Some books were really hard work, others were a bit of a dance and a few we put aside without reading. Some books have given us an ‘aha’ moment or a brilliant thought, and you will find statements about them below:
Martin Kornberger: Strategies for Distributed and Collective Action: Connecting the Dots
My grandfather has already told me the story of the 18th camel, which can be found right in the intro. And so I pick up the book with a happy smile on my face. However, the light-heartedness disappears very quickly. It is a very thorough, scientific book. It brings forth new ways of thinking that can help us ‘understand forms of open, networked and plural organisation of collaboration’. A book that evokes new thoughts and inspires thinking and creating in new directions.
Pascal Mercier: Perlmann‘s Silence
It is a dark, tough book. And yet it is a brilliant description of human abysses and the total overload of dealing with supposed expectations.
Philip Perlmann is a renowned professor of linguistics who meets up with other linguists in Italy. The highlight of this conference is supposed to be his lecture. Unfortunately, he has nothing more to say to the world. His inner struggles are described in minute detail and how he almost loses his over what he sees as a hopeless situation.
Sabine Kügler: Ich schwimme nicht mehr da, wo die Krokodile sind (I no longer swim where the crocodiles are)
For our holiday in Vanuatu, I wanted to find out more about the local culture and, above all, about the way of life and way of thinking of the traditional tribes. Through a radio interview with Sabine Kügler, I came across her book and her descriptions of her time in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. And so the book introduces us to a way of life unknown to many in the western world. In addition to the many fascinating descriptions of the jungle and its inhabitants, I find the way Kügler describes the training of her senses extremely impressive. It’s unbelievable what is possible and how different our ‘training’ looks.
No English edition
Another book form Sabine Kügler available in English: Child of the Jungle: The True Story of a Girl Caught Between Two Worlds
Thomas Piketty: Capital in the Twenty-First Century
It was really hard work, and I made a plan right from the start to finish the nearly 1,300 pages in a reasonable amount of time.
And it was only possible because it’s a great book. It dispels the idea that inequality is a natural reality. On the contrary, it shows how inequality is ‘logically’ explained again and again. The world-historical stocktaking leads to a ‘bold design of a new and just economic system’. I am enthusiastic about people like Piketty who show that fairer systems are possible.
Jason Hickel: Less is More, How Degrowth Will Save the World
A very attentive and critical participant in a workshop recommended this book to me. Knowing that it is quite controversial, I set out to read it. I can well understand that this book attracts many critics. At the same time, it is another valuable contribution to the rethinking of a a post-capitalist and balanced economic world. Or how the economy, society and the environment can achieve a balance without being based on the maxim of growth. A revolution in thinking, consistently thought through, historically grounded and undoubtedly material for in-depth, evening-long discussions.
Liane Moriarty: Here one Moment
Would you like to know when and why you’re going to die? Cherry, a 60-plus-year-old passenger and alleged clairvoyant, is on a flight from Hobart to Sydney. She doesn’t ask this question — she tells all her fellow passengers the date and reason for their death without being asked — and she doesn’t stop at children either.
What would it do to you if a stranger told you, unsolicited, that you would die within a year from an accident at work? Or that you would die of a heart attack when you were over 90? Would you believe it? Behave differently than before? Moriarty describes a seemingly unreal confrontation with the irrevocable realities of life in a bizarrely suspenseful and deeply human way, confronting and empathetic at the same time. For me, it was just the right book to mark my own milestone birthday.
Ulrich Schnabel: Zusammen: Wie wir mit Gemeinsinn globale Krisen bewältigen (Together: How we overcome global crises with a sense of community)
Public spirit is at the heart of this book. It is about strengthening solidarity without giving up individuality. It shows what community action depends on and how much structures promote courageous behaviour or not. The author underlines his thoughts with practical, concrete examples.
For me, this is a book that encourages healthy economic behaviour and reads like a sociable novel.
No English edition
