Luxembourg national Anne-Marie Reuter, pictured, is an English teacher, a published author and co-founder of the country’s first English publishing house Black Fountain Press Maison Moderne

Luxembourg national Anne-Marie Reuter, pictured, is an English teacher, a published author and co-founder of the country’s first English publishing house Black Fountain Press Maison Moderne

Delano invited co-founder of Luxembourg’s first English publishing house Black Fountain Press Anne-Marie Reuter to share her top 3 books that need a space in your luggage.  

“The Sudden Appearance of Hope”

By Claire North

A thrilling futuristic, slightly dystopian outlook on a world that is controlled by an app called ‘Perfection’, with a formidable main character who cannot be remembered by anyone and therefore enjoys perfect freedom. ‘Perfection’ works like a fitness or health app. While changing its followers’ lives in frightening ways, it delivers important information to an elite of ‘perfect’ people and places medical scientists at the difficult crossroads of ethics and scientific progress.

“Philosophy bites again”

By David Edmonds & Nigel Warburton

An inspiring and stimulating Oxford University publication of 27 interviews with leading thinkers in philosophy on topics like humour, animal abolitionism or torture. An entertaining read in accessible, clear language, often humorous: philosophy on the go.

“Hillbilly Elegy – A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis”

By J.D. Vance

An analysis of the struggles of America’s white working class and the political problems faced by the US today. Using the example of his own family, originally from Kentucky, now based in Ohio, Vance points his finger at the reasons for people’s discontent: unemployment, alcoholism, lack of education, but also a wrong work ethic, unjustified expectations of help, and the prominence of Christian fundamentalism as the answer to all problems. He denounces what he calls a “learned helplessness”.

Reminiscent of James Joyce or Frank McCourt, Vance’s account of his childhood and teenage years is subtle and clear-sighted. He takes the family, the smallest social unit, as a starting point, to show how personal experience continues to shape, in repetitive patterns, the attitudes of vast groups of people with similar psychological problems linked to similar backgrounds. Vance’s memoir is deeply moving, thought-provoking--and of universal value: the private influences the public everywhere, not just in America.

Luxembourg national Anne-Marie Reuter is an English teacher, a published author and co-founder of the country’s first English publishing house Black Fountain Press.