18th book - "Machu Picchu" - Berthold Riese - 8 points

"Machu Picchu - Die geheimnisvolle Stadt der Inka" (The mysterious city of the Inka).
An excellent and short onehundred pages overview about the Inka and especially their mysterious city Machu Picchu. It gives us a quick introduction about its official US-American "re-"discoverer Bingham (happened 1911) and a more detailed description about the ancient ruins.
Machu Picchu was built (starting date in the mid 15th century) for around 2,000 citizens (wikipedia says 1,000). It was used for about a century (?) only and when the city was left by intention and very organized it was still under construction in certain areas.
What I found most interesting is the fact that some deformations in the stone construction were discovered which is said to be a secret erosion and it is possible that an earthquake can destroy Machu Picchu almost completely.
The author Berthold Riese is professor for ethnology at the university in Bonn.
I read the 2004 German language edition published by Verlag C.H. Beck oHG, München.

17th book - "Frühstück bei Tiffany" - Truman Capote - 8 points

Truman Capote's (1924 - 1984) "Breakfast at Tiffany's" - the famous movie with Audrey Hepburn.
Another book of a "Bad Girl", called Holly Golightly who escapes Texas to go to New York City. The story is set in the 1940's. Holly is a party girl and likes to be around rich guys, but actually falls in a love (?) with her neighbor a poor writer.
The story happens in the Upper East Side neighborhood, where I live now.
I read the Lizensausgabe für die Süddeutsche Zeitung / Bibliothek 2007. Originally published 1950.