Hello my lovely booklovers,

how are you? Welcome to the Weekend Coffee Share, a blog hop by the lovely Diana over at Part Time Monster. Every weekend we get together for virtual coffees and a little casual chat. How has this past week been for you?

Well, technically, for me it’s been two weeks. I’m really sorry I missed last week’s Coffee Share, so I’ll start there, shall I?

First of all, if we were having coffee today, I’d offer you a glass of wine or bubbly instead of coffee to celebrate with me. My diploma will get here on Monday (eeek!!), but I have confirmation from Horizons University that I have graduated summa cum laude from my Master of Arts Cross-Cultural Communication degree! I guess it still doesn’tfeel real without the actual diploma in my hand, but I am so relieved all the hard work of the past two years has paid off!

If we were having coffee today, I’d confess that I couldn’t find the right words last week to describe my feelings about the US election, and I don’t even live there. As a German, I am keenly aware of how my country’s past gets thrown in our faces at the slightest mention of anything political. Which is why I find it so incomprehensible that the US elected someone who not only spewed the same sort of right-wing rhetoric, but has spent his entire campaign promoting racism, sexual assault, misogyny, xenophobia, religious persecution, violation of rights and pretty much everything else that is wrong with society under the sun. Basically, when all of Germany says “Listen, we elected someone with those ideas and ideals in the 1930s and we all know what happened after that, so don’t repeat our mistake” … you should probably listen. And I am glad that most of my friends not only voted for someone else, but are actively involved in peaceful protests and resistance because they, like me, believe in decency, freedom and equal rights, and that the global society simply cannot allow for 70 years of social and civil progress to be undone. I’m not saying that every Trump supporter is a racist, because that’s the sort of generalising these people would use to justify their ideas that every muslim is a terrorist, every Mexican immigrant is a criminal or (my personal favourite that makes the rounds every now and then) every German is a Nazi. That’s definitely not the case and it is highly offensive to judge an entire culture by the actions of a few deluded individuals.  But those who do not actively distance themsleves from all the issues I mentioned above, for example by speaking up for others, defending them or standing with them in solidarity when it really matters, are fair game in my eyes.

I also appreciated the flood of Joe Biden memes and all the  Firefly references that flooded my Facebook wall after the election:

And I want you to know I’m right there with you. I’ve studied cross-cultural communication for a few years now, but only in 2016 with Brexit, the continuing refugee crisis, Standing Rock, and now this election, has it become clear to me just how much calm, non-violent, mutually respectful cross-cultural communication is needed in this world, and I hope that I can do my part to contribute to it. After all, Browncoats have to stick together.

If we were having coffee today, I’d tell you that my Bookstagram is coming along, although I fell a few days behind. It is harder than I expected to take photos of books based on a certain theme and including relevant props.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you that I did my back in again last Sunday. Not sure how, I came home from the cinema and could barely move. By now it’s not as bad anymore, but this week was agony. I tried all week to clean and tidy my flat, because technically I was expecting company today and tomorrow in the form of my cousin Fabian, but he is sick, so he couldn’t join us for coffee. It’s taken me longer than I thought to get the flat in order, partly because I could barely move or bend, but also partly because once I started to tidy my bookshelves I couldn’t stop and rearranged my entire living room. As you do. Add to that, that I received 18 books this week (12 classic Penguin books and 6 vintage James Bons books) that I somehow had to fit in as well.

If we were having coffee today, I’d tell oyu that I am excited about The Broke & Bookish’s Secret Santa. Have you joined up? They run a global Secret Santa, and you can choose your level of participation (from 1 book and a candy bar, 1-2 books and goodies to 2+ books and goodies) and I chose the last one. I got my Secret Santa this week and I am so excited. We all had to fill a pretty detailed questionnaire about books on our wishlists, favourite authors, hobbies and other interests etc. My Secret Santa will get 3 books (2 of which are slightly used but they specified that is not a problem for them), a homemade Field Notes sized calendar (which I use myself but won’t be selling this year), a homemade A5 indexed Book Inventory booklet and a reading tracker/review, as well as a tub of homemade Christmas cookies (“Berliner Brot”). I hope they like those goodies – would you be okay with homemade things if you expect goodies? I used to sell them through my Etsy shop, but I do not have time for that this year as I do everything from page design to binding myself and that’s more work than it looks like. My printer is also malfunctioning, so I can’t print them out properly – I’ll be printing these gifts off somewhere else but I couldn’t do that for bulk orders. Here’s what the calendar looks like:

If we were having coffee today, I’d tell you that all things considered, this week was a pretty geeky one for me. Not only did I receive so many books, I also placed orders for a few small items relating to my fandoms. If my cousin hadn’t been sick today, we’d have spent the day buying more books and watching our favourite shows – possibly Doctor Who or Firefly. As it is, I am having a Firefly marathon by myself and you’re more than welcome to join me.

Anyway, that’s enough from me for this week I think. Check out the other Weekend Coffee Sharers as well, I’m sure they’d love to see you!

Thank you for having coffee with me. Same time, next week?