Abwechslung in Coronazeiten

A love story you have never seen before
written by Fiona

The book Call Me by Your Name was written by André Aciman and published in 2007. It is a very good fictional romance novel about a poetic gay romance between Elio and Oliver. It is perfect for escaping to another, more beautiful world.

The story takes place somewhere in northern Italy in 1983. Elio is a 17-year-old boy whose family takes a scholar each year in the summer, who then lives with them and helps Elios father with his historical studies. When Oliver arrived, Elio immediately felt an attraction to the 24-year-old scholar. They spent the summer together and slowly got closer. They have very intense moments which lead them to deeply falling in love with each other.
One of my favorite events was when they visited Rome before Oliver left. On that trip they connect even more, and you get to see a blossoming, almost perfect romance. The book is mostly written in English, but there is also some Italian and French. It is so lovely but also a little difficult to read because it has a very poetic and sophisticated language.
In 2018 the movie to the book Call Me by Your Name was released, and won an Oscar for the best adapted screenplay and was nominated for many other awards. One quote from the book, which is also found in the title, is: “Call me by your name and I will call you by mine.“ It is just a very magical moment.
In 2019 the sequel Find Me was published, which is about them finding their way back to each other.

I absolutely love this book. It makes me feel good, and it has just such an amazing and beautiful atmosphere. I would definitely recommend this book to you, if you're looking for a different romance. It has bewitched me and fell in love with the poetic romance of the boys.

Too Realistic to Be Made Up
written by Lorenz

“The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” by John Boyne is a brilliant work of a history drama. It was published in the year 2006 and it is about a secret friendship between Bruno, the child of an SS-soldier, and Schmuel, a child who lives in a concentration camp.
This book is perfect if you want to distract yourself from Corona and continue to think positively because it shows very well that there were times in the past when many people were much worse off than we are today. Therefore, we can be happy about our current situation despite Corona.
In this book, the author discusses the Holocaust. The murder of millions of European Jews is viewed from the perspective of an ignorant nine-year-old boy called Bruno. Bruno, the son of the camp commandant, lives with his family in the direct vicinity of the concentration camp Ausschwitz. While exploring the area around his house he meets a prisoner at the fence of the camp. This prisoner is called Schmuel and he is also nine years old. In the course of the story, a friend¬ship develops between the two boys. Bruno has to hide this from his family which eventually leads to a tragedy.
This novel is very easy to read because it doesn`t include difficult sentences. But it is nothing for kids under twelve years since they wouldn`t understand it because you need some previous knowledge about the time of National Socialism to understand the story. It`s a really gripping and thought-pro¬voking read about the time of National Socialism. You can find many good thought-provoking scenes in this book, for example Bruno`s mother says: “We don`t have the luxury to think… Some people make all the decisions for us.” Therefore, you can also learn something while reading this page-turner. The story about the two boys is not based on a true story but it is written really lifelike. That`s why you can put yourself into the place of the characters which makes the story even more exciting. This novel becomes more and more sad towards the end. Because after they played to¬gether for the first time, something terribly happens to Schmuel and Bruno.
More than nine million copies of this bestseller have been sold and John Boyne has won countless awards for it. In 2007, it was also filmed in Budapest.
I think the book “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” is a really readable book for anyone who wants to learn something about National Socialism, while reading an exciting but also very sad book.

Another Chapter
written by Carina

During the pandemic you cannot visit your friends or go to public places. But you can read some books and I have a really good book that I can recommend to you.
Joanne K. Rowling published the script of the play “Harry Potter and the cursed Child” in 2016. Previews of the play began at the Palace Theatre, London, on 7 June 2016, and it premiered on 30 July 2016. The play opened on Broadway on 22 April 2018 at the Lyric Theatre, with previews starting on 16 March 2018. The script of the play is a really good book because there is a lot more conversation in it and on the last pages you can find the family tree and the timeline of all the important events that happened in all books of Harry Potter.

The story is about the children of Harry Potter and his friends. Their children are going to Hogwarts and they try to fix the past, because they want to save someone from dying with some help of a girl they meet. As they are trying to fix the past, they change the whole future and everything ends in a whole mess which they must fix. In the story they have to face new enemies, but they also meet their parents` old enemies. Can they fix the mess they made?
There are also some awards this work won:
-2016 Evening Standard Theatre Award
-2016 Critics´ Circle Theatre Award
-2017 WhatsOnStage Award
-2017 Laurence Olivier Award
-2018 WhatsOnStage Award

In my opinion, this script of the play is a really good book. I really like to read it, although you do not have insight into the feelings of the protagonists. What I also like about the book, is that it has the family tree and the timeline at the end of the book because you can always look something up, if you need to, or you can understand some things more easily. I think that the script of the play is good to read, and it is even for people who do not like to read so often. I can really recommend this book to everyone.

