Christie, Agatha "The Mousetrap"

Christie, Agatha "The Mousetrap" - 1952

My husband and I are big Agatha Christie fans. I haven't read all of her books but we must have watched every screen adaptation under the sky. The only story not known to us is "The Mousetrap" and I wasn't even aware that there is a book you can buy. So, when the Read the Year Club decided we would read 1952 this time, I stumbled upon this story. I was really happy because I don't think we'll get to London that quickly and who knows whether it is possible to watch the play then.

Anyway, the story is just typical for Agatha Christie. Lots of suspects, everyone could be the murderer. And it is all so puzzling, confusing. Just like any other Agatha Christie story.

So, if you have the chance to visit the play, go ahead. And if not, read the play. I'm not a big fan of reading plays but this one was really easy to read. And entertaining.

From the back cover:

"The play 'The Mousetrap' revolves around a couple who set up a guesthouse for the first time and find that their visitors are not what they seem - that every visitor seems to have some connection to the couple, expected or unexpected. This is not made known until much later when a ski-happy policeman Trotter arrives on the scene, and starts connecting the Monkswell manor (the house) to a violent death scene in Paddington a few hours ago, where a notebook was left behind at the crime scene with the words 'Monkswell Manor' written on it. Trotter then gets everyone hyped up over this murderer's identity. This play is good because it showed that everyone could be a suspect, and that element of scariness cannot be missed in this very exciting play, a play that delves back into the histories of its characters. Suspense abounds as the murderer's identity is slowly revealed. A great book - not to be missed."

Find all my Read The Year books here.

The 1952 Club

This book challenge takes place twice a year and concentrates on one year and one year only. I call it "Read the Year Club". This time, 1952 was picked. For more information, see Simon @ Stuck in a Book and Kaggsy @ Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings (here is Karen's invite and here is Simon's). If you are looking for inspiration, there are a few books from that year that I read already:

Beckett, Samuel "Waiting for Godot" (F: En attendant Godot) - 1952

Hemingway, Ernest "The Old Man and the Sea" - 1952
Steinbeck, John "East of Eden" - 1952

Waltari, Mika "The Dark Angel" (SF: Johannes Angelos) - 1952
White, E.B. "Charlotte's Web" - 1952

I also found some other ideas (Karen has more on her page):

Boulle, Pierre "The Bridge Over the River Kwai" (Le Pont de la rivière Kwaï)

Buck, Pearl S. "The Hidden Flower"
Christie, Agatha "The Mousetrap"
Day, Dorothy "The Long Loneliness: The Autobiography of the Legendary Catholic Social Activist"

Du Maurier, Daphne "The Birds"

Remarque, Erich Maria "Spark of Life" (Der Funke Leben)

Tutuola, Amos "The Palm-Wine Drinkard"

This challenge takes place from 21 to 27 April 2025.

I have picked a story I was always interested in:
Christie, Agatha "The Mousetrap" - 1952

Morrison, Toni "The Bluest Eye"

Morrison, Toni "The Bluest Eye" - 1970

I read this for the "1970s Club".

As always, Toni Morrison has written a fantastic story about the troubles of people who suffer from racism. This is not my favourite book by her (that would be "Beloved") but it is still a great story. We follow the family Breedlove and their friends backwards, to see what they have all been through.

The main character is the little girl that would love blue eyes. While I understand that wish, she wants to be accepted and thinks this is the way to get there, I thought the rest of the story was much more important.

From the back cover:

"Pecola Breedlove, a young black girl, prays every day for beauty. Mocked by other children for the dark skin, curly hair, and brown eyes that set her apart, she yearns
for normalcy, for the blond hair and blue eyes that she believes will allow her to finally fit in. Yet as her dream grows more fervent, her life slowly starts to disintegrate in the face of adversity and strife."

Toni Morrison "who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality" received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993.

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

Read more about other books by the author here.

The 1970 Club

This book challenge takes place twice a year and concentrates on one year and one year only. I call it "Read the Year Club". This time, 1970 was picked. For more information, see Simon @ Stuck in a Book and Kaggsy @ Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings (here is Karen's invite and here is Simon's).

If you are looking for inspiration, there are a few books from that year that I read already:

Bach, Richard "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" - 1970
Hanff, Helene "84 Charing Cross Road" + "The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street" - 1970 + 1973
Scott, Mary "Haven't We Met Before?" - 1970
Segal, Erich "Love Story" - 1970
Wallraff, Günter "From the Guy Who Went Forth and Learned to Fear" (GE: Von einem, der auszog und das Fürchten lernte) - 1970

I also found some other ideas (Karen has more on her page):
Blume, Judy "Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret"
Brown, Dee "Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee" 
Herriot, James (James Alfred Wright) "If Only They Could Talk" 
Morrison, Toni "The Bluest Eye"

This challenge takes place from 24 to 30 October 2024.

I had this on my TBR pile, therefore I picked:
Morrison, Toni "The Bluest Eye" - 1970

Read the Year Club

This book challenge takes place twice a year and concentrates on one year and one year only. I call it "Read the Year Club". This time, 1937 was picked. For more information, see Simon @ Stuck in a Book and Kaggsy @ Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings.

1920
Undset, Sigrid "Kristin Lavransdatter" (NO: Kristin Lavransdatter) - 1920-22
1924
Mann, Thomas "The Magic Mountain" (GE: Der Zauberberg) - 1924
1929
Kästner, Erich "Emil and the Detectives" (German: Emil und die Detektive) - 1929
1930
Buck, Pearl S. "East Wind: West Wind" - 1930
1936
Mitchell, Margaret "Gone With the Wind" - 1936
1937
Orwell, George "The Road to Wigan Pier" - 1937
1938
Herbert, Xavier "Capricornia" - 1938 
1940
Stein, Gertrude "Paris France" - 1940
1944
Brecht, Bertolt "The Caucasian Chalk Circle" (GE: Der kaukasisiche Kreidekreis) - 1944-45
1947
Camus, Albert "The Plague" (F: La Peste) - 1947
1951
Greene, Graham "The End of the Affair" - 1951
1952
Christie, Agatha "The Mousetrap" - 1952
1954
Thomas, Dylan "Under Milk Wood" - 1954
1956
Mahfouz, Naguib "Palace Walk" (arab: بين القصرين/Bayn al-qasrayn) (Cairo Trilogy #1) - 1956
1962
L'Engle, Madeleine "A Wrinkle in Time" - 1962
1965
Scott, Mary "Freddie" - 1965
1968
Dick, Philip K. "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" - 1968
1970
Morrison, Toni "The Bluest Eye" - 1970
1976
Ditfurth, Hoimar von "Der Geist fiel nicht vom Himmel: Die Evolution unseres Bewußtseins" [The mind did not fall from the sky: the evolution of our consciousness] - 1976
1977
Vargas Llosa, Mario "Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter" (E: La tía Julia y el escribidor) - 1977

I also have a list of "A Century of Books" where I list a book of every year of the century, if I read one.

I have only participated in the years where I included a link under the year. However, I have read books from most of those years and have added at least one for those who are interested in reading a book from that specific year.

You can find all the challenges so far on Simon's page Stuck in a Book under 'Read the year' Clubs.

Orwell, George "The Road to Wigan Pier"

Orwell, George "The Road to Wigan Pier" - 1937

I read this for the "1937 Club".

I have read a few books by George Orwell already and they were all highly interesting. This one started off a little tedious, many numbers that would have been easier to understand had they been converted to today's currencies or at least given the money in context. How am I supposed to know how much 15s. or 3s. 6d. are? How much do people have to pay for a piece of bread? How much does a good earner receive?

But the book improves after the author goes on to mention the conditions under which people live.
We are in the year 1937. A year that was very important. As another blogger wrote: "A LOT of good writing came out of the 30's. Turbulent times tend to do that...." (see here, thanks Cyberkitten)

And yes, we have similar turbulent times again and if we don't pay attention, history might repeat itself.

A quote from the book:
"They [Socialists] have never made it sufficiently clear that the essential aims of Socialism are justice and liberty. With their eyes glued to economic facts, they have proceeded on the assumption that man has no soul, and explicitly or implicitly they have set up the goal of a materialistic Utopia. As a result Fascism has been able to play upon every instinct that revolts against hedonism and a cheap conception of ‘progress’. It has been able to pose as the upholder of the European tradition, and to appeal to Christian belief, to patriotism, and to the military virtues. It is far worse than useless to write Fascism off as 'mass sadism', or some easy phrase of that kind. If you pretend that it is merely an aberration which will presently pass off of its own accord, you are dreaming a dream from which you will awake when somebody coshes you with a rubber truncheon."

We shouldn't forget these famous words by Martin Niemöller.
"First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out - because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me - and there was no one left to speak for me."
If we don't pay attention, we will be there again. And sooner than we would like to think.

