Contemporary Germany

For nearly a century, historians have depicted Germany as a rabidly nationalist land, born in a sea of aggression. Not so, says Helmut Walser Smith, who, in this groundbreaking 500-year history, challenges traditional perceptions of Germany's conflicted past, revealing a nation far more thematically complicated than 20th-century historians have imagined.

Here, from New York Times best-selling historian Francis Russell, is the dramatic story of Germany - from the rise of Charlemagne to the age of Martin Luther, from the 30 Years' War to the iron rule of Otto von Bismarck, and from the formation of the Weimar Republic to the fighting of two world wars.

Germany is one of the richest and most influential countries in the world, which is amazing when you consider that the nation is only about the size of the US states of Oregon and Washington combined. It’s even more astounding when you consider that at the end of World War II, every major German city (and many minor ones) had been flattened by the Allied bombing campaign. Still more amazing is that the country has gone from international pariah and home of the Holocaust to one of the most well-regarded and humanitarian nations on Earth.

The Constant Gardener (Abridged): The beautiful Tessa Quayle is murdered near Lake Turkana in Northern Kenya, the birthplace of mankind. And her putative African lover and travelling companion has vanished from the scene of the crime. Tessa’s husband, a career diplomat and amateur gardener at the British High Commission in Nairobi, sets out on a personal odyssey in pursuit of the killers and their motive. On his way he meets terror, violence and conspiracy, but his greatest discovery is the woman he barely had time to love.

♥ The Bakery Romance Series ♥ What would you do if you caught your fiancé cheating on you? After Kelly Richardson walks in on her cheating fiancé she makes some drastic changes in her life. At thirty years old, she moves away from home for the first time, desperate to escape her controlling father. When she volunteers for her church’s Christmas homeless ministry, she’s stunned when she discovers that Jamal Jennings, her first love, has also volunteered to feed the homeless. Jamal Jennings has returned to Baltimore to care for his sick mother. He’s determined to stay in the area ...

Eine Familie zerrieben zwischen den Fronten, zerrissen durch die Grenze, verbunden durch die Liebe. Sommer 1987, in einer Hinterhauswohnung in Prenzlauer Berg: Die achtjährige Ella wohnt mit ihren beiden kleinen Brüdern, den Eltern und Großeltern nah an der Grenze, doch davon bekommt sie wenig mit. Ihr Leben besteht aus orangenen Ziehbadewannen, Sommertagen an der Datsche und Balkonen, die von Häusern fallen. Bis ein Urlaub an der ungarisch-österreichischen Grenze ihrer Kindheit ein jähes Ende setzt und die Familie für immer zerreißt. Zwanzig Jahre später führt das Tagebuch ihrer Mutter Ella zurück nach Berlin.

Sometimes it is the people we think we know the best who surprise us the most. London, 1986: Klaudia is about to start high school. She's embarrassed by her German father - he's the janitor at her school; he has a funny accent and a limp. And when the kids at school taunt her by saying he was a Nazi during the war, she can't dispute them with confidence. She's never known exactly what he may or may not have done during the war.

"Lesen und an die Vergangenheit denken" - ein historischer Roman. Eingebunden in das dörfliche Leben auf einem Bauernhof um 1830, ist es der Erbrichter Karl Gotthilf Steiger, welcher das Dorf Nassau durch eine gegründete Genossenschaft zur Entfronung vom Kammergut Rechenberg-Bienenmühle führte. Seinen unbeugsamen Willen und umsichtigen Handeln ist es zu verdanken, dass er die hohe Kaufsumme von 34.000 Taler aus Bürgschaften von Begüterten zum Abkauf aufbringen konnte.

Der Peeter Imhoof schrybt en usdrucksschtarchi, biudhafty Spraach - der Dialäkt, wo im höchere Bärner Mittuland...

Die Texte der selbsternannten "Hardcore-Romantikerin" handeln von dem einen großen Thema - von der wahren Liebe...