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?

Book Recommendations February 2020

Our event schedule is finally taking shape and there is good news for fans of chinese SF! Especially (but not only) due to the insane success of Cixin Liu’s Trisolaris-books people hereabout started asking and wondering about similar books and thus are discovering unknown gems from the East. In cooperation with the magazine “Kapsel” which publishes SF from far Asian countries, we have the pleasure to have as our guests author, translator, anthologist Ken Liu and chinese author Xia Jia! This event will for once take place on a Sunday, March 28 and starts at 6.30 pm. Admission is free as usual.
On March 5 the dice will roll again at the role playing evening. If you want to join us please drop an email to Jakob or Simon (service@otherland-berlin.de).
Other than that our book clubs are thriving inexorably! While in February we still have the Mythic Fiction session to come up on Friday the 28th (we’ll be discussing Freshwater by Emezi, please see Clarence’s review below), on March 13th we’ll be discussing Armed in Her Fashion by Kate (the Great) Heartfield, a historical fantasy novel about a Flemish widow declaring war to Hell, and two weeks later, March 27th, the Horror Special Book Club is finally meeting again after a longer break than usual. The theme of that session is “Creature Feature - animals in horror” and the book is At the Mouth of the River of Bees by Kij Johnson. All book club discussions start at 7.30 pm at the Otherland Bookstore. You don’t need to sign up to join us, but please do read the book in advance if you want to discuss it.

Upcoming book club books and sessions are:
February 28 - Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi (MYTHIC)
March 13 - Armed in Her Fashion by Kate Heartfield
March 27 - At the Mouth of the River of Bees by Kij Johnson (HORROR)
April 17 - Jhereg by Steven Brust
April 24 - "Dystopias now" by Kim Stanley Robinson, together with "Why we
need utopian fiction now more than ever" by Eleanor Tremeer (SPEC THEORY)
May 8 - Little Sister Death by William Gay

Enjoy our recommendations!

Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi

by Clarence A. Haynes

Hey all! I’m thrilled to announce 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 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.” Ada is the embodiment of a type of child spirit known as ogbanje who, in an unusual turn, continues to have access to both the ethereal realm and the earthly realm of humans. Ada thus eventually develops separate selves, an occurrence which further shapes who she is when she travels to the U.S. to attend college and faces great trauma.

Taking on everything from colonialism to transgender identity, Emezi talked more about the book in The Guardian. Emezi has asserted that the autobiographical Freshwater should not be categorized as a form of magical realism or speculative fiction though authors who explore the fantastic are among her favorites, including Zen Cho, N.K. Jemisin and Terry Pratchett. We’ll be sure to present discussion questions via the blog on this richly textured work a few days before meeting. We hope you can join us.

Neuromancer This Friday

Hey book clubbers,

William Gibson, courtesy of Otherlander Thosten Wullf

Our current book is William Gibson's Neuromancer and the discussion starts this Friday, February 14, at 7.30 at the Otherland Bookstore as usual. Founder of Cyberpunk, master of  polished depictions, a cultural earthquake, winner of the 1984 Hugo, Nebula and Philip K. Dick awards OR only dated YA blubble? Let's talk about it on Friday!

The Otherland book club always takes place the second Friday of the month and starts at 7.30 pm at the Otherland Bookstore (the branching sub book clubs, Speculative Theory, Mythic Fiction and Horror, take place every three months on any given Friday - so there is some kind of book club every second week). There are snacks and drinks you don't have to pay for, we're happy for every contribution, though. You don't need to sign up to join us, but please read the book if you want to discuss it.

 Next Otherland Speculative Fiction Book Club discussions:

Final Girls Film Festival February 2020 Program

Horror fans!
In two weeks time (February 6th - 9th) it is the Final Girls Berlin Film Festival again and wow, what a program! NINE shorts blocks, NINE features, international talk guests and, as usual, one self defense workshop! Not only is this the first full packed regular fest taking place at the City Kino in Wedding, it is also the first time that the final girls go full international! I'm all excited and can't wait. The shorts selection looks amazing as always and their features and talks sound really exciting too.
Find below their announcement and see you there maybe!

Speculative Theory Book Club This Friday

The next Speculative Theory Book Club on Evan Calder Williams' Combined and Uneven Apocalypse, a so-called luciferian marxist analysis of apocalyptic fantasies in capitalism, starts this Friday, January 24th, at 7.30 pm at the Otherland Bookstore.