From the back cover:

"In the 1930s, commissioned by a left-wing book club, Orwell went to the industrial areas of northern England to investigate and record the real situation of the working class. Orwell did more than just investigate; he went down to the deepest part of the mine, lived in dilapidated and filthy workers' houses, and used the tip of his pen to vividly reveal every aspect of the coal miners' lives. Reading today, 80 years later, Still shockingly true. The despair and poverty conveyed by this picture have a terrifying power that transcends time and national boundaries. At the same time, the Road to Wigan Pier is also Orwell's road to socialism as he examines his own inner self. Born in the British middle class, he recalled how he gradually began to doubt and then hate the strict class barriers that divided British society at that time. Because in his mind, socialism ultimately means only one concept: 'justice and freedom.'"

 

The 1937 Club

 

This book challenge takes place twice a year and concentrates on one year and one year only. I call it "Read the Year Club". This time, 1937 was picked. For more information, see Simon @ Stuck in a Book and Kaggsy @ Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings (here is Karen's invite and here is Simon's).

If you are looking for inspiration, there are a few books from that year that I read already:

Bristow, Gwen "Plantation Trilogy" (Deep Summer, The Handsome Road, This Side of Glory) - 1937-40
Dinesen, Isak/Blixen, Karen "Out of Africa" - 1937
Hemingway, Ernest "To Have and Have Not" - 1937
Steinbeck, John "Of Mice and Men" - 1937
Tolkien, J.R.R. "The Hobbit" - 1937

I also found some other ideas:
Christie, Agatha "Death on the Nile"
Hergé "The Broken Ear"
Ingalls Wilder, Laura "On the Banks of Plum Creek" (Little House Books)
Kurban, Said "Ali and Nino"
Lovecraft, H.P. "The Thing on the Doorstep"
Marsh, Ngaio "Vintage Murder"
Narayan, R. K. "Malgudi Omnibus" (Trilogy: Swami and Friends, 1935; The Bachelor of Arts, 1937; The English Teacher, 1945)
Neale Hurston, Zora "Their Eyes Were Watching God"
Orwell, George "The Road to Wigan Pier"
Somerset Maugham, W. "Theatre"
Wolf, Virginia "The Years"
Zedong, Mao "On Practice and Contradiction"

There is something here for everyone, children's books, comics, crime stories, non-fiction.

This challenge takes place from 15 to 21 April 2024.

I had this on my TBR pile, therefore I picked:
Orwell, George "The Road to Wigan Pier" - 1937

L’Engle, Madeleine "A Wrinkle in Time"

L’Engle, Madeleine "A Wrinkle in Time" - 1962

I read this for the "1962 Club".

This book challenge takes place twice a year and concentrates on one year and one year only. I call it "Read theYear Club". This time, 1962 was picked. For more information, see Simon @ Stuck in a Book.

I had already read seven books from that year (see here) and this was one we had in the house, one of my boys must have read it ages ago.

Fantasy or science-fictions are not really my genre but I find some from time to time that are still quite nice.

As was this one. I couldn't even tell what the attraction is to this book since the sci-fi is totally made up, kids are there to save the world (I usually detest both those parts in stories) but it was a nice read.

The style is certainly part of it, the way the characters are described, the interaction between them. There are many likeable people in this story.

Will I read the other books of the series? Probably not. But I am glad I read this one.

From the back cover:

"It is a dark and stormy night. Meg Murry; her small brother, Charles Wallace; and their mother are in the kitchen for a midnight snack when a most disturbing visitor arrives. 'Wild nights are my glory,' the unearthly stranger tells them. 'I just got caught in a downdraft and blown off course. Let me sit down for a moment, and then I'll be on my way. Speaking of ways, by the way, there is such a thing as a tesseract.' Meg's father had been experimenting with this fifth dimension of time travel when he mysteriously disappeared. Now the time has come for Meg, her friend Calvin, and Charles Wallace to rescue him. But can they outwit the forces of evil they will encounter on their heart-stopping journey through space?"

And here is Simon's list with all the books from 1962 other bloggers read.

The 1962 Club

 

This book challenge takes place twice a year and concentrates on one year and one year only. I call it "Read the Year Club". This time, 1962 was picked. For more information, see Simon @ Stuck in a Book (here is the invite) and Kaggsy @ Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings.

