"A bit choppy, but a nice uncomplicated read for an early morning commute"
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bookshelves: 2009, historical, non-fiction, travel
It has taken me forever to read this book, for a number of reasons. I originally picked it up in July before a planned trip to Hungary in September, but it has taken me 5 months to actually get to the end. Other, more interesting books got in the way. I owned this books o there was no rush to finish it before it needed returning to the library. I thought maybe going to the country and being able to relate to the locations in the book might help. All these things put me off getting to the end quicker. But the main reason was the book itself. I didn’t find it actually helped me with any of the details around the revolution. There were bits and pieces here and there, which you could tell were dated (the book was originally published in 1957). Then there was the author’s insistence that Hungarians had always been picked upon in conflicts, and that they were never wrong. In this particular instance I tend to believe that line, in other parts of history it’s not so black and white. The “surprising” fact that only 1% of the refugees had anything to do with the revolution is hardly surprising neither was the fact that most Hungarians did not feel “liberated” by the Russians (sound familiar with recent conflicts and other countries being “liberated”?).
I need to find a book that documents the story of the revolution a bit clearer and in broader terms. Between this book and a visit to the House of Terror in Budapest, I feel that I really don’t know much about it at all, which is rather disappointing.
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bookshelves: 2009, audio-book, chick-lit, currently-reading, fiction
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"Just over 50 pages to go, thankfully, it's taken me so long."
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bookshelves: 2009, audio-book, fiction
Although this was set in some exotic locations, in a more "exotic" time. I found it repetitive, boring and sexist (as was pointed out to me - I can't believe I missed it).
Follow your dreams, blah, blah, blah.
Listen to your heart, blah, blah, blah.
Follow your destiny, blah, blah, blah.
And the sexist part? Women of the desert are use to waiting and will wait for you to follow your dreams, becuase they are only women and their destiny is to wait for you to meet your's. Reading than maybe I should have given it a 1.....but that's right it did have some exotic settings. ]]>
bookshelves: audio-book, didn-t-finish, fiction
The best thing about this was the narrators voice.
The story was blah, but it was mainly the detail i couldn't stand listening to, so maybe if you had a stronger stomach it would be ok?
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bookshelves: 2009, memoir, non-fiction
In a nut shell? Howard was a brat. Lou was the evil stepmother. Howards father would do anything for his wife Lou, even though that included having a labotomy on his son.
The most interesting part was going through the old medical record notes. But it read like a child had written it (perhaps a side effect of a labotomy, but something they sort of skim over). It would have been more interesting if there was some interaction with what the effects of a labotomy actually are. ]]>
bookshelves: award-winner, fiction, historical-fiction, to-read, ya
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bookshelves: chick-lit, fiction, to-read
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bookshelves: award-winner, historical, memoir, non-fiction, to-read
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