"So... what kind of genre do you like?... is the question I absolutely dread, because my genre is "let's watch this fucker commit atrocities in the next 90 minutes and also this nature documentary". How am I supposed to give you a recommendation there - how are you supposed to give me a rec!!!
Anyways, I really, really, wholeheartedly tried to categorise all these recommendations (some coming from me, some coming from others) for you to click through! Have fun <3
Non-Fiction: Marine Biology
| Title | Author | Comment | ISBN |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wenn Haie Leuchten ★★★★★ |
Julia Schnetzer | This book came about at the very beginning of my obsession with marine life, letting it hold a special place in my heart. It's a wonderful book about bioluminescence, biofluorescence, perception of fish, sharks (obviously) and jellyfish. The writing is easily digestible, very beginner-friendly but also holds some specials for people who know a bit more. I loved every bit of it. | 978-3-4462-6947-7 |
| Im Fokus: Meereswelten ★★★★★ |
Podbregar and Lohmann | Written in a pop science way but with more attention to the scientific (as is the nature of most all Springer books). I found it very easily digestible as well and very interesting, especially to those who know a bit already about marine life. It also has a really cool section about hydrothermal springs, I loved that one. Access via institution | 978-3-6423-7720-4 |
| Octopus, Squid, and Cuttlefish [...] ★★★★★ |
Hanlon, Vecchione, Allcock | An amazing catalogue of squid from around the world - including pictures of many species, habitat and short introduction into what we already know about them (and what not). This one also holds information on the "Mastigoteuthis agassizii", who is the reason I am now called Tigoteus! Beautiful and well-composed intoduction to octopus, squid and cuttlefish. | 978-0-2264-5956-1 |
| What A Fish Knows ★★★★★ |
Jonathan Balcombe | I really relied on this book for my "fish fact friday" (on which I would recount a fish fact every friday) - it's filled to the brim with very interesting facts. The bulk of the book is about sensual perception of fish and different evolutionary mechanisms revolving around that. Like the rest of the list, this is also a good read for anybody interested! | 978-0-3742-8821-1 |
Non-Fiction: Mathmatics
| Title | Author | Comment | ISBN |
|---|---|---|---|
| Convex Polytopes ★★★★★ |
Branko Grünbaum | Grünbaum is, like, my favourite mathmatician. I wish I was a bit smarter so I could really dig this, but alas, I am a highschooler trying to understand "∀"...Here's a cool video about what he dealt with. | 978-0-3874-0409-7 |
| Parkettierungen der Ebene ★★★★★ |
Erhard Behrends | Faaaaaaave mathmatical topic everrrrrr. (Tigoteus did not, in fact, make it farther than the intorduction.) Read up on a cool thing here. | 978-3-6582-3269-6 |
| Facettenreiche Mathematik no rating |
Wendland, Werner (Hrsg.) | That was my Christmas present last year and I haven't touched it yet but it souuuunddsss amazing and I wanted to include it anyways. To know another book about fun math concepts is always a win!!! | 978-3-8348-1414-2 |
| Farbige Parkette no rating |
Bongartz, Bortho, Mertens, Steins |  See above but also fave fave fave!!! |
978-3-7643-2223-6 |
Non-Fiction: Other
| Title | Author | Comment | ISBN |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sister Outsider ★★★★★ |
Audre Lorde | A great read and a scary read, because she's been saying that for over 40 years. | 978-1-5809-1186-3 |
| Brief an den Vater ★★★★★ |
Franz Kafka | Good lord, I shouldn't have liked it as much as I did... | 978-1-5150-2033-2 |
| Gay Berlin ★★★★★ |
Robert Beachy | Yeah I'm not going to open Pandora's box about this again. | 978-0-3074-7313-4 |
| Ties That Bind [...] no rating |
Sarah Schulman | Still on my list but sounds promising. | 978-1-5955-8816-6 |
| Die Entscheidung: Kapitalismus vs. Klima no rating |
Naomi Klein | Still on my list but sounds promising. | 978-3-5960-3135-1 |
Fiction: Novels
Dystopian Political Drama
| Title | Author | Comment | ISBN |
|---|---|---|---|
| This Is How You Lose The Time War ★★★★★ |
Amal El-Mohtar; Max Gladstone | Fucking beautiful. This is more of a poetry book than anything else. In a universe where two diametrically opposed agencies try to warp time and its consequences to their advantage, two of their agents fall in love. It's beautiful. It's stunning. It's tragic. It's great! | 978-1-52940-523-1 |
| The Fuck-It List ★★★☆☆ |
John Niven | TRUMP DIES LOL!!!!!!! Okay now, I read this in 2020 and it reflected a lot of feelings. It's sadly not big on philosophical matters about politics and our feelings towards bad politicians and what this means for general society and The System, but it was funny. Again, Trump fucking dies. |
978-0-4340-2326-4 |
Social Commentary
| Title | Author | Comment | ISBN |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Hate U Give ★★★★★ |
Angie Thomas | I think by now almost everyone has heard of "THUG" by Angie Thomas. It's highly praised and I can only attest to that. It's a strong read regarding police brutality towards African Americans with lots of understanding towards the teenage protagonist. We read this in class. | 978-1-4063-7215-1 |
| Petrov's Flu ★★★★★ |
Alexei Salnikow | Taking a deep breath, I want to shout my love for "Petrov's flu" across the rooftops. Since I can't find a single profound review of this story, I might have to do it myself. In the meantime: Ever accompanied someone on a fever trip through hearses and russian politics of the early 2000s? I have. And it was great. | 978-3-518-43086-6 |