If you are looking for inspiration, there are a few books from that year that I read already:
Berenstain, Stan and Jan "The Berenstain Bears" - 1962ff.
Burgess, Anthony "A Clockwork Orange" - 1962  
Haushofer, Marlen "The Wall" (GE: Die Wand) - 1962
Lessing, Doris "The Golden Notebook" - 1962
Scott, Mary; West, Joyce "Such Nice People" (Inspector Wright #2) - 1962
Solzhenitsyn, Alexander "His Great Stories" (RUS: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich; For the Good of the Cause; Matryona's House; An Incident at Krechetovka Station) (RUS: Оди́н день Ива́на Дени́совича/Odin den' Ivana Denisovicha; Для пользы дела/ lja pol'zy dela; Матрёнин двор/Matrjonin dvor; Случай на станции Кречетовка/Sluchaj na stancii Krechetovka) - 1962/63
Yerby, Frank "Griffin's Way" - 1962

I also found some other ideas, I am sure there is a book for everyone here:

Bradbury, Ray "Something Wicked this Way Comes " - 1962 (Goodreads)
Christie, Agatha "The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side" - 1962 (Goodreads)
Dick, Philip K. THe Man in the High Castle" - 1962 (Goodreads)
Faulkner, William "The Reivers" - 1962 (Goodreads)
Huxley, Aldous "Island" - 1962 (Goodreads)
Jackson, Shirley "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" - 1962 (Goodreads)
Kesey, Ken "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" - 1962 (Goodreads)
L’Engle, Madeleine "A Wrinkle in Time" - 1962 (Goodreads)
Remarque, Erich Maria "The Night in Lisbon - 1962 (Goodreads)

This challenge takes place from 16 to 22 October 2023.

I picked:
L’Engle, Madeleine "A Wrinkle in Time" - 1962
Mainly, because it was on our bookshelf, one of the boys must have read it.

Stein, Gertrude "Paris France"

Stein, Gertrude "Paris France" - 1940

I had expected something else from this book. Childhood memories, there were very few. Observations about France, alright, you might call it that. But somehow I thought some stories about her salon might have been included, so that we could learn more about Gertrude Stein's life in France. Or hear an anecdote about Ernest Hemingway or one of the other frequent visitors, Pablo Picasso, for instance. Or Silvia Beach, Ezra Pound, F. Scott Fitzgerald, any of her famous friends.

I didn't dislike the book, though. Her style is quite unique, in German we have the expression "she talks without full stop and comma" and that's exactly what she does. For example, here is an excerpt:
"An American who had read as far as this as far as it had been written said to me, but you do not mention the relation of french men to french men, of french men to french women of french women to french women of french women to french children of french men to french children of french children to french children."

One thing did puzzle me, though. The book is supposedly from 1940 but she often mentions things she could only have known after the end of the war, like, how many people were killed from the village she lived in. Or, even when the war ended. How can that be?

I did like her way to describe the French, though. I have always met them as nice, friendly people who love their food and love their history. Well, the food is good but - in my opinion - the food in Belgium is a lot better. And I know what the French will say to that: Quel affront!

I read this as part of the "Read the Year" club.

From the back cover:

"Published in 1940, on the day that Paris fell to the Germans, Paris France blends Stein's childhood memories of Paris with trenchant observations about everything French. It is a witty fricassee of food and fashion, pets and painters, musicians, friends, and artists, served up with a healthy garnish of "Steinien" humor and self-indulgence. For readers who have previously considered Gertrude Stein to be a difficult or even unreadable author, Paris France provides a delightful window on her personal and unique world."

And here is a list of all the other 1940 books.

The 1940 Club

This book challenge takes place twice a year and concentrates on one year and one year only. I call it "Read the Year Club". This time, 1940 was picked. For more information, see Simon @ Stuck in a Book. (Here is the invite.)

If you are looking for inspiration, there are a few books from that year that I read already:
Boye, Karin "Kallocain" (SW: Kallocain) - 1940
Bristow, Gwen "This Side of Glory" - 1940
Hemingway, Ernest "For Whom the Bell Tolls" - 1940
Ingalls Wilder, Laura "The Long Winter" - 1940
McCullers, Carson "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" - 1940

I also found some other ideas:
Adler, Mortimer J. "How to Read a Book" - 1940 (Goodreads)
Faulkner, William "The Hamlet" - 1940 (Goodreads)
Greene, Graham "The Power of Glory" - 1940 (Goodreads)
Richter, Conrad "The Trees" - 1940 (Goodreads)
Wright, Richard "Native Son" - 1940 (Goodreads)

This challenge takes place from 10 to 16 April 2023.