The book club always takes place the second Friday of the month and starts at 7.30 pm at the Otherland Bookstore (the branching sub book clubs, Speculative Theory, Mythic Fiction and Horror, take place every three months on any given Friday - so there is some kind of book club every second week). There are snacks and drinks you don't have to pay for, we're happy for every contribution, though. You don't need to sign up to join us, but please read the book if you want to discuss it.

Next Otherland Speculative Fiction Book Club discussions:

January 24 - Combined and Uneven Apocalypse by Evan Calder Williams(SPECTHE)
February 14 - Neuromancer by William Gibson
February 28 - Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi (MYTHIC)
March 13 - Armed in Her Fashion by Kate Heartfield
March 27 - At the Mouth of the River of Bees by Kij Johnson (HORROR)
April 17 - Jhereg by Steven Brust

Book Recommendations January 2020

It sounds almost ironic to wish a happy and healthy new year with a war knocking on our doors, so-called world leaders blustering, mystery diseases spreading and the climate out of joint. Alas, all we can do at the Otherland is offer you Otherlanders an escape in the shape of stories that can make you feel better, or, for the realists among you, stories that can remind you that what once was dystopia, now has moved to the current events section of your local newspaper.
But whatever may happen in the new year, there are many books we know will be published and can’t wait to read and that’s definitely a good reason to look optimistically into the future! Dispersed among sections, some members of the Otherland crew share what books they are especially looking forward to in the new year!
What we are very happy and excited about is that we could in 2019 welcome Lindsay Taylor and Clarence Haynes in our newsletter reviewer team! They are both avid SF/F readers and book clubbers and will continue to regularly share their invaluable opinions and assessments on latest English publications.
Speaking about the book club... There has been some sorting out, so to say, of our appointments. We will continue to hold our main book club meetings on the second Friday of each month, as always. The thematically specialized Speculative Theory Book Club, Mythic Fiction Book Club and Horror Special Book Club though will take place in rotating order every three months and in January we start with the Speculative Theory Book Club. That way, there will be a wider range of events you can choose from.
The next book-club date is for the Speculative Theory Book Club on January 24, where we will take a luciferian marxist look at apocalyptic movies with Evan Calder Williams’ Combined and Uneven Apocalypse.

The book clubs always start at 7.30 pm at the Otherland Bookstore. There are snacks and drinks you don't have to pay for, we're happy for every contribution, though. You don't need to sign up to join us, but please read the book if you want to discuss it.

Next Otherland Speculative Fiction Book Club discussions:

January 24 - Combined and Uneven Apocalypse by Evan Calder Williams
February 14 - Neuromancer by William Gibson
February 28 - Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi 
March 13 - Armed in Her Fashion by Kate Heartfield
March 27 - At the Mouth of the River of Bees by Kij Johnson
April 17 - Jhereg by Steven Brust
Enjoy our recommendations, see you around!

Unboxing Armed in Her Fashion

Kate Heartfield is GREAT, and let me tell you why:

Happiness in a a box!

As it may have come to your attention, we had selected her fantasy standalone "Armed in Her Fashion" quite a while ago, but had difficulties supplying due to various problems - among other things, internal turmoils going on at publisher ChiZine. We just couldn't find any copies. In a fit of despair, Arne Beutell, List-Master of the Otherland Speculative Fiction Book Club, and Marc started contacting Kate Heartfield to tell her about our situation, to which she answered that she is currently trying to recuperate the rights to this book, but still has copies that she kindly offered to send us. So imagine our joy when we received the package yesterday and unboxed a bunch of SIGNED copies of this wonderful book along with book marks, personalized Kate Heartfield stickers, promotion cards for her upcoming book and finally a super sweet letter to the book club members!

First Book Club Discussion This Year

... takes place this Friday, January 10th, at 7.30 pm at the Otherland Bookshop.

Hopefully all of you survived the festive season without much damage and had much time to read "Always Coming Home" by Ursula K. Le Guin, because this slow read required time above all!
The unusual 1985 work is a pseudo-textbook and pseudo-anthropologist's record about a future people, the Kesh. Le Guin has thrown a lot in there from Indigenous American, anarchist and Taoist themes. A great accomplishment and an interesting read to say the least, so the discussion is surely bound to be interesting too.

Next Otherland Speculative Fiction Book Club discussions: