THE STRANGER INSIDE de Lisa Unger

“Astute Engrossing thriller” – starred Kirkus

The Stranger Inside
Lisa Unger
Park Row,publication September 2019

« A darkly thrilling tale of survival and obsession. Lisa Unger never disappoints. » —Riley Sager, bestselling author of Lock Every Door
“It’s not often that I’m stunned by the ending to a novel. But The Stranger Inside is rich with surprise from the very first page. It’s a smart, taut thriller.” —Chris Bohjalian, bestselling author of The Flight Attendant and Midwives
Rain Winter, a former investigative journalist and news producer is trying to live the perfect suburban life. She very much wants to be an involved stay-at-home mom for her daughter Lily and most of the time she loves it. But she is also still drawn to the career she left behind, she misses her work friends and doesn’t always find it easy to relate to other mothers on the playground or even to her busy working husband. Even though this is a thriller, Rain’s story, her struggle to reconcile her two selves adds an extra layer to the already great story and will resonate on another level with every female reader of the book.
When she was twelve, Rain narrowly escaped an abduction while walking to a friend’s house. Her two best friends, Tess and Hank, were not as lucky. Tess never came home, and Hank was held in captivity before managing to escape. Their abductor was sent to prison but years later was released. Then someone delivered real justice—and killed him in cold blood. And now, another brutal murderer who escaped justice is found dead and Rain is instantly drawn into the case. Eerie similarities to the murder of her friends’ abductor force Rain to revisit memories she’s worked hard to leave behind.
In The Stranger Inside Lisa Unger has created a very compelling and original killer and has stretched the boundaries and skillfully blurred the lines between right and wrong, crime and justice, and most importantly who should be administering it.
Lisa Unger is the New York Times bestselling, award-winning author of fourteen novels. Her last l Under My Skin and her short story The Sleep Tight Motel were nominated for Edgar Award.

DIE AUFGEREGTE GESELLSCHAFT de Philipp Hübl

                                                    Applied philosophy with some surprising eye-openers

                                                                       DIE AUFGEREGTE GESELLSCHAFT
                                                                                 by Philipp Hübl
                                                                                                      Blessing, publication Mars 2019

If you are a more conservative kind of person you are more likely to prefer dogs, while the progressive go for cats. And people driven by anger and rage seem to feel nothing but disgust. These are not simply clichés but reveal the core of our morality and are explained by Philipp Hübl in a book packed with amazing philosophical insights.
Research in the fields of psychology and philosophy have shown that emotions are not limited to personal matters but also include the daily news. Philipp Hübl demonstrates how our values and our political views are anchored in our emotional disposition. In other words, emotions influence our moral judgements. We are, however, not helplessly at their mercy; we can overcome them with reason and rational behaviour. With this theory, Hübl is provoking a critical self-examination and at the same time sharpens our view of society.
« The book is particularly interesting because it gives an explanatory approach for the evalutation of political movements in Europe. »

WIE WERDEN WER WIR SIND de Joachim Bauer

How we become who we are

WIE WERDEN WER WIR SIND
by Joachim Bauer
Blessing, publication Mai 2019

Why there is no me without you – the new major book by bestselling author Joachim Bauer.
Recent neuroscientific research indicates that human beings are born without a self. But how do we develop this « self », this « me » that can later define itself as distinct from others? How do we manage to think and feel in terms of me, you or we? What makes a human being into an individual? These are the central questions Joachim Bauer examines in his new major work, in which he demonstrates that our « true self » does not slumber within us like some natural resource waiting to be found and polished. It is rather the product of our encounters and relationships with others – experiences, joys and fears we share. Joachim Bauer makes us realise that this « me », in contrast to what had long been thought, is not engraved in stone but instead is a process of perpetual self-construction and life-long transition and can grow and change.
In an age of rampant egocentricity and social currents forcing us to assert ourselves by erecting a border between our own self and others, Bauer has drawn a new image of how we become who we are and explains why we can only find this path if we tread it together.

