Tag: book recommendation
The full title is Prisoners of Geography: Ten maps that tell you everything you need to know about global politics, and I can’t believe I only got around to read this great book now. Although I wouldn’t describe it as a summer read, I enjoyed reading it out in the sun on a long weekend off recently. 📷: Goodreads I couldn’t exactly tell what I’ve expected from this book, but it sure exceeded my expectations in many different ways. It is almost like academic writing in a journalistic style, reciting history and stories of world affairs about how much geography…
This Monday I attended a special event in Budapest organized by the Hungarian publisher of Loretta Napoleoni’s latest book “Merchants of Men: How Jihadists and ISIS Turned Kidnapping and Refugee Trafficking into a Multi-Billion Dollar Business”, that just came out in Hungarian. Loretta Napoleoni talked about the essence of the book which is the evolution of the financing of terrorist organizations. After 9.11 ransom paid by foreign governments for their kidnapped citizens became the most important source of funding for terrorist organizations throughout most the Arab world. It involved kidnapping of tourists, journalists and aid workers in countries like Libya (where…
December reads This month after I finished Kofi Annan’s Interventions (of which I still owe you a review) I read a great and long novel by my favorite Hungarian author, one of the works of my favorite Hungarian feminist sociologists – although not a study this time, but a romance, another Hungarian book I read in only an afternoon (yes, Hungarian Christmas candies were involved…), an English novel throughout a journey back from the countryside (and back from Christmas to weekdays), a wonderful women’s guidance book I got for Christmas and a tale everyone needs to read once in a…
First of all, instead of random book titles once in a while, I decided to do a monthly book recommendation post from now on. November was rather poor for me on that front, with only four full books finished, while I am also making progress with my first ever Spanish language book, and learning a lot. What I read in November included two classics, one Hungarian romance (sort of) and the long anticipated memoirs of former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. Many might find strange that I have never read Lolita and The Great Gatsby before, but in Hungary neither…
I ordered it like seven weeks ago from Amazon, then I waited and waited and it hasn’t arrived. Then they sent me a replacement copy, then the original one arrived and for some reason I had to send the first one back and wait for the replacement which I ordered to an alternate address that is further away from me now, so I had to wait another week until I finally got my book in my hands… Anyway, shoutout to UKPaperbackshop for their plain-dealing client service, I’ve never had any dispute like this with any retailer and they really were…
Book: Asszony a fronton (Polcz Alaine)
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert Why I never had to read this one in high school, I cannot recall now, probably it would have been due at the time when we skipped a whole shool year’s curriculum with our rather negligent teacher. So it’s just one of the classics that I missed out back then, but now there’s only a few left that I haven’t made up yet. Anyway, it’s better late than never…
Kofi Annan interview with Charlie Rose Finally got around to watch this very good interview with Mr. Annan about issues in his book and some more current world affairs.
Könyv: Tövispuszta (Kepes András)
Darkness at Noon | Book by Arthur Koestler – Simon & Schuster “It was quiet in the cell. Rubashov heard only the creaking of his steps on the tiles. Six and a half steps to the door, whence they must come to fetch him, six and a half steps to the window, behind which night was falling. Soon it would be over. But when he asked himself, ‘For what actually are you dying?’ he found no answer.” One of the most famous novels of Hungarian born author Arthur Koestler and one of the most daring political novels of the 1940s. …