Book Recommendations July 2024

We are Otherland
"I drink and I know things"- Tyrion Lannister

It's so hot that we're all starting to show symptoms of a special condition. A silly grin adorns our facial features, The thoughts are slower than usual and we can’t seem to get out of a horizontal position (preferably in the shade or at a pool). Furthermore, there is a barely concealed aggression palpable on every crowded regional train. Does this ring a bell? Aren’t there some parallels to videos of monkeys eating fermented fruit and starting to stagger slightly? Hands down, temperatures over 30 degrees trigger states of collective intoxication in Berlin and that's what today's introduction will be about!
Let’s start with the most famous mind altering substances from fiction:
"Dune" by Frank Herbert would have no content without "spice", the Harkonnens would be jobless and Arrakis just a worm-infested place with happy Fremen. 

Anyway. What the actual hell are the contents of the milk in "Clockwork Orange" by Anthony Burgess? Definitely the opposite of Soma, which makes everyone happy in "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley. And in "Roxy" by Neal and Jarod Shusterman, the drug comes in the form of a fatal woman.
Philip K Dick's "A Scanner Darkly" contains Substance D, which triggers euphoria on the one hand but also has a much darker backside. Incidentally, Dick drew on his own experiences with massive LSD use, which threw him into spirals of paranoia towards the end of his life. If you are interested about this time, you should read the epilogue in "Ubik", which also contains its fair share of drugs.
William Burroughs shared similar problems, writing "Naked Lunch" entirely on heroin and conjuring up a dark, ugly world that the normal reader usually doesn’t want to get lost in. The drug in question "Black Meat" gets a medal for being the nastiest I’ve ever heard of. The "Illuminatus!" trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson is definitely funnier.

Enough of nasty shit, there is also no shortage of states of ecstasy or absolut intoxication in our beloved fiction literature. In the middle of Brian Catling's "The Vorrh", a raucous party is the pivotal point of the story. And Shirley Jackson has her poor protagonist undergo dental treatment in the short story "The Tooth", after which she rumbles through town in a state beyond dazend and confused.
Samanta Schweblin's short story collection "Fever Dream" transports us to a rather similar feverish state as the title suggests and Mariana Enriquez also likes to have her protagonists wade up to their necks through drug-induced, metaphorical swamps (take "The Intoxicated Years" for example). Finally, James Tiptree Jr. must be mentioned as well, who once again defies all conventions by getting his (her!) characters addicted to aliens in "And I Awoke And Found Me Here On The Cold Hill's Side". Groovy!

Pangalactic Gargleblaster recipe on allrecipes.com by silvermoondragon

1 tablespoon gin

1 tablespoon light rum

1 tablespoon vodka

1 tablespoon tequila

2 tablespoons creme de menthe liqueur

2 tablespoons Galliano

1 cup ice cubes

1 slice of lemon

Mix the gin, rum, vodka, tequila, crème de menthe, Galliano an the ice in the container of a blender. Cover, and blend until slushy. Pour into a glass and garnish with a slice of lemon.

Alrighty I’m crawling back into the shadows with a cold beer in my one hand and a good book in the other, see you there!

yours dazed and confused Esther from the Otherland

Disclaimer:
Please use all intoxicants (including books!) responsibly

Book Recommendations May 2024

We are Otherland - and we're frolicking through the countryside!

"... She let her thoughts drift beyond today and tomorrow, into the distant future, when Jamie was established with his writing and she had given up her job, into the golden house-in-the-country future."

As beautiful as this sentence may seem, it comes from the pen of the "Empress of Horror" Shirley Jackson, in a story called "The Demon Lover". It is obvious that this cannot end well. Now that the thermometer is slowly crawling into the red zone and the heatwaves in the city are potentially becoming unbearable due to all the concrete, many Berliners are packing a picnic basket at the weekend and heading out into the countryside. Rumor has it that at least ninety percent of them develop the thought that a house by the lake might be a nicer alternative to the shoeboxes we cram into in the city....but is that really a good idea? As a former village child, I can only raise a warning finger here, because it has been clear to everyone since The Texas Chainsaw Massacre that hillbillies might sometimes be up to no good.
Country life is hard....and dangerous. Do you remember the strange sect in Ira Levin's The Stepford Wives? That's because they lure their unsuspecting victims with golden promises of country life. In Rumaan Alam's thrilling science fiction In the Middle of the Night, a pleasant vacation in a rented country house suddenly takes a dark twist when the owners turn up. And it's not for nothing that The Wicker Man has been a cult classic since the 70s, as it directly shaped an entire genre: "folk horror". This deals solely with the horror that awaits you in the countryside. It includes everything from pagan rituals and plants with a demonic life of their own to Satan himself, who wreaks havoc in the forest. Outstanding genre gems here are Brom's Slewfoot, Ted Klein's The Ceremonies and, last but not least, the fantastic anthology Damnable Tales, featuring pleasantly creepy illustrations. Haunted houses are not usually located in the middle of the city, but are hidden from everyone's view way off the beaten path. Two prominent examples are Shirley Jackson's Hill House and The Spite House by Johnny Compton. The trinity of mansions in McDowell's The Elementals includes some nasty inhabitants and to reach the country house in Kill Creek by Scott Thomas you almost have to get the Land Rover out.. And dangerous country life doesn't only fascinate horror authors! In Neil Gaiman's Ocean at the End of the Lane, the adult narrator returns to his childhood home and suddenly remembers a story that couldn't be more fantastic. Highly recommended, I love this book! And if Neil Gaiman is mentioned, Terry Pratchett must of course be mentioned in the same breath! In The Fifth Elephant someone is drawn to the countryside and hey, the whole of Überwald counts as dangerous country life, doesn't it?
Perhaps, dear reader, you will pack not only the rubber mattress but also a GPS device, astronaut food for two weeks, a damn good book and nunchucks for the weekend... after all, you never know what to expect ;)
P.s. If you discover any strange signs and/or skull formations in the forest that can't be accidental, head back to the rusty gate as quickly as possible and close it firmly behind you.