Sorry I'm late announcing this. As most of you know, I was sick in March, so I missed the announcement. I don't have a book on my TBR pile from that year, either, so I will have to postpone this a litte. But, I will take part and post my review later. Maybe you can do the same.

I picked:
Stein, Gertrude "Paris France" - 1940

Kästner, Erich "Emil and the Detectives"

Kästner, Erich "Emil and the Detectives" (German: Emil und die Detektive) - 1929

This is one of THE German classics and I had never read it. So, when the "Read the Year" club chose 1929 for their next challenge, I found that this novel was from that year and decided to read it.

My two favourites by Erich Kästner are "Three Men in the Snow" (GE: Drei Männer im Schnee) and "Lisa and Lottie" (aka The Parent Trap) (GE: Das doppelte Lottchen). They are both funny and interesting. Still, Emil and his detectives never attracted me as much. And I was right. For me, this story wasn't as captivating as the other ones. Probably because I'm not much into crime stories.

But the story teaches us something. The harder we have to work something, the more we appreciate its value. And if we can find like-minded people, everything is easier. We can follow a mutual goal and work for a better world.

That is what Erich Kästner has always tried to bring across. And he managed it here, as well.

From the back cover:

"If Mrs Tischbein had known the amazing adventures her son Emil would have in Berlin, she'd never have let him go.

Unfortunately, when his seven pounds goes missing on the train, Emil is determined to get it back - and when he teams up with the detectives he meets in Berlin, it's just the start of a marvellous money-retrieving adventure . . .

A classic and influential story, Emil and the Detectives remains an enthralling read."

The 1929 Club

This book challenge takes place twice a year and concentrates on one year and one year only. I call it "Read the Year Club". This time, 1929 was picked. For more information, see Simon @ Stuck in a Book. (Here is the invite.)

If you are looking for inspiration, there are a few books from that year that I read already:
Bulgakow, Michail "The Master and Margarita" (RUS: Мастер и Маргарита) - 1929-39
Döblin, Alfred "Berlin Alexanderplatz" (GE: Berlin Alexanderplatz) - 1929
Wolfe,Thomas "Look Homeward, Angel" - 1929

I also found some other ideas:
Hemingway, Ernest "A Farewell to Arms" (Goodreads)
Faulkner, William "The Sound and the Fury" (Goodreads)
Baum, Vicki "Menschen im Hotel" (Grand Hotel) (Goodreads)

I picked:
Kästner, Erich "Emil und die Detektive" (Emil and the Detectives)
because it has always been on my wishlist. I might read the oters, as well, over time.

This challenge takes place from 24 to 30 October 2022.

If you would like to participate, it's still time to make up your mind.

Thomas, Dylan "Under Milk Wood"

Thomas, Dylan "Under Milk Wood" - 1954

I read this for the "1954 Club".

This book challenge takes place twice a year and concentrates on one year and one year only. I call it "Read theYear Club". This time, 1954 was picked. For more information, see Simon @ Stuck in a Book.

I had already read "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding and "I am Legend" by Richard Matheson but there are always books in every year that I still want to read.

There were a few books that would have interested me and I might pick up a few of them in future:
Amis, Kingsley "Lucky Jim"
Rose, Reginal "Twelve Angry Men"
Murdoch, Iris "Under the Net"
Mishima, Yukio "The Sound of Waves"
Remarque, Erich Maria "A Time to Love and a Time to Die" (GE: Zeit zu leben und Zeit zu sterben)
Wodehouse, P.B. "Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit"
Frisch, Max "I'm not Stiller" (GE: Stiller)

But I chose this one, "Under Milk Wood". Somehow, I always thought it was an adaptation from a novel and I thought the title sounded interesting. However, it is a play and it doesn't really have a plot. I mean, yes, the subject is "thoughts of people in a fictional village" but I couldn't follow them or make any sense of it let alone combine different thoughts from different people. Nor did I find any humour in this. Sometimes, a book is described as funny but I don't think it is but I can still like it (e.g. "Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian" by Marina Lewycka), sometimes I am just bored ("Cold Comfort Farm" by Stella Gibbons). This one belongs to the latter category. I mean, I love British humour, this has nothing to do with it. Thank goodness it wasn't that long.

