Comfort and advice plus wisdom and wit: more stories on life among fellow humans, men and children.

Love is blind – and that’s why it is so beautiful to be in love. It’s easy to be forgiving when you don’t see further than the rim of love’s rose-colored glasses or the slices of cucumber you put on your eyes to keep love fresh. Still, of course, the world behind those glasses is rough and flawed, full of challenges and obstacles. Losing sight of that will soon leave you stumbling through your life with housework and relationships, husband and kids. Christine Nöstlinger tells the stories of such a life like no other, stories she stumbled across herself, and she does so in a clear-sighted, trenchant, ironic but always loving way.

Military mishaps and mistakes

As the world power of its time, the Habsburg empire not only was the main defender against the Turks in the east, but, over the centuries, also fought various alliances attacking in the west. For a long time, the Austrian army was counted among the world’s most powerful, and acclaimed commanders such as Prince Eugene of Savoy or Count Leopold von Daun were victorious on many battlefields – and horribly defeated on others. Glorious victories were achieved under the Austro-Hungarian flag, but there were also military mishaps, serious blunders and blatant misjudgements which turned the tides in a battle or even decided the outcome of a war. These are the stories told in this book. In fascinating case studies, Hans-Dieter Otto analyses the reasons for these mistakes and introduces the reader to captivating chapters in Austria’s military history.

An amusing book for philosophy lovers about the deeply human nature of human nature.

Philosophy starts with someone thinking unhealthy thoughts. The philosopher in this book however, is not some wacky freelancer. No, he is a civil servant living in a humble civil servant’s apartment with a lifelong job guarantee like it is no longer found in today’s world. As an upright civil servant he never tires of explaining the nature of his special subject to young people: “Philosophizing means learning to relax!” Together with his companions, the full-blooded pug Paul, the two guinea pigs Fritzi & Fratzi and his friend Idiot, our lover of wisdom stumbles through life, shaking, but determined to face each apocalypse that life confronts him with.

Our daily event give us today.

Padre Pio can float in thin air, the dead can come back to life, faqirs can make themselves invisible and Virgin Mary can heal tumors. It seems like God never tires of trying out new things. Just like people never tire of miracles in their lives, whether its sports or a classical concert. This book is a perfect opportunity to marvel. Adolf Holl offers a concise overview of the long history of humankind’s belief in miracles. In a fine balancing act between stories and aphorisms he captures the rare moments that open our eyes to a world full of miracles. A must for everyone who wants to believe and marvel.

A small-town policeman faces a mountain of corpses: this is not a regular crime novel

In late April 1945 hundreds of Jewish forced laborers from Hungary on the death trail heading to Mauthausen end up in a refugee camp in Persenbeug on the Danube. The frontlines both east and west are as close as the end of the war. The Second Republic has already been proclaimed in nearby Vienna and Adolf Hitler is already dead when a motorized SS taskforce covertly attacks the camp and massacres 223 people in a bloodbath. Hardly anybody admits to having seen or heard anything, but inspector Franz Winkler, a Deputy Commander left to his own devices in this remote town, begins to investigate. He risks his head to save his skin. Will he manage to save the nine survivors of the massacre? Manfred Wieninger documents one of the most extraordinary criminal cases in Austrian history while maintaining a fine balance between historical report and fictitious elements. He turns history into a story, in which the victims are no longer nameless.