Also by Joachim Bauer, Selbsteuerung, the re-discovery of free will. blessing, May 2015
Self-control is an ability that in the world we live in is a prerequisite for professional success, happy relationships, and psychological and physical health. Those of us with selfcontrol– in other words, people who are in a position to postpone the short-term satisfaction of personal needs in favour of long-term advantages – don’t fall victim to unhealthy eating habits and lack of exercise; they don’t spend too much time in front of the television or computer screens and are not at risk of addiction. This book makes it clear how self-control works, why it is so important for a successful life and what we can do to relearn what we have forgotten. Joachim Bauer emphasises that abstinence, putting off wants and consciously tackling problems are by no means unnatural forms of self-castigation. In fact, the contrary is true: the ability to learn self-control is inherent in human beings. If it is to develop, we have to practice it from an early age – an observation that radically runs counter to the idea of children not having to make an effort, of perpetually being « enthusiastic ».

Joachim Bauer is a university teacher and professor at the University of Freiburg. He is a doctor of internal medicine, psychosomatic medicine, psychiatry and psychotherapy. For his research work, he was awarded the renowned Organon Prize of the German Society for Biological Psychiatry.Spiegel bestselling author: More than 700,000 copies of his books sold.

THIS TRAIN IS BEING HELD de Ismée Williams

When family and class differences threaten the love of two teens in this contemporary romance

THIS TRAIN IS BEING HELD
by Ismee Williams
Amulet, Publication février 2020

When private school student Isabelle Warren first meets Dominican-American Alex Rosario on the 1 train, she remembers his green eyes and gentlemanly behavior. He remembers her long ballet dancer’s legs and untroubled happiness, something he feels belongs to all rich kids. As the two grow closer in and out of the subway, Isabelle learns of Alex’s father, who is hell-bent on Alex being a contender for the major leagues despite Alex’s desire to go to college and become a poet. Alex learns about Isabelle’s Havana-born mother, Eliza, a woman with a prejudice against Latino men, who pressures her daughter to stay away from him. When Isabelle’s father loses his job and her older brother struggles with his mental health, her relationship with Alex falters. But fate—and the 1 train—throw them together when Isabelle needs him the most.
Ismée Williams is a pediatric cardiologist by day and an accomplished author by night. Her first book with Abrams, Water in May, was released in 2017 to critical acclaim. She lives in New York City.

THE VOYAGE OF SORCERER II de J. Craig Venter & David Ewing Duncan

An epic science and adventure story about famed genome scientist Craig Venter’s global expeditions collecting tens of millions of marine microbes and revolutionizing our understanding of the microbiome that sustains us.

THE VOYAGE OF SORCERER II:
The Expedition That Unlocked the Secrets of the Ocean’s Microbiome
by Dr. J. Craig Venter & David Ewing Duncan
Harvard University Press, September 2023
(via Aaron Priest Literary)

In THE VOYAGE OF SORCERER II, Venter and science writer David Ewing Duncan tell the remarkable story of these expeditions and of the momentous discoveries that ensued―of plant-like bacteria that get their energy from the sun, proteins that metabolize vast amounts of hydrogen, and microbes whose genes shield them from ultraviolet light. The result was a massive library of millions of unknown genes, thousands of unseen protein families, and new lineages of bacteria that revealed the unimaginable complexity of life on earth. Yet despite this exquisite diversity, Venter encountered sobering reminders of how human activity is disturbing the delicate microbial ecosystem that nurtures life on earth. In the face of unprecedented climate change, Venter and Duncan show how we can harness the microbial genome to develop alternative sources of energy, food, and medicine that might ultimately avert our destruction.

J. Craig Venter, PhD, is regarded as one of the leading scientists of the 21st century for his numerous invaluable contributions to genomic research. Dr. Venter is Founder, Chairman, and CEO of the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI), a not-for-profit research organization with approximately 200 scientists and staff dedicated to human, microbial, plant, synthetic, and environmental genomic research, and the exploration of social and ethical issues in genomics. He is also the founder and CEO of Synthetic Genomics, Inc., and is the author of multiple nonfiction books. He lives in La Jolla, California.

David Ewing Duncan is an award-winning, bestselling author of nine books published in 21 languages, including Talking to Robots, Experimental Man, and The Calendar. David is the CEO and Curator of Arc Fusion, and a Health Strategist in Residence for IDEO.