A few years ago, while researching German Christmas practices, I picked up a book called “The Old Magic of Christmas” by Linda Raedisch. And then I found another of Linda’s books, “Night of the Witches,” about Walpurgisnacht. But it’s her latest book, “The Secret History of Christmas Baking : Recipes and Stories, from Tomb Offerings to Gingerbread Boys” that is…
Category: Book Reviews
The Train to Crystal City review- German Families Locked Up in WW2
I recently read about the Democratic Representative from Texas Joaquin Castros Congressional Bill: The Wartime Violation of German American Civil Liberties Act of 2022. Like many American school children, I learned about the Internment of thousands of Japanese who lived in the US, but my teachers never told us about the over 11,000 German Americans locked up at the same…
Johannes Kepler, Life & Work, His Mother Katharina & Witchcraft
Johannes Kepler, a German mathematician, astronomer, and astrologer, wrote the laws of planetary motion, was appointed mathematician to the Holy Roman Emperor, and is considered the father of modern optics. But also… the son of a WITCH? It’s hard to believe, but Johannes Kepler put his career on hold and spent 6 years defending his widowed mother against charges of…
Baking Just Like Oma- by Gerhild Fulson, my Review
When my friend, Gerhild Fulson, founder of Quick German Recipes, and author of German Meals at Oma’s asked me to take a look at her newest cookbook, Baking Just Like Oma, I got excited! Partially because I just love cookbooks… but mostly because I knew that any book of her recipes would be solid, and a fantastic addition to my…
Pennsylvania Germans: An Interpretive Encyclopedia
Pockets of German culture in America have always fascinated me. I wonder why and when the group arrived in the United States, how they live (and how much different their new home is from Germany), and what parts of Germany do they hold onto. The Pennsylvania Germans go back to the time before there even WAS a United States.…
Karl May- Old Shatterhand and Winnetou
Karl May might be the best selling German novelist that most Americans never heard of. May’s stories of the American West have been making frontiersmen and Native Americans come alive in Germany since 1893. And for Germans of a certain age, the names Old Shatterhand and Winnetou are as familiar as Harry Potter, Ron, and Hermione are to my kids.…
“Berlin: The Story of a City” by Barney White-Spunner
“Germany has long had in its capital city the model to which it aspires as a nation” In“Berlin: The Story of a City, Barney White-Spunner looks back at the 1000+ year history of the everchanging city and presents it as a captivating, and I must admit, a late into the night “just one more chapter”, page-turning story. Berlin, for far…
The Oktoberfest Cookbook- German Oktoberfest Recipes
Festival season is a great time to learn some new German Oktoberfest Recipes. Naturally, I want to be able to cook staples like Brathändl /Roast Chicken and Bavarian Kartofelsalat /potato salad (my northern German version is vastly different). But I also wanted recipes for the less well-known, and quite delicious foods that you would find at Oktoberfest… but now…
German Literature Classics made Easy- Klassiker für Kinder
Ritter, Recken, Mittelalter: Balladen von Schiller neu erzählt (Klassiker für Kinder) (German Edition) Growing up, I learned conversational German, “at home” German, the basics that could get me through most everyday situations smoothly, and have nice chats with my Oma. My everyday German reading skills were similar. As a child I devoured books in English and German, and I still…
My Favorite German Cookbooks in GERMAN
My cookbook shelf is bi-lingual, and I reach for specific cookbooks for different recipes (or when I’m doing research). In the past I’ve shared my favorite German Cookbooks in English… and now it’s time to share my favorite Cookbooks in German. I realize that not everyone visiting my website speaks or reads German. (Honestly, a cookbook is a great resource…