FAMILY MATTERS

BY LANCE LEE

A profound examination of family and the power of love Publishers Weekly (Booklife)

Luminous—Rachel Snyder, No Visible Bruises

A fascinating journey— Shanta Acharya, Imagine (UK)

Dramatic twists and turns—Publishers Weekly (Booklife)

Bright, owing, very highly recommended Diane Donovan, Midwest Book Review

Pitch perfect and a ne read Jamie Michele, 5* Readers’ Favorite Review

A brilliant writer and gifted thinker Self Publishing Review

A compelling memoir Anna Maria Colivicchi, Clarion Foreword Reviews

Available at amazon.com

ISBN: 9798218025397 her daily life. Ultimately, though Biggs may not be sure of her success in beginning again, she is sure of her freedom and lucid in her assessments of how these nine authors helped her find it. An enlightening meditation on the intersections of art and freedom.

GERMANY IN THE WORLD A Global History, 1500-2000

Blackbourn, David Liveright/Norton (832 pp.)

$45.00 | June 6, 2023

9781631491832

Ambitiously wide-ranging history of Germany that emphasizes influences and migrations over five centuries. Blackbourn, the chair of the history department at Vanderbilt who has written extensively on German history, begins in 1500, when

Nuremberg was the hub of printing and publishing, and ends with Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s recent grudging move to increase military expenditure to aid Ukraine against Russia. Blackbourn makes a good case for how German people and ideas have been central to global events, whether positively or negatively. He emphasizes the Germans’ networks of learning and skilled labor, such as in printing; the rise of the university system, disciplines such as psychology and philology; the “invention of modern self” and the concept of “world literature.” But he also delves into the hideous militarism that spurred two world wars, virulent antisemitism, and the Holocaust. The author argues that the age of exploration was spurred by northern European lumber and pitch to make ships; by German mapmakers, gunners, and miners in Spanish America; and by printing presses that published the explorers’ accounts. At the same time, Protestant universities in Wittenberg and Heidelberg served as models for humanist learning. Germans led the way as writers, poets, and intellectuals, and their migrations created thriving German communities across the globe. Yet the 20th century would become the German century for horrific reasons, as the author fairly delineates. He moves fluidly into the postwar German economic miracle, progressive politics, terrorism, and ultimate reunification, yet another geopolitical spasm of global consequences. Angela Merkel’s acceptance of Syrian refugees proved another startling move, but the nation’s tendency to cozy up to Russia and China for exports has created new problems. Regardless, there’s no getting around Germany’s pivotal place in the world, and Blackbourn ably demonstrates how and why that position has been maintained, for better and worse.

A compelling exploration of “German history viewed through a global lens.”

STRONG FEMALE CHARACTER Brady, Fern

Harmony (288 pp.)

$25.00 | June 6, 2023

9780593582503

The tumultuous life of a bisexual, autistic comic.

In her debut memoir, Scottish comedian Brady recounts the emotional turmoil of living with undiagnosed autism. “The public perception of autistics is so heavily based on the stereotype of men who love trains or science,” she writes, “that many women miss out on diagnosis and are thought of as studious instead.” She was nothing if not studious, obsessively focused on foreign languages, but she found it difficult to converse in her own language. From novels, she tried to gain “knowledge about people, about how they spoke to each other, learning turns of phrase and metaphor” that others found so familiar. Often frustrated and overwhelmed by sensory overload, she erupted in violent meltdowns. Her parents, dealing with behavior they didn’t understand—including self-cutting—sent her to “a high-security mental hospital” as a day patient. Even there, a diagnosis eluded her; she was