In the year of Corona, I read a lot. I did not read as many non-fiction books as usually, but escaped into some great novels, alone and with my family/kid.

5 Stars

• Der Fisch in uns: Eine Reise durch die 3,5 Milliarden Jahre alte Geschichte unseres Körpers – awesome and entertaining book about evolution, from the point of view of an archeologist.
• The Lean Startup – totally overdue for me to read this great classic on starting a business,

4 Stars

• Solaris – reading this was triggered by the release of the movie. The book is awesome, the movie is horrible.
• Children of Time – hard science fiction, the way I like it!
• Todesengel – a great and depressing story on populism and hate.
• Im Krieg – another great science fiction on weaponized animals. He was a good dog!

3 Stars

• Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth – this is a wonderful book, as it makes sure that you are not blind to promising sales channels.
• The Technology Fallacy: How People Are the Real Key to Digital Transformation –bringing the buzz-word topic of digital transformation and people together.
• Productized Services – a useful book for freelancers who want to productize their services without employing people.
• Children of Ruin – not as good as “Children of Time”, but still a fascinating read.

2 Stars

• Project to Product – I have a hard time buying into the framework that is supposed to solve the problem of the digital disruption.
• Das Jesus-Video – interesting idea, but compared to other Eschbach books it is just “okay”.
• Die lymphatersche Formel – short story by Lem, I came across it when looking for Solaris.
• Awaken the Giant Within – I like to check out books like this once in a while that provide guidance in your life, but it was too much anecdotes and feel-good stuff, without much substance.

1 Star

• Im nächsten Leben wird alles besser – too much lecturing, twice as long as it needs to be and an end that was totally predictable. Not sure why this book got such good reviews.

Children Books

• Blackthorn Book 3 and 4 – Book 2 is still my absolute favorite. Book 3 was decent, book 4 a little disappointing.
• Der Ratz-Fatz-x-weg 23 – Fast and fun story, perfect to read with the family.
• Die Nachtflüsterer 1-3 – I got the audio book because it was read by Oliver Rohrbeck. But the story itself was so-so.
• Das schwarze Mal – pretty good fantasy, set 500 years in the future. However, the end is rushed and a little anticlimactic.