| Rönne-Cycle ★★☆☆☆ |
Gottfried Benn | I did like "Eroberung" as well as "Gehirne" but at times it was a bit... much. | 3-2570-6065-3 |
Easy going/slice of life stories
| Title | Author | Comment | ISBN |
|---|---|---|---|
| Iglhaut ★★★★★ |
Katharina Adler | Iglhaut, my love, my life. She - the struggling woodworker in a curtilage, surrounded by her freaky neighbours in the stacked flats. Her pesky mother, the on-off-love and her teeth. Jesus, she has bad teeth. I <3 IGLHAUT!!! And if you like the small individual in a big town-atmosphere, you are now legally obliged to read this book. |
978-3-498-00256-5 |
Just some guy going ape shit LOL
| Title | Author | Comment | ISBN |
|---|---|---|---|
| Die Mitte der Welt ★☆☆☆☆/★★★★★ |
Andreas Steinhöfel | This is for the gays who are into horror. From the bottom of my heart: What the actual fuck? Content warnings for: Gore, horror, paedophilia, incest-themes (?), injuries and hospitals, abortion, terrible relationships, and daddy issues. We read this in ninth grade. | 978-3-5513-5315-3 |
Crime
| Title | Author | Comment | ISBN |
|---|---|---|---|
| Müll ★★★★★ |
Wolf Haas | I wish novels would do something interesting with the language again-This is the novel for you. This is it. The writing style is so unique, because it's written in a very particular slang and a dialect that makes reading this just very, very refreshing. The story is great as well, as it the setting AND the characters. Truly perfect. |
978-3-5513-5315-3 |
Theatre
Modern and more abstract theatre
| Title | Author | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Die Abwesenheit des Propheten ★★★★★ |
Akın Emanuel Şipal | Ich liebe dieses Stück, es ist magisch, es ist fabelhaft, es reflektiert Zugehörigkeit und Abschied, es thematisiert die Wichtigkeit des Wandelns und den Platz der Propheten. Hätte ich Kinder, würde ich es ihnen Vorlesen. |
| Furor ★★★★★ |
Hübner/Nemitz | Underpaid package deliverer, symbol of the proletariat with a noticable drive toward populism VS. known politician who is ultimately offering a kind repayment but might not be entirely unselfish in doing so; FIGHT! BITE EACH OTHER'S DICKS OFF (spoiler: they're not gonna do that). Anyways, Read Furor, NOW! |
| Waiting for Godot ★★★★★ |
Beckett | My FAVOURITE play of all time. I know it's iconic. I know, many hate it. I love it. Beckett has installed the obsession with the human condition in me and has also influenced my writing style MASSIVELY! It's good, go read it! |
| Happily Ever After Nuclear Explosion ★★★★☆ |
Pat To Yan | You may have heard about this explosion. It happened recently. Just very recent. [...] There have been many explosions recently Charmaine and Kenneth, siblings who survived a nuclear catastrophe, talk about their lifes, the zone, their mum and paint. Read this play. It's spooky, it's lyrical, it's pensive and sad and so unique. |
| 40 GRAD IM SCHATTEN [ABER KEIN SCHATTEN HIER] ★★★★☆ |
Sivan Ben Yishai | Vergebung - ein großes Wort. Es dreht sich alles um Vergebung am höhsten Tage des jüdischen Glaubens - Jom Kippur. Doch der Tag endet nicht und je verzweifelter die Stimmen der Gläubigen werden, desto energischer wird nach einer Lösung gesucht, den Tag enden zu lassen - selbst wenn es blutig wird. Empfehlenswert! |
| there goes my systemrelevanz (again) ((and again)) (((and again))) ★★★★☆ |
Thomas Köck | Das Stück ist alles, es ist nichts, ich liebe es, es ist zu kurz, es darf nicht länger sein, es ist alles, es ist 2020 1. Lockdown und du bist Künstler. Was machst du? |
| Mutter Vater Land ★★★★☆ |
Akın Emanuel Şipal | Oma, Vater, Oma (Breslau), Opa (Autor), Alter Ego, Deutschland und die Türkei. All die Träume einer Familie in vier Generationen. Bücher, Übersetzungen, Kunst und die Arbeit aber allen voran Wanna-Eickel und Istanbul. Liebte die Darstellung, das Tempo, den Ton, die Charaktere. CW, allerdings, für Diskussionen von häuslicher Gewalt. |
| Top Dogs ★★★★☆ |
Urs Widmer | LOVED Top Dogs as well. I love pathetic management people so much it's unholy LOL. Extremely funny from a normie position but also extremely threatening to see the disconnect from reality in people with that much income! |
Theatre with a strong historic background
| Title | Author | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Mutter Courage und Ihre Kinder ★★★★★ |
Bertholt Brecht | What would you do for how much money? How desperate would you be? How bold? Are you ready to become a war profiteer while sacrificing your own children? Are you that desperate for it? Extremely well written characters, great criticism of society (+capitalism +war +their intersections), go watch this!!! |
| Woyzeck ★★★★★ |
Georg Büchner | Oh, the sweet decay of a person through social misery, medical abuse and poverty. Nothing as juicy as this story and the relevance it has a whole 187 years later. Trigger Warnings for: hallucinations/unreality, medical abuse, alluded suicide. |
| Prometheus ★★☆☆☆ |
Göthe | If you are confused now, because I already listed Prometheusunder Poetry, you're not alone. Goethe wrote two pieces called Prometheus; a hymn and a play (or a fragmented one at least). And although Prometheus is one of the key figures in Sturm und Drang, my favourite literature epoch, I prefer the hymn. Sorry! |
Theatre with a classic structure
| Title | Author | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Der Besuch der alten Dame ★★★★☆ |
Dürrenmatt | One of the O.G.'s that got me into theatre in the first place - We read it in class. Ultimately very funny and interesting characters dealing with the question: How buyable am I and are my acts? |
Poetry
My favourite poems include...
