☮ Stand with the Ukraine ☮

I hardly ever blog on a Sunday but I think today it is necessary to send out a message into the void.

I saw this on a friend's page on Instagram who mentioned that Vicki from the antipodeanbookclub instigated this. For every yellow & blue stack which is labelled #solidaritystack Vicki will donate $2 to Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders) in New Zealand up to the value of $150 for their work in the Ukraine.

Not just because of that but just because I want to express my support for the Ukraine and the Ukranians, I thought I will copy the idea and post my stack here. Don't worry about any of the books, there is no message in which ones I chose, it was just the colours of the spines that I needed.

Obviously, this is not a political blog and I'm not going to start writing too much about politics unless it is connected to a book I read but I know everyone knows my opinion. The main goal of everyone should be PEACE. I hope I will see many more yellow and blue stacks of books.

☮ to 🇺🇦 ☮ to 🌍

Pausewang, Gudrun "The Last Children"

Pausewang, Gudrun "The Last Children" (German: Die letzten Kinder von Schewenborn oder … sieht so unsere Zukunft aus?) - 1983

A youth book from the early eighties. When we were in the middle of the Cold War. When our biggest fear was the nuclear bomb. This book shows the worst case scenario. Several bombs over several European cities. The first casualties. The aftermath.

I read this book a couple of decades ago but it is one that has remained with me for all this time. I don't think it's out of date, we have a lot of other problems and fears today but the nuclear threat is as alive now as it was back then.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

From the back cover:

"Germany on Day X: an atomic bomb explodes. When the bomb falls, nobody is prepared for it. Fulda and Frankfurt no longer exist nor, as far as people know, anything in the vicinity of those cities. Roland, together with his parents and his two siblings, are at the moment on their way to spend vacations with their grandparents in the little town of Schewenborn.

The blinding flash of the explosion puts an end to those plans. There is no more connection to the world out there, no radio, no TV, no newspapers. The water is contaminated, the crops die in the fields, food gets scarce. The hospital in Schewenborn is overflowing with injured people. Those who don't die from burns and radiation perish from epidemics, starvation, and the cold. It is a time of slow, painful wasting away and waiting. Roland's family is no exception - all is uncertain and survival is a matter of fate.

Nonetheless, this dangerous existence finally turns into a kind of everyday life. The last children of Schewenborn even have to go back to school. Roland is teaching them - at the age of seventeen. But what is he supposed to teach? To learn how to live without looting, stealing and killing? The children have to learn to talk with each other again, to feel responsible for one another, to like and love one another. Their world has to be made a world of peace, however shortlived it might be."

In 1984, Gudrun Pausewang received the Gustav-Heinemann Peace Prize for children and youth books.

Interesting Links

The web is full of interesting links, links to books I read, links to subjects covered in the books I read, links to subjects not covered in the books I read. Some are helpful, some are interesting, some are just funny.

I would like to share some of those links that interest me, hopefully they will be interesting for some of you, too.

My Goodreads Profile

Everything about books

"Ten best bookshops in the world" - nice page about some great bookshops

"Tien beste bookhandels/mooiste ter wereld" - and another one in Dutch (but the shops are also all over the world.

And here some interesting bookshelves.

The Book Surgeon - what one person can do with books.

Best Sellers the week you were born

Bookmans does dominoes

Did you know the BOOK?

For a better world

Half the Sky - How women can get help all over the world
A Walk to Beautiful - a fascinating movie about how Ethiopian women get help

The Girl Effect - how a twelve year old girl could be the solution to what the world needs now.

The Kindness Movement - it started with a small idea

Languages
"Third Culture Kids" - a helpful site for everyone who raises their children abroad or who grew up in a different country from their parents.

Bilinguals see the world in a different way - an article about the studies to this .

The English Spelling Society - Spelling Poems

Spell Checker Poem

The worst language I've ever seen

Top list of the Hardest Languages to learn

"Mayday, Mayday, we're sinking ..."

Esperanto

You will find a lot of information about Esperanto in my Esperanto List.

Health

"The Spoon Theory" - someone with a chronic disease explains how it feels to someone who is always healthy.

How to understand someone with Chronic Pain

There are more links about migraine in my list "Migraine Books and Links".

My talented friends:

The Artwork of Ardith Goodwin
Hanka and Frank Koebsch 

Other Art Pages

Alternative Christmas Trees

Other topics

The True Size of Africa

Learn Morse Code

Evolution - a video all girls (and boys) should see

Some fun

London Underground Anagram Map

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch - Learn it in 4 minutes

Cheap Flights by Fascinating Aida - great explanation how we end up paying a lot anyway

Axis of Awesome - 4 Chord Song

The Perils of Voice Recognition Technology

The Mom Song