Fascism by Madeleine K. Albright

March 15, 2019 by Christina

Nonfiction – Kindle edition. Harper Perennial, 2019. Originally published 2018. 320 pgs. Library copy. In the conclusion of her book, Albright says that some may find the title of her book to be alarmist, but it is her belief that we are living in an alarming time. Her assertion holds gravitas because of her credentials – she served as the United States Secretary of State and the Ambassador to the United Nations from 1993 to 2001 – and her personal […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Asia, Balkans, Europe, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Nonfiction, North America, Poland, Russia, South America, United States • Tags: Madeleine K. Albright

The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer

March 10, 2015 by Christina

Fiction — print. Vintage, 2011. 758 pgs. Purchased. In 1937, Andras Lévi arrives in Paris to attend architecture college from Budapest on scholarship with a letter he promised an elderly, wealthy woman he knows through the connections of the Jewish community that he would deliver. The woman’s twenty-something son provides Andras with a place to sleep until he can find his own apartment in the city’s Latin Quarter; the woman’s thirty-something daughter, Klara, receives the letter without revealing the mysterious […]

Categories: 2015 Reads, Chunkster, Europe, Fiction, Hungary, Women's Prize • Tags: Julie Orringer

Cities After Socialism by Gregory Andrusz, Michael Harloe, and Ivan Szelenyi

April 23, 2012 by Christina

Nonfiction — print. Blackwell Publishers, 1996. 340 pgs. Borrowed from a professor. I’m not very good at visiting my professors during office hours unless I’ve received a bad grade or I’m asking for a recommendation letter. Visit a professor for advice on a paper? Never! Yet this book has me completely rethinking my refusal. I had hit a wall with my final paper for my social justice class because, while I did have an idea, it was so grandiose and […]

Categories: 2012 Reads, Economics, Europe, Hungary, Nonfiction • Tags: Gregory Andrusz, Ivan Szelenyi, Michael Harloe

Embers by Sándor Márai

August 15, 2011 by Christina

Fiction — print. Translated from the Hungarian by Carol Brown Janeway. Vintage, 2002. Originally published 1942. 224 pgs. Purchased. I purchased this book simply because it was written by a Hungarian. Since traveling to Hungary in March of this year, I’ve wanted to read more Hungarian literature. Márai’s novel was published in Budapest in 1942 but lost until 2001. At the surface the novel is about an old aristocrat named General/Henrik waiting to greet the friend named Konrad he has […]

Categories: 2011 Reads, Europe, Fiction, Hungarian, Hungary, Translated • Tags: Sándor Márai

Hungary and Poland Guidebooks

March 1, 2011 by Christina

My parents and I decided to visit Hungary next week on a whim. Flying home to Montana from university is both incredibly expensive and time consuming; I can fly from here to London in less time. My mother and I were discussing how much easier it is for me to get to Europe from where I currently live, how we could trade their timeshare for a place in Europe. Hungary was the only place we had not visit previously before, […]

Categories: 2011 Reads, Europe, Hungary, Nonfiction, Poland, Travel • Tags: Cameron Hewitt, Craig Turp, Norm Longley, Rick Steves

Imre Nagy, Martyr of the Nation by Karl P. Benziger

February 17, 2011 by Christina

Nonfiction — print. Lexington Books, 2008. 208 pgs. Library copy. I was first introduced to Imre Nagy in Michener’s The Bridge of Andau and the portrayal of Nagy in that book was fairly ambivalent — he became prime minister during the Hungarians revolted against the Soviet Union but look at these average, everyday people who really were the revolutionists. However, that’s not the reason why I picked up Benziger’s book; I was actually intrigued by the subtitle of this book, […]

Categories: 2011 Reads, Europe, Hungary, Nonfiction • Tags: Karl P. Benziger

The Bridge at Andau by James A. Michener

January 17, 2011 by Christina

Nonfiction — print. Random House, 1957. 272 pgs. Library copy. I decided to read this book for two reasons; the first being that I will be travel to Hungary in March and know little about the country outside of the days of the Nazis and Arrow Cross, and the second that I consider Michener one of my favorite authors but have read of his nonfiction. The cover of my book says that this book is “the heroic story of the […]

Categories: 2011 Reads, Europe, Hungary, Nonfiction • Tags: James A. Michener