Brave New World by Aldous Huxley: This was one weird book. I listened to it and it definitely didn’t keep my attention while walking around. It worked better during cooking. The imagined world is one where the masses are conditioned to be happy by copious amounts of drugs and sex. There is still an order to society with alphas leading and deciding on what’s good for the rest. It gets a bit more exciting when a ‘savage’, someone from outside, questions the system. Overall it bored me though.
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood: After seeing the series I still decided to read the book. Or rather I listened while Claire Danes read it to me. What a powerful and thought-provoking book which has already a couple of years on the shelf. Still, I find it is more relevant than ever with politics taking a turn for the worse. Times have changed since I was young. I never believed a ministry for female affaires was necessary and now I find they do not enough. In a world like the one in the Handmaid’s Tale I would not be allowed to read! Let that be our warning!
Im Meer schwimmen Krokodile (Eine wahre Geschichte) by Fabio Geda: This is the story of an unaccompanied minor who manages to make his way from Afghanistan to Italy in the span of 7 years. Told in his own words his tale talks of terror, woes, laughter and unspeakable luck. How to survive all this and still come across as positive optimistic person? This book gives the impersonal immigrant a face, a name, a story. Not all of them come to Europe to relax in a hammock and claim social security. Although politicians tell us time and again that this is the only reason. Some just want to survive and have a decent living. The simplicity of his words has a haunting and touching effect.
After Ever Happy (The After Series, Band 4) by Anna Todd: the last book in the ‘After’ series and by far not the worst. I liked that the heroine finally got her sh*t together and moved on (kind of) from this toxic relationship. It took her only three and a half books which must mean around a 1000 pages or so. Not that I was counting. There is this big message of forgiveness, healing and change which is actually not as bad as it sounds. I’m a sucker for a happy end and after hating book 3, I am happy I stuck with the series and got what I wanted. A fulfilling end.
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