New books for winter 2024: These are our book tips
The long summer nights with parties are over? Now we snuggle up on the sofa, in our reading corner and browse through our favorite books with a good cup of tea. Hannah Madlener, Katharina Walser and Ursula Schmied from the GLAMOR editorial team introduce you to the best books that you should definitely add to your Tbr (to be read) pile!
The best books and book tips for winter 2024
No matter whether you prefer feminist manifestos, absurd dramas or funny scenes about chicks, kitsch and glamourwould like? in oursfor winter 2024, you will find a little bit of everything.
Hannah's book tips for the winter:
?Empathy and resistance? by Kristina Lunz
This is tough stuff: in ?empathy and resistance? Author Kristina Lunz reflects on what activism can look like and what it should look like. She shares her own opinion and also confronts us with controversial views that the mainstream certainly cannot completely agree with. I always catch myself how quickly I form an opinion and how adamant I can be when you think you know all sides. I also faced my own internalized misogyny in the things I sometimes thought.
The most important thing in activism: empathy. But empathy has to be reflected again and again. Who are we empathetic towards and who are we not? And why? But empathy must also have limits. When someone acts completely contrary to their own values or is in a position of great power, their level of empathy must be questioned. The essayistic book is not an easy Sunday read? And I don't share some of the author's opinions. Nevertheless, they made me think. And in winter that's okay when it's just as stormy inside as it is outside.
?Empathy and resistance? by Kristina Lunz
?Lies we tell ourselves? by Anne Freytag
What does it actually mean to be a woman? What does it mean to be a mother, a daughter or a wife? Also ?lies we tell ourselves? by Anne Freytag is not an easy read. We are confronted with questions that we have probably all asked ourselves at some point, especially: What if? What if Helene had left her husband for Alex back then? Then she wouldn't have to stand there and hear her husband leave her for someone else. What else is Helene now?
The novel hurt? in a good way. I love books that hurt me. I'm neither a mother nor a wife, but I can identify with people who look happy on the outside but are completely exhausted on the inside. Helene seems cold and unloving at first, but there is a big storm inside her. The novel is written very poetically, perhaps a bit long-winded in some places, but ultimately a nice punch in the gut.
?Lies we tell ourselves? by Anne Freytag
?Hey good morning, how are you?? by Martina Hefter
Our protagonist Juno is just like us. When she wants to escape her everyday life, she opens her cell phone. But instead of mindlessly thinking about itfeed, as I would sometimes do, she opens her messages straight away. “Hey good morning, how are you?” writes Jimmy Taylor_354. A love scammer, Juno is sure of it. They write to you until you fall in love, and then they want money. But Juno sees through the scammers and uses them as a kind of interactive diary, a performance in which she imagines new characters and tells the guys her unfiltered thoughts.
In her real life, Juno is a performance artist and at the same time takes care of her sick husband Jupiter, who is in a wheelchair. Between her caregiving duties, household chores, and work, she writes with men. An escape. But of course this can't go well for long.
The novel is no longer an insider tip, and Martina Hefter won the German Book Prize for it in 2024. Nevertheless, I can only recommend him. In terms of style, it reminds me a bit of Ottessa Moshfegh's "My Year of Rest and Relaxation". reminiscent: poetic, melancholic and slightly absurd. The text message inserts break up the novel again and again, making it relatively easy to read (also because of its manageable length)? even if the topic is not exactly easy.
?Hey good morning, how are you?? by Martina Hefter
Katharina's book tips for the winter:
?Pleasure? by Jovana Reisinger
That education, money and evenare unequally distributed in our society, and some people are probably aware of this by now. But what about the beautiful things in life? With the right to be lazy, the designer fudge, the slurping of oysters, the luxury of a hotel bed? Is this just for the so-called upper class? Not if Jovana Reisinger has her way, who works with ?Pleasure? wrote a small manifesto for all kinds of luxurytransuntil sleep. In doing so, she also talks about her own social background? about how she felt like a “tavern child”. moving between all the luxury, masking and playing with the codes of the so-called elite. Luxury for everyone, that could be the main message of the book, but there are a whole lot of other messages to discover: fashion is a game, we finally need a tax on the rich, women must be respected regardless of the length of their skirt? and rhinestones are better than sequins.
?Pleasure? by Jovana Reisinger
?Everything in between, beyond? by Maë Schwinghammer
Maë's debut is about ? as the title suggests? all about the in-between. The self of the text, whose name is Michael at the beginning, moves between nationalities, between classes and between gender identities. But also between a strongly separated, autistic inside and the outside world with which Michael cannot communicate. Michael is diagnosed with perceptual and language disorders because the hurdle between self and others cannot be bridged with words. Instead, the mother becomes a bridge and translates. It is the path of finding one's self in the world that Maë's novel is about, which repeatedly veers into the poetic when the self's attempts to find language as well as finding a name are depicted almost graphically. Because Michael, the I knows, is not the right name.
?Everything in between, beyond? by Maë Schwinghammer
?Hot Mess? von Sophie White
Can friendships grow with us? And if so, how is that supposed to work when our paths in life keep moving away from each other, everyday life seems to eat up all our time and we sometimes don't manage to respond to a WhatsApp message for days? That's exactly what "Hot Mess" is all about, which stands out because of the pretty cool title alone. Readers meet Lexi, Claire and Joanne from three perspectives? three school friends? and get insights into very different lives, but also questions that connect them: how does adult friendship work? Can we still find new friends after we turn 30? What does a child do with one?? What does a child do with group dynamics that revolve around partying? Why do we feel in?sometimes lonely? And: When has the point come when you have to let go of a friendship? A must-read for women over 30? and everyone who wants to become one.
?Hot Mess? von Sophie White
Ursula's book tips for the winter:
?Sorry, but?? by Tara-Louise Wittwer
Do you constantly apologize for everything, just out of reflex? Fine, then you're like about 80 percent of all women. Without thinking, and without there being much of a reason for it, a sorry slips from our lips. Author and influencer Tara-Louise Wittwer is no longer interested in that. In her second essayistic non-fiction book, she questions why women constantly apologize. To discharge a debt? To make others feel better? And what does social media have to do with it?
Tara-Louise hits the mark for me. She explains in a humorous voice and really makes you think. Overall, of course, it is written in popular science. I read a lot of non-fiction books and sometimes that can annoy me? However, I also know that this makes it an easy introduction for all readers, and that is important with a topic like this.
?Sorry, but?? by Tara-Louise Wittwer
?Two in one life? by David Nicholls
Marnie and Michael don't know each other. However, through a mutual acquaintance, they become part of a hiking crew that wants to go hiking in the English Lake District. The two are divorced and are rather loners: Michael has had an unpleasant divorce, the reason being that the marriage had no children. And Marnie? Marnie has isolated herself in her apartment and therefore her home office in London during Covid. She has become shy of people and doesn't really know whether she wants to have an active social life again.
The fellow hikers drop out, and so Michael and Marnie, as different as they are, unexpectedly find themselves together on a long hike from the west to the east coast of England. They get closer, but Michael doesn't play with open cards and hurts Marnie. After this betrayal, she grows beyond herself and rises like a phoenix from the ashes (and back on the train to London and into a fulfilling life). Does Michael understand what he screwed up? And does Marnie even need Michael to live a happy and self-fulfilled life? This is what the “Two in One Day” author David Nicholls reveals in his new book, which, among other things, shows how hiking can cleanse, calm and grow your own head and spirit.
?Two in one life? by David Nicholls
