwise we will miss our future. Language: German
Who the Fuck Is Kafka
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From the beginning, it is a complex friendship that develops between the Israeli writer Lizzie Doron and the Arab-Palestinian journalist Nadim, accompanied by prejudice and lack of understanding. There are limits to understanding. Lizzie carries the Holocaust, Nadim the Nakba - the great catastrophe - as the Palestinians call the consequences of the '48 war. They realize that they live in the same mental home, only in different closed compartments.
100 Karten, die deine Sicht auf die Welt verändern
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Sometimes we have to change our perspective to better understand the world. The reality is not black and white, it is complicated. Germany is full? In fact, the entire world population fits comfortably in the northern part of Saxony-Anhalt. Russia invades everywhere? There are only 22 countries in the world that the British have never sent their army into. Language: German
Factfulness
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Too many people have a completely distorted, usually all-too-dark picture of the world. This view affects not only their thinking, but also their actions. But Hans Rosling shows: facts help. 'A hopeful book about the potential for human progress when we work off facts rather than our inherent biases', says Barack Obama.
Aya: Love in Yop City
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At the end of the 1970s on the Ivory Coast, young Aya studies medicine - against the will of her father, an avid proponent of traditional gender roles. But machos do not only occur in the best families, unfortunately they do not stop at the haven of the mind. And so Aya has to ward off the intrusions of her biology professor at the university.
Americanah
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A love story between three continents - Chimamanda Adichie tells of the love between Ifemelu and Obinze, which takes place in Nigeria in the nineties. Then their ways separate: The self-confident Ifemelu studies in Princeton, Obinze stranded as an illegal immigrant in London. After years, they suddenly face a decision that turns their lives upside down.
Die Politik sind wir!
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These are the two major challenges of our time: the crisis of liberal democracy and the looming ecological collapse. What if they have more to do with each other than we think? In his political essay, Raphael Glucksmann paints a razor-sharp portrait of Western society.
Handeln statt hoffen
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Sea watch captain Carola Rackete made the courageous decision to head to the port of Lampedusa with 40 Mediterranean-rescued refugees aboard - despite the prohibition of the Italian Ministry of the Interior. The captain became known overnight - and a role model for those who no longer want to see how the salvation of human lives is systematically prevented. Language: German
Mein Skandinavisches Viertel
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The »Scandinavian Quarter« is a residential area in the extreme northwest of Berlin - Prenzlauer Berg. In Communist GDR times it was located directly on the Berlin Wall, separated from the west of the city by the border crossing Bornholmer Straße. Writer Torsten Schulz strolls through the neighborhood and tells of history and present. Language: German
Alles könnte anders sein
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Today no one believes that our children will do better. Does it have to be that way? It does not have to! The sociologist and proven future architect Harald Welzer designs us a good, a possible future. Instead of just criticizing or complaining, he thinks about what a good future might look like: in realistic scenarios, he sketches concrete visions of the future, e.g. in the areas of work, mobility, digitization, urban living and dealing with migration. Language: German
The Arab of the Future
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Brimming with life and dark humour, The Arab of the Future reveals the truth and texture of one eccentric family in an absurd Middle East.
Der kleine Bruder
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Berlin-Kreuzberg, November 1980: In the shadow of the wall thrives a parallel universe full of artists, squatters, bar owners, pub visitors, dogs and punks, beer, opinions, traitor pigs - everything is there. Only one thing is missing: someone who thinks things through properly - Frank Lehmann from Bremen. Language: German
On the Plain of Snakes
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Nogales is a border town caught between Mexico and the United States of America. A forty-foot steel fence runs through its centre, separating the prosperous US side from the impoverished Mexican side. It is a fascinating site of tension, now more than ever, as the town fills with hopeful border crossers and the deportees who have been caught and brought back. And it is here that Paul Theroux will begin his journey into the culturally rich but troubled heart of modern Mexico.
Falter
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The most urgent call-to-arms yet for us to solve climate change, from one of the world's most influential and respected environmental advocates.
Brazen
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With her characteristic wit and dazzling drawings, celebrated graphic novelist Bagieu profiles the lives of these feisty female role models, some world famous, some little known. From Nellie Bly to Mae Jemison, the stories in this comic biography are sure to inspire the next generation of rebel ladies.
Flight of the Butterflies
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Japan during the Edo period ... In Maruyama district in Nagasaki, a famous courtesan and a seriously ill man meet - the beginning of a romantic-dramatic love story set against the backdrop of an enchanting and confusing contemporary social image. Vivid, fast, realistic and humorous, Takahama captures the idea of love and freedom and tells a story of high entertainment value in powerful images.
Guns, Germs, and Steel
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Guns, Germs, and Steel chronicles the way that the modern world came to be and stunningly dismantles racially based theories of human history. Author Jared Diamond convincingly argues that geographical and environmental factors shaped the modern world. Societies that had had a head start in food production advanced beyond the hunter-gatherer stage, and then developed religion - as well as nasty germs and potent weapons of war - and adventured on sea and land to conquer and decimate preliterate cultures.
Tunnel 57
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Berlin in 1964: 57 people manage to escape East Germany by digging a now legendary tunnel to the West. Graphic Novel in German language
Russian Disco
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Born in Moscow, Wladimir Kaminer emigrated to Berlin in the early '90s when he was 22. Russian Disco is a series of short and comic autobiographical vignettes about life among the émigrés in the explosive and extraordinary multi-cultural atmosphere of '90s Berlin. It's an exotic, vodka-fuelled millennial Goodbye to Berlin. The stories show a wonderful, innocent, deadpan economy of style reminiscent of the great humorists.
Measuring the World
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Measuring the World recreates the parallel but contrasting lives of two geniuses of the German Enlightenment - the naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt and the mathematician and physicist Carl Friedrich Gauss. Towards the end of the 18th century, these two brilliant young Germans set out to measure the world.
Before They Pass Away
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Epic pictures of centuries old traditions and cultures. British Photographer Jimmy Nelson captures the lifestyle of the last remaining people who keep their traditions in a globalised world.