Sincerly yours, Esther on behalf of the Otherland

Book Recommendations April 2024

Hey Otherlanders!

After a shortish pandemic interruption we're back with the Otherlander's blog featuring English recommendations. Savor and enjoy!

Book Recommendations March 2020

Dear Friends and Customers,

As you will know from our last newsletter, the Otherland is still open - however, we kindly ask you to wait outside if you see that there are five or more customers already inside, and keep your distance from other customers while you're shopping. We take a lot of care to make your visit as safe as possible for you and everyone else.
Of course, you can also just order your books - just write us an e-mail or call us (for the time being under +4915901500988); and by the way, we're quite happy to talk books and give recommendations on the phone!
You can also order surprise book packages - just tell us the following:

- Which genre do you prefer?
- Do you want your books in German or in English?
- What have you recently read?
- How many books do you want, and/or how much do you want to spend?

... then we'll send you your books and an invoice by mail!

If you want to come by, but minimize your exposure, you can also write us in advance which books you want; we'll pack them in a bag for you and include an invoice.

Stay safe, stay well - and take care of yourself and of others!

Newsletter in times of Corona

Dear Friends and Customers,

since in Berlin bookshops are allowed to stay open (for now) we can still welcome you at our shop! However, this might change at a days notice, which is quite as it should be: However much we care about keeping the Otherland open, we care more about flattening the curve ... that's why all events at the Otherland in the coming weeks are cancelled.

We are trying to make your visit at the Otherland as safe for you - and for us - as possible. We take care of hand hygiene at the counter, and we would ask you to keep your distance from other customers; also, if there are already five or more customers in the Otherland, we would kindly ask you to wait outside until another customer leaves.
The corona virus apparently dies within 24 hours on paper - so it probably can't hurt to put your books to  the side for a day before reading them. In general, let's take good care of each other!

For everyone who prefers to (or has to) stay home, we offer shipping to any German address on invoice - just send us an e-mail or call us. We are also happy to discuss and recommend books at the phone. Please try to call within our opening hours, and try again if the line is busy! You can also send us your telephone number by e-mail and have us call you.

As it happens, our telephone is not working quite right at the moment - if you can't reach us at 030 69505117, please try 015901500988 .

Within the next few days, you'll get our regular newsletter with book recommendations - we'll shine a spotlight on all-time favourites, which we stock in sufficient quantity to get them to you in a timely fashion!

Please stay safe, keep each other safe, give help were you can, ask for help if you need it!

Current Situation at the Otherland

Otherlanders!
I am terribly sorry but ALL events that we had announced for March are cancelled in order to help stopping the further spreading of the corona virus.

That includes:

•  The reading event tonight, March 14th, with Irish fantasy author Daniel Keyes on his book The Fall of the Phoenix
• The Gatherland on March 19
• The Horror Special Book Club discussion on March 27 about Kij Johnson's At the Mouth of the River of Bees
• The reading and QA with Ken Liu and Xia Jia on March 29

Terribly sorry to disappoint you, but we'd be more disappointed in ourselves if we made you sick. So try and stay healthy and promised we'll try to catch up on missed events in better times!


PS. The book club yesterday evening on Kate Heartfield's Armed in Her Fashion DID take place, even though I forgot to post the announcement as I usually do, because I and my mind were crazy busy last week BUT let me shortly state that on my second reading I liked this book even more than the first time and would even retract my previous point of critique that it has a pacing problem towards the middle. Wish Kate Heartfield all the best finding a new publisher for it!

Freshwater - Reminder and Questions for Friday's Discussion

written by Clarence

A friendly reminder that the next meeting of the Otherland Mythic Fiction Book Club will occur on Friday, February 28, 7:30 p.m. at the Otherland bookshop in Kreuzberg. The novel we’ll be discussing—Freshwater, the highly acclaimed 2018 autobiographical debut by writer Akwaeke Emezi. Offering up a multi- perspective narrative, the Nigerian-born author stated in a 2019 New York Times interview that Freshwater is “based in indigenous West African ontology” and features a main character, Ada, who is “a spirit trapped in flesh.” To see a range of interviews from the author, helping to provide perspective on the text, please visit https://www.akwaeke.com/interviews
 
Here are some questions to help facilitate discussion on the story. We hope you can join us!

*What genre or genres would you place this book in? What are ways in which the book defies notions of traditional categorization?

*As a character who journeys through different cultures and locales, both literal and metaphysical, what aspects of Ada’s travels did you find the most compelling?

*What are your thoughts on the presentation of the entities held in Ada’s spirit/psyche? Whose presence felt the most compelling and why?

*How would you describe the characterization of Asughara? What were her motivations for her actions in the narrative?

*The contrast between traditional West African concepts of spirit selves are contrasted here with Western notions of mental health. What was your take on the book’s concept of multiple selves? Do you believe in the concept of multiple selves existing even in the absence of trauma?