I can certainly echo your recommendation of "Fatherland." The history given of how this alternate future came about is certainly plausible - a minor tweak here and there to history, and the outcome is 180 degrees different. And the detective story is excellent. Don't want to give away anything to those who have yet to read it, other than to say I read it twice, and even knowing the outcome the second time around, it was a damn good read.
I had a similar experience last week when a coworker asked me what book I was taking to read on my lunch break. Her face went blank when I showed it to her—one on US Civil War dead and handling that challenge logistically, culturally, and spiritually in the mid-1860s (This Republic of Suffering, by Drew Gilpin Faust, 2009). It too is a page turner! Thanks for your summer recommendations.
Really appreciate the recommendations - The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad looks particularly fascinating! I'm very used to people being slightly baffled at the contents of my summer reading (last year one book which got me a few questions was 'Beyond The Wall', funnily enough). I think it's prepared me for this year, because I have 6 or 7 books on East Germany to get through for my a level history coursework. I'm really looking forward to it but I suspect that me pulling out some of them on holiday might raise a few bemused eyebrows.
Top choices Katja. And phew! I thought “oh dear my wish list is about to take a kicking.” But no, I have three of them already. I was fortunate to hear Jack Fairweather talk about his book The Prosecutor at a book festival in London (As an aside I had already encountered Bauer in a book called The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials 1963 - 1965, Devin Pendas, Cambridge UP 2011. A drier, less engaging academic account of the trial.) I picked up The Hiroshima Men at an event in Edinburgh, Iain gave a fascinating talk. The book is pretty much next off the TBR pile. I have been reading 38 Londres Street just this week, trying to make a dent in the aforementioned TBR pile. I’ll pop Generation GDR on the wish list. The only time I’ve had what might be called an odd reaction to book was when I picked up Diesseits der Mauer in Goerlitz. I think the young woman at the sales counter was about to lecture me; through the medium of technology I explained my German was poor and I knew you. That seemed to stop her. And in a coffee shop in Glasgow I was reading one of my 800 books on the Vietnam War. A member of staff noticed and asked me about the book and the war. Big mistake, huge! Again Katja top recommendations.
Just when I was getting on top of the book list to read , up pops another lot 🤣🤣, it’s great when you go off on a tangent, I’ve just picked up the hongerwinter about Hollands fight for food in 44 , the great enjoyment about our collective interests is there are always recommendations 👏👏👏, long may it continue
A very tempting selection Katja but you know space and time ,I do have The Hiroshima Men (member of the club) so that could be lined up as a holiday read .
I'm suprised you haven't picked up audio books yet given your profession. One of my posties seems to always have a book or a podcast on the go. But I guess you can't turn those upside down :)
Ha that's true ,I have tried the audio route I think it was Blood and Iron which was a great listen but I found it took an extra amount of concentration that regular pods don't require.
I went on a girls' beach weekend years ago and my beach read was "I, Claudius." That got some strange looks. If the others were reading at all, they were reading bodice-rippers.
Thank you so much for these helpful and wide ranging suggestions.
Perhaps readers will also be interested in my late life discovery of my grandfather's 1945 diaries which led to my history/memoir Api's Berlin Diaries. My Quest to Understand my Grandfather's Nazi Past.
Thanks for the book recommendations, and I’m especially interested in reading Generation GDR when it comes out. I would also recommend the book below, which I believe meets all of Katja’s criteria for a Hoyer Holiday Read. While the connection to German history may be vague, it will probably become more apparent if Chancellor Merz continues his revival of German militarism and weapons spending at the expense of other government services and the social safety net.
The most powerful book I’ve read this summer is "One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This" by Omar El Akkad. El Akkad was born in Egypt, raised in Qatar and Canada, and is now an American citizen and journalist who has covered several wars. This nonfiction book reminded me of Joseph Conrad’s controversial classic novel Heart of Darkness. Conrad critiques the brutality and hypocrisy of Western imperialism in the 19th century, specifically the racist greed of a Belgian trading company in the Congo, and his critique was updated by director Francis Ford Coppola in his 1979 film Apocalypse Now when he adapted Conrad’s plot to an American perspective on the Vietnam War.
