Book trends summer 2023
5 non-fiction books that are anything but boring
© Dudarev Mikhail / Adobe Stock
If you take our summer favorites with you to the beach, the balcony or the outdoor pool: make sure you have enough sunscreen. Because these books are so exciting, funny and touching that you forget everything around you!
Siddhartha Mukherjee – The Song of the Cell
Siddhartha Mukherjee is a practicing oncologist and a Pulitzer Prize-winning distinguished science writer. He writes well-founded and detailed, quite complex, about medical connections – but in such a way that as a layman you can not only follow, but read page after page spellbound and want to know how it goes on. And that in a tome that revolves around all aspects of the (human) cell: the discovery and research throughout history, how organs and new life develop, how our immune system works, where diseases come from – and how they, maybe, can heal in the future. All of this goes very far beyond high school knowledge, but effortlessly. And in the end you also understand what the eponymous “song” is: what an interplay. Ü: Sebastian Vogel, 672 pages, 32.99 euros, Ullstein
Kathrin Böhning-Gaese, Friederike Bauer – On the Disappearance of Species
What is the biggest environmental problem of the many that we have? A biodiversity researcher and a journalist objectively describe the catastrophic consequences of our excessive use of land. They explain connections in the ecosystem, how we are depriving ourselves of our livelihood with the decline of nature – and why the situation is serious but not hopeless. 256 p., 22 euros, Klett-Cotta
Laura Agusti – Tale of a Cat
This beautifully designed volume is an early Christmas present for all kitty fans: The Spaniard Laura Agusti writes about the 17 years with her Siamese cat Oye, but above all she illustrates masterfully on every page. There is also some practical information, for example which plants are poisonous for cats or what you have to consider when adopting a second cat. A feast for the eyes. Tr: Anja Rüdiger, 160 pages, 29 euros, Thiele
Felix Lee – China, my father and me
The journalist Felix Lee grew up in Wolfsburg; his father, who had to flee from China to Taiwan as a child, first lived on the streets there and later came to Germany as a student, was a manager at VW. Here Lee writes about his family and incidentally tells the recent history of a country full of contradictions and its rapid development into an economic power. A political book and a personal book. Strong. 256 p., 22 euros, Ch. Links Verlag
Uta Seeburg – How do you eat a mammoth?
And why was roast swan the ultimate feast in mid-17th century Europe? How was Toast Hawaii able to conquer German kitchens, why is Indian curry so hot and why was molecular gastronomy invented in the 1990s? In 50 chapters, dishes take you through the world and human history in an entertaining and surprising way. 256 pages, 22 euros, Dumont