| Title (+ Link) | Author |
|---|---|
| Ode to a Large Tuna in the Market | Pablo Neruda |
| now i'm bologna | José Olivarez |
| Ode to the Head Nod | Elizabeth Acevedo |
| Prometheus | J. W. v. Goethe |
| In my next life let me be a tomato | Natasha Rao |
| Crush | Anthology by Richard Siken |
| War Of The Foxes | Anthology by Richard Siken |
| In meinen Träumen läutet es Sturm | Anthology by Mascha Kaléko (Einstieg hier!) |
| Digital Archive | Jennifer Kwon Dobbs |
| Elliptical | Harryette Mullen |
| A Word on Statistics | Wisława Szymborska |
| For My People | Margaret Walker |
| The Applicant | Sylvia Plath |
| In Praise of the Classics | Noah Eli Gordon |
| i carry your heart with me(i carry it in] | E. E. Cummings |
| poem where no one is deported | José Olivarez |
| Call Us What We Carry | Anthology by Amanda Gorman |
| You Can't Kill Me Twice (so please treat me right) | Charlyne Yi |
| Please make me pretty, I don't want to die | Tawanda Mulalu |
Film
| Title (Director) | Comment |
|---|---|
| Unstoppable (Tony Scott) | Hey! This is my comfort movie. Welcome to: A Train Obsession - a huge freighttrain goes rogue after the conductor fucks up massively. Two other conductors and the chief operator at the local train management center have to act quickly to prevent the train from derailing in the next big city. Wonderful characters, wonderful characterisations. I love you, Unstoppable. |
| Brokeback Mountain (Ang Lee) | Yeah, most people online know about Broke Back Mountain, but I too bawled my eyes out when Ennis took the denim. Like O.K. 👍 surely that's not going to influence me further! |
| Constantine (Francis Lawrence) | Imagine the most fucked up shit happening right now. Dial that up to, say, approximately 3.000. Congrats! You have imagined 1% of Hell. Constantine is a film about Heaven and Hell, looking your fate in the eye and scraping yourself back from the brink of extinction by sheer willpower to escape Hell...literally. Is the whole turmoil worth it? Trigger Warnings for: suicide, graphic depictions of gore and, well, religious imagery. |
| Knives Out / Glass Onion (Rian Johnson) | Literally funniest detective movies I've ever watched LOL - by now everybody and their aunt has heard of Knives Out/Glass Onion, but I don't care! They're good. Watch them. |
| Great Freedom (Sebastian Meise) | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fMHXHaqsFo |
| The Social Network (David Fincher) | My friend Danny introduced me to The Social Network and I love them for doing so. Pretty cool biographical drama with a banger sound-track and wonderful images (: |
| Twin Peaks (David Lynch/Mark Frost) | Also introduced to me by Danny: Twin Peaks! Love the aesthetic, love the sound track here too and I love the main characters! |
| Brave (Charlyne Yi) | Such a cool, inspiring, moving, cinematic short. Loved it! Watch for free on Vimeo! |
| Moonlight (Barry Jenkins) | There is this loop in my brain when Chiron walks into the school like he has business to do and just smashes ... well, you know the scene. It's stuck on loop. Jeez. Amazing movie! |
Other
| Title | Comment |
|---|---|
| Abzû | Abzû is an underwater exploration experience with a deeper message of animal-human relations and sets a great opportunity to let yourself wonder in the literal and metaphorical sense. You play as an abandoned underwater robot that tries to free the local landscape of technology designed to harm its inhabitans and itself. Meanwhile, you'll get to see the absolute beauty of the ecological neighbourhood displayed in the game. Not to spoil the ending, but you'll find a friend <3 |