A Love Story between two Worlds
written by Luzia

The young adult fiction "Save me" was written by the author Mona Kasten and published on the 23rd of February, 2018. It is the first part of the Maxton Hall-Series, which includes two more books. In 2018 Mona Kasten won the "LovelyBooks Leserpreis", an award in the category romance novel. The book describes a love story between two people who live in two completely different worlds. It´s a perfect book for young people who are into dramatic and romantic love stories. Because we are all stuck in a pandemic right now, I thought that something nice and romantic to read could help some of you to relax a little bit and that it would transport you in a different world in wich you could stop wor-rying for some time.
The story takes place in England, where the protagonists go to a very expensive private school. The main characters in the book are Ruby Bell and James Beau-fort. While Ruby tries to only concentrate on school and to attract as little at-tention as possible, James is the party life personified. But then Ruby finds out a secret that could ruin James´ whole family, so James tries everything to get closer to her and suddenly she is no longer a nobody. After a while they develop feelings for each other, but Ruby is afraid of letting him into her-very different- life.
Above all, it is very easy to put yourself into Ruby’s shoes as the novel describes her confusion and indecision so well. But also James perspective is very interest-ing, because he is not familiar with his feelings for Ruby and needs some time to figure that out. The book also changes the narrator with each chapter, so that you can empathize better with the characters. Because the book is written from the perspective of Ruby and James, the language is more casual and the book seems far more emotional.
My favorite event in the book is chapter 13 when Ruby and James are in London, because it shows James´ different sides and how fast his mood can change, when his family appears. But it also shows the hidden feelings between both of them.
In my opinion, this book is one of the most beautiful and romantic love stories I have ever read and I would definitely recommend it to anyone, who is into those types of novels. It lets you immerse yourself in another world and it is fun to im-agine this world while reading.

Who am I?
written by Tomke

During lockdown it can be quite boring, but reading is a good distraction. Many people think they aren´t into reading but this novel will change your mind about books.
"Every Day" by David Levithan is a brilliant work of young adult fiction. David Levithan is an American author and editor. He has written "Will & Will" and "Two Boys Kissing" which won the Lambda Literary Award. The novel was published in the year 2016 and it´s a good thought-provoking book about an unusual first love.
It's about someone who wakes up in a different body every day. He falls in love with Rhiannon but it´s difficult to be in a relationship with someone who switches his body every day. Important to know is that A can´t influence the body he wakes up in and he can't stay in the same body longer than one day.
Moreover, A is not a person but you could rather call him a spirit and it´s also quite interesting that his sex isn´t really defined which seems to be fitting in today´s society since many people are trying to keep a distance to clichés.
In general, the story is written realistically but we all know that someone like A does not exist in real life which is why you could say that it is an unrealistic story. Nevertheless, the book also deals with other real-life problems in today's society like social pressure. For example, on day 6005 A is in Kelsea´s body who deals with depression, which is also my favorite part of the book because he doesn´t know if he can help her but suddenly something important is going to happen. Consequently, you conclude that all the characters are believable even though A´s might seem questionable. There it depends on how much imagination you have because questions about A´s life may appear which can´t be answered for example how A would be able to die if he does not have his own body.
Except for that the novel is still believable. It´s in first-person perspective and it's written like a diary, because A tells something about his life each day. There is also a film based on the book directed by Michael Sucsy and written by Jesse Andrews, but the film is not very true to the book. It was released 2018 and quickly became a New York Times bestseller.
In my opinion it's an enjoyable book with a moving story. What I like the most is that the story isn't predictable, although it´s typical for young adult novels. In addition to that, the nicely designed cover gives a good overall impression and I really enjoyed the first-person perspective which only shows A´s thoughts. I don't mind that it's a bit unrealistic because of the questions which cannot be answered since the story generally still makes sense. The book does not have an introduction. It starts directly on day 5994, what I like, because sometimes I get bored when reading a book with a long introduction.
I highly recommend the novel "Every Day". David Levithan created a brilliant and gripping novel. I am looking forward to his next book!