El Akkad updates it yet again, this time critiquing the brutality of Western imperialism in the 21st century, specifically what he sees as the racist greed driving the 25-year-old “War on Terror” which, according to his reporting, is culminating in the IDF’s destruction and takeover of Gaza, under the mantra of eliminating terrorists. Even after the bombing deaths of tens of thousands of civilians, many of them women and children, El Akkad details how the ongoing brutality has left Western leaders strangely silent as they continue to provide financial and military support to the IDF, while Gazans continue to die from lack of food and medicine. At the same time, Western leaders loudly and justifiably condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Russian military’s brutal killing of civilians, while then continuing to attend global meetings and cultural events as if all this brutality was normal and unavoidable.
El Akkad provides his personal story of growing up and admiring and respecting Western values, but now he feels those humanitarian values have been hollowed out to serve an economic system that requires war for growth and profit. Whether you agree with his perspective or not, it’s a provocative and worthwhile read, and should challenge the beliefs of anyone who wants to make Western civilization better, rather than just looking away from, to use the words Conrad gives to the dying Kurtz, “The horror! The horror!”
I always wonder how women and children fare, and so I read Mothers in the Fatherland by Claudia Koonz. By the end I felt sick - women adapted to ultra - male domination in the various ways their social, religious, position gave them. No room to eke out any genuine freedom. At the time i read it I had young children. I could not have performed so as to stay alive in that society.
I read Fatherland on a plane from California to London not long after it came out. Unfortunately the lady sitting next to me thought it was 'more Nazi rubbish', but it isn't. It offers a plausible 'what if' alternative historical scenario. I don't read much fiction, but I find Harris to be a real page turner, his Munich is also worth reading (and, of course, Conclave).
I can certainly echo your recommendation of "Fatherland." The history given of how this alternate future came about is certainly plausible - a minor tweak here and there to history, and the outcome is 180 degrees different. And the detective story is excellent. Don't want to give away anything to those who have yet to read it, other than to say I read it twice, and even knowing the outcome the second time around, it was a damn good read.
I had a similar experience last week when a coworker asked me what book I was taking to read on my lunch break. Her face went blank when I showed it to her—one on US Civil War dead and handling that challenge logistically, culturally, and spiritually in the mid-1860s (This Republic of Suffering, by Drew Gilpin Faust, 2009). It too is a page turner! Thanks for your summer recommendations.
That does sound niche but fascinating!
Really appreciate the recommendations - The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad looks particularly fascinating! I'm very used to people being slightly baffled at the contents of my summer reading (last year one book which got me a few questions was 'Beyond The Wall', funnily enough). I think it's prepared me for this year, because I have 6 or 7 books on East Germany to get through for my a level history coursework. I'm really looking forward to it but I suspect that me pulling out some of them on holiday might raise a few bemused eyebrows.
Haha, be comforted by the notion that you're not alone :)
For me it's a book I want to go back too. The Origins Of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt. There's a new edition with two extra chapters.
I just watched this excellent documentary on PBS on Arendt. Not sure whether it's available outside the US, but give it a try: https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/hannah-arendt-documentary/36135/
Lots of wonderful film footage from late 1920s/early 30s Europe, plus abundant info on her.
Thank you Laura. I live in the UK, I will try and find it. Hannah Aren't is one of my favourite writers.
The PBS newsletter I got yesterday recommended this documentary. Looking forward to watching!
Top choices Katja. And phew! I thought “oh dear my wish list is about to take a kicking.” But no, I have three of them already. I was fortunate to hear Jack Fairweather talk about his book The Prosecutor at a book festival in London (As an aside I had already encountered Bauer in a book called The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials 1963 - 1965, Devin Pendas, Cambridge UP 2011. A drier, less engaging academic account of the trial.) I picked up The Hiroshima Men at an event in Edinburgh, Iain gave a fascinating talk. The book is pretty much next off the TBR pile. I have been reading 38 Londres Street just this week, trying to make a dent in the aforementioned TBR pile. I’ll pop Generation GDR on the wish list. The only time I’ve had what might be called an odd reaction to book was when I picked up Diesseits der Mauer in Goerlitz. I think the young woman at the sales counter was about to lecture me; through the medium of technology I explained my German was poor and I knew you. That seemed to stop her. And in a coffee shop in Glasgow I was reading one of my 800 books on the Vietnam War. A member of staff noticed and asked me about the book and the war. Big mistake, huge! Again Katja top recommendations.