From the back cover:

"Commissioned by the BBC, and described by Dylan Thomas as 'a play for voices', 'Under Milk Wood' takes the form of an emotive and hilarious account of a spring day in the fictional Welsh seaside village of Llareggub. We learn of the inhabitants' dreams and desires, their loves and regrets. The play introduces us to characters such as Captain Cat who dreams of his drowned former seafellows and Nogood Boyo who dreams of nothing at all. It is a unique and touching depiction of a village that has 'fallen head over bells in love'. The First Voice narration reveals the ordinary world of daily happenings and events, while the Second Voice conveys the intimate, innermost thoughts of the fascinating folk of Llareggub. There have been myriad productions of 'Under Milk Wood' over the years and Richard Burton, Peter O'Toole, Elizabeth Taylor, Sir Anthony Hopkins and Tom Jones have all starred in radio, stage or film adaptations."

And here is Simon's list with all the books from 1954 other bloggers read.

The 1954 Club

This book challenge takes place twice a year and concentrates on one year and one year only. I call it "Read the Year Club". This time, 1954 was picked. For more information, see Simon @ Stuck in a Book.

It takes place from 18 to 24 April. My pick is "Under Milk Wood" by Dylan Thomas.

If you would like to participate, it's still time to make up your mind.

Ditfurth, Hoimar von "Der Geist fiel nicht vom Himmel"

Ditfurth, Hoimar von "Der Geist fiel nicht vom Himmel: Die Evolution unseres Bewußtseins" [The mind did not fall from the sky: the evolution of our consciousness] - 1976

Hoimar von Ditfurth was a German physician and scientific journalist. As early as 1978, he warned of man-made climate change. Hence, I have been a fan of him for most of my life. He always wanted to let the general public participate in the knowledge of the sciences, and convey insights into the secrets of nature.

Quite a while ago, I found this book on a book swap shelf and was very keen to read it. Then, the 1976 club "forced me" to tackle it. That's also the reason, why I review the book here as well as on my German blog.

As a neuroscientist, the author knew a lot about human consciousness and it's a pity that such a great scientist has not been translated but that's typical.

Hoimar von Ditfurth has a lot to say about the human brain. According to him, this is a fossil in the human body consisting of three parts: the brain stem, the diencephalon, and the cerebrum. He starts explaining it with the very beginning, the very first life on earth and how it developed into what we see today. He also explains our behaviour, how it developed from imprinting to the expression of f consciousness (not only in humans). Really a great analysis of the history of the brain.

He explains everything very clearly and understandable, it is still a tough read.

I definitely want to read more of his books, e.g.

"Die Sterne leuchten, auch wenn wir sie nicht sehen" [The Stars Shine Even If We Don't See Them] - 1947-1988
"Im Anfang war der Wasserstoff" [In the Beginning there was Hydrogen] - 1972
"Wir sind nicht nur von dieser Welt" [We Are Not From This World] - 1981
"So laßt uns denn ein Apfelbäumchen pflanzen. Es ist soweit" [Let's Plant an Apple Tree. The Time Has Come] - 1985
"Innenansichten eines Artgenossen" [Inside Views of a Fellow of the Same Species] - 1989

From the back cover (translated):

"In truth we only know that there has to be a real, objective world, evolutionary considerations force us, however, to realize that our brain has definitely not yet reached the level at which its capacity is sufficient for the sum of all properties of this world. - Based on this provocative core sentence, Ditfurth attempts to present the emergence of human consciousness as a necessary result of a development history billions of years. He traces this path with an abundance of examples - from the first single-celled organisms to the human cerebrum that the emergence of consciousness also followed the basic principle of evolution, namely that every development step serves the biological purpose of improving the chances of survival, and not the aim of providing the organism with information about its environment that is as objective as possible."

If you are interested in this subject but don't read German, I can recommend some other books:
Bryson, Bill "The Body. A Guide for Occupants" - 2019
Harari, Yuval Noah "Sapiens. A Brief History of Mankind" (Hebrew: קיצור תולדות האנושות/Ḳizur Toldot Ha-Enoshut) - 2014
- "Homo Deus. A Brief History of Tomorrow" - 2016
Sapolsky, Robert M. "Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst" - 2017

The 1976 Club

 #1976Club

A couple of months ago, I was made aware of a book challenge that takes place once a year and concentrates on one year and one year only. This year, 1976 was picked. For more information, see Simon @ Stuck in a Book.

I have tossed through my bookshelves and found just one book, a German one which I am in the middle of reading.

Ditfurth, Hoimar von "Der Geist fiel nicht vom Himmel: Die Evolution unseres Bewußtseins" [The mind did not fall from the sky: the evolution of our consciousness] - 1976

Not an easy choice but highly interesting.