star bestseller in May 2023: non-fiction and fiction

May 2023
These are the current stern bestsellers of the month

It is a bit surprising that so many people still buy “real” reading material despite increasing digitization. On the other hand, it is also a good sign that so many readers still appreciate a good book. This is why you will find the star– Orderers of the print editions, which are published every Thursday, are now also online. Here are the Fiction and non-fiction bestsellers from the May 2023.

“You thought you knew the world…” by Wissensbert (Author)

“The police and I just didn’t go together very well – I have a mind of my own,” says Robert Döring about his professional start after several years as a police officer. In the meantime, the 27-year-old from a small town south of Heidelberg has risen to become one of the digital favorite teachers. As “Wissensbert” he entertains up to a million users every day on YouTube and Tiktok with explanatory videos from science and technology or, as he calls it: “Science Facts with Mindblow Guarantee”. He speaks so frantically as if he had three cans of energy drink down his throat. The advantage of his first book: You can now let your mind blow much more slowly. Here is the book.

“Still awake?” by Benjamin von Stuckrad-Barre

Pastor’s children, oh God! Friedrich Nietzsche was one of those, as was Carl Gustav Jung (massively foolish). Alice Cooper and Vincent van Gogh (fully spanned). Angela Merkel (CDU) and Gudrun Ensslin (RAF). Horst Wessel (SA) and Super-Nanny Katharina Saalfrank (RTL). Last but not least, our pop writer here, born in Bremen in 1975 as the son of a pastor. “As a pastor’s child, you either become a terrorist or chancellor,” he once said of his career. “Writer is probably somewhere in between.” If you want to know more about this club of the unfortunate, we recommend Christine Eichel’s book “The German Rectory – Hort of Spirit and Power”. In the near future we will be working on teachers’ children. It will be even worse, I promise. Here is the book.

“The Last Chairlift” by John Irving

The 81-year-old Irving, as he says, wrote each of his 15 novels according to the same trick: “I always write the last sentence first.” We see this as a clumsy attempt to get into the top 10 ultimate aphorisms. There are a few top-class players: “The last shirt has no pockets” (Hans Albers). “The first humans were not the last apes” (Erich Kästner). “The last button always pops up” (Unknown). “Love me one last time” (Roland Kaiser). “I have the last word” (Dream on, colleague!). Our number one comes from the inventor of the quiz show, Hans-Joachim Kulenkampff: “Women have to have the last word – but unfortunately not for themselves.” We swear it won’t be the last time we’ll be spouting nonsense like this. Here is the book.

“Forest Knowledge” by Peter Wohlleben, Pierre Ibisch

If as a human being you too often fail to understand yourself and specimens of your own species, you can still seek solace in nature. Lo and behold, tree expert Peter Wohlleben and his colleague, biologist Pierre L. Ibisch, give us a leafy forest to browse through. Creaking undergrowth, rustling trees, fragrant air: the introduction makes you want to take a long forest bath. The two of them explain the secrets of the forest to us, but don’t spare us the hard facts: climate change, of course, also threatens beech and co. So what to do? Just go outside. And take a deep breath. Here is the book.

“Atlas – The Tale of Pa Salt” by Lucinda Riley, Harry Whittaker

Unlike the loyal readers of the “Seven Sisters” saga, we are a bit suspicious and wonder under what circumstances Volume 8 was released. Before her death in 2021, the Northern Irishwoman Riley had expressly wished her eldest son Harry to finish the series. Says her family. “Mum passed the secrets of the series on to me and I will keep my promise to her to share them with her loyal readers.” says her son. Maybe we’ll find out in heaven up there whether everything went right. But down here on earth we understand that someone who has sold 40 million books worldwide does not want to just walk away. When is Volume 9 coming? Here is the book.

“We are losing our children!” by Silke Mueller

Once the caretaker at the school where Silke Müller teaches had to scrape toilet paper off the walls. Pupils first wet the paper and then threw it against the wall, they had seen it on the internet beforehand. A sticky thing – and for Silke Müller one of many anecdotes from her fight against what often happens in class chats. Because there, writes the teacher, there are not only countless instructions for more or less funny pranks, but also depictions of violence, abuse and racism. The children would be left alone, Müller complains in her book and urges parents to look and not duck away. Here is the book.

“Love or Eggnog – Almost a Romance” by Dora Heldt

When times were rosy and people bubbled with optimism, calendars and postcards advised, “When life gives you lemons, ask for salt and tequila.” (Though it wasn’t clear who was supposed to give you a lemon and when, alright.) It’s a good idea to show a little more humility these days. So throw yourself into Amore while completely drunk? Caution! That’s why Dora Heldt already gives her protagonists a choice in the title: “Love or eggnog”. And believe it or not, that’s supposed to be the name of a dating app filled with spring-feeling village retirees. If you read it like that, you suspect that a bottle of eggnog will hardly be enough to get through the reading. Here is the book.

“This Side of the Wall” by Katja Hoyer

In Germany, Katja Hoyer recently said, she probably wouldn’t have been able to publish her work on the history of the GDR like this. That sounds like cancel culture, but it only means that in Great Britain, where Hoyer, who was born in Guben in Brandenburg in 1985, teaches and researches, a different, perhaps less burdened view of the German past is cultivated. In fact, a debate is now raging about the historian’s book in her home country. Her critics accuse her of playing down the conditions in the GDR. Hoyer himself says that her book does not divide into black and white. Who is right? It’s best to read it yourself. Here is the book.

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