Sounds like you're in for a summer of intense reading!
Always Katja.
Just when I was getting on top of the book list to read , up pops another lot 🤣🤣, it’s great when you go off on a tangent, I’ve just picked up the hongerwinter about Hollands fight for food in 44 , the great enjoyment about our collective interests is there are always recommendations 👏👏👏, long may it continue
That's the spirit!
A very tempting selection Katja but you know space and time ,I do have The Hiroshima Men (member of the club) so that could be lined up as a holiday read .
I'm suprised you haven't picked up audio books yet given your profession. One of my posties seems to always have a book or a podcast on the go. But I guess you can't turn those upside down :)
Ha that's true ,I have tried the audio route I think it was Blood and Iron which was a great listen but I found it took an extra amount of concentration that regular pods don't require.
I went on a girls' beach weekend years ago and my beach read was "I, Claudius." That got some strange looks. If the others were reading at all, they were reading bodice-rippers.
Thank you so much for these helpful and wide ranging suggestions.
Perhaps readers will also be interested in my late life discovery of my grandfather's 1945 diaries which led to my history/memoir Api's Berlin Diaries. My Quest to Understand my Grandfather's Nazi Past.
Gabrielle
I have read that book and enjoyed it.
Thanks for the book recommendations, and I’m especially interested in reading Generation GDR when it comes out. I would also recommend the book below, which I believe meets all of Katja’s criteria for a Hoyer Holiday Read. While the connection to German history may be vague, it will probably become more apparent if Chancellor Merz continues his revival of German militarism and weapons spending at the expense of other government services and the social safety net.
The most powerful book I’ve read this summer is "One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This" by Omar El Akkad. El Akkad was born in Egypt, raised in Qatar and Canada, and is now an American citizen and journalist who has covered several wars. This nonfiction book reminded me of Joseph Conrad’s controversial classic novel Heart of Darkness. Conrad critiques the brutality and hypocrisy of Western imperialism in the 19th century, specifically the racist greed of a Belgian trading company in the Congo, and his critique was updated by director Francis Ford Coppola in his 1979 film Apocalypse Now when he adapted Conrad’s plot to an American perspective on the Vietnam War.
El Akkad updates it yet again, this time critiquing the brutality of Western imperialism in the 21st century, specifically what he sees as the racist greed driving the 25-year-old “War on Terror” which, according to his reporting, is culminating in the IDF’s destruction and takeover of Gaza, under the mantra of eliminating terrorists. Even after the bombing deaths of tens of thousands of civilians, many of them women and children, El Akkad details how the ongoing brutality has left Western leaders strangely silent as they continue to provide financial and military support to the IDF, while Gazans continue to die from lack of food and medicine. At the same time, Western leaders loudly and justifiably condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Russian military’s brutal killing of civilians, while then continuing to attend global meetings and cultural events as if all this brutality was normal and unavoidable.
El Akkad provides his personal story of growing up and admiring and respecting Western values, but now he feels those humanitarian values have been hollowed out to serve an economic system that requires war for growth and profit. Whether you agree with his perspective or not, it’s a provocative and worthwhile read, and should challenge the beliefs of anyone who wants to make Western civilization better, rather than just looking away from, to use the words Conrad gives to the dying Kurtz, “The horror! The horror!”
I always wonder how women and children fare, and so I read Mothers in the Fatherland by Claudia Koonz. By the end I felt sick - women adapted to ultra - male domination in the various ways their social, religious, position gave them. No room to eke out any genuine freedom. At the time i read it I had young children. I could not have performed so as to stay alive in that society.
I read Fatherland on a plane from California to London not long after it came out. Unfortunately the lady sitting next to me thought it was 'more Nazi rubbish', but it isn't. It offers a plausible 'what if' alternative historical scenario. I don't read much fiction, but I find Harris to be a real page turner, his Munich is also worth reading (and, of course, Conclave).