Books that I would like to read in Hungarian
Benjamin Read – Laura Trinder: The Midnight Hunt (Chicken House 2021) The concluding part of The Midnight Hour Trilogy. The authors created a world frozen in the Victorian era that continues to exist in modern London. At first, Emily is just trying to find her missing parents in this strange dark, yet peculiarly homely world, but to do so, she must face a force that threatens both worlds and can only rely on her special ability in battle: she is terribly annoying. In the last act, they have to fight a decisive battle for the Midnight Hour to survive. Jennifer Chambliss Bertman: The Book Scavenger – The Alcatraz Escape (Henry Holt & Company 2018) The main protagonist of the trilogy, Emily, plays a game in which books can be found by solving puzzles and then hide them again (the game has been real since then). The inventor of the game,…
New releases which I’m looking forward to read (January to March 2022)
Michelle Harrison: A Storm of Sisters (Simon and Schuster 2022) Two of Michelle Harrison’s books on the adventures of the Widdershins girls are now available also in Hungarian. The fourth volume of the series will be published in English in February. The characteristic of the series is that the episodes can be read separately, it is not necessary to go in order. I liked the first two books so much that I’m just reading the third in English so I can start the fourth in February. I don’t know how much trouble the girls will get into, but it is certain that bad luck will haunt them… Tamzin Merchant: The Mapmakers (Penguin Random House 2022) Tamzin Merchant has been featured in movies and series since she was 17 years old. Her first book, The Hatmakers, is already published in Hungarian, introduces us to a world where making hats, capes, watches…
My Christmas presents
The Very Merry Murder Club, Edited by Serena Patel and Robin Stevens (HarperCollins Publishers 2021) This book is an anthology of crime and mysterious stories during Christmas and festive period by British authors. I had already read this because I was really looking forward to its release and wanted to read while sitting under the Christmas tree. So far, I’ve known Dominique Valente from the authors because the Starfell series is my new favorite this year. I really enjoyed the short stories. They were all very different and the characters were also very diverse. I love anthologies because it allows us to get to know writers we haven’t read from before. Annaliese Avery: The Nightsilver Promise (Scholastic 2021) The story takes place in a “parallel” London, the capital of the Empire of Albion. Paisley Fitzwilliam has always wanted to be an explorer like her father, but here the children’s future…
The Last Sheep
Ulrich Hub: The Last Sheep (Das letzte Schaf, Carlsen Verlag 2018) Ulrich Hub’s book is one of the winners of the Children’s Book of the Year Award in 2021 in Hungary. Every year, the HUBBY – Hungarian Children’s Book Forum selects books published in the previous year and they have already announced winners in seven categories. Ulrich Hub is a German writer, actor, director and screenwriter. He became world-famous with his first book, Meet at the Ark at Eight! and won prestigious awards in Germany, France, The Netherlands and Italy. Jörg Mühle was born in Germany but studied to be an illustrator in France. He has been working as a freelance illustrator in Frankfurt since 2000 and his drawings are published by many children’s book publishers and newspapers. The story of The Last Sheep begins on the very first Christmas Eve, the day of Jesus’ birth. It is not enough…
Hotel Winterhouse
Ben Guterson: Winterhouse (Macmillan Publishing Group 2018) Ben Guterson worked as a public school teacher in a Navajo reservation in New Mexico. In the meantime, he has written articles and book reviews for local magazines and alsomade a travel guide. After working for Microsoft for years, he eventually returned to writing. Winterhouse is his first book. Orphan Elizabeth Somers spends her days unanimously with her aunt and uncle until she is once invited to the Winterhouse Hotel for the winter break. In the huge library of this beautiful hotel, she finds a book full of puzzles, which may be the key to solving the mysteries of the hotel itself. However, Elizabeth has no idea what the dangers of the research are. The idea for writing the book came from the author’s daughter, who one day suggested to him that he should carry a notebook around with him to draw and…
Greenglass House
Kate Milford: Greenglass House (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2014) Kate Milford’s book, the New York Times bestseller Greenglass House, has won the prestigious Edgar Award in the Best Juvenile Mystery category and has been featured on the Amazon Best Book of the Year list along with several nominations. A sequel to the story and several accompanying volumes have been published since then. It’s very interesting to me that other stories going on in the world of the book have also been released, especially the book that the characters are reading in the first volume. The author currently lives in Brooklyn with her family and besides writing, she also works as a journalist. Greenglass House is a huge old manor that looked as if it had been cobbled together from dozens of different buildings. It got its name from its green glass windows. It stands on a hillside not far from an…
Tolkien’s Christmas letters
J.R.R. Tolkien: Letters from Father Christmas (HarperCollins Publishers 2012) J.R.R. Tolkien’s name must probably be known to everybody, as his two greatest works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings have worldwide fame. However, in addition to these, the author has published several other works from his tales (you can read more about these here) to his lectures at the university (The Monsters and the Critics). The letters written by Father Christmas to Tolkien’s children were first published in 1976 edited by Baillie Tolkien (the wife of the writer’s son, Christopher). Tolkien’s children received not only presents in their socks every year on Christmas morning, but also a lovely letter from Father Christmas. The first letter was addressed to the author’s eldest son, John, at the age of three in 1920, and the letters came until each of the four children reached adolescence: the last letter was received by…
Japanese Fairy Tales
Yei Theodora Ozaki: Japanese Fairy Tales (first published by Kelly and Walsh in 1903) Many thanks to Digi-Book Kiadó for sending me the book! You can read about Scottish and Celtic fairy tales published by Digi-Book Kiadó previously on BogiWrites. The Japanese tales of this volume are available for the first time in Hungarian, translated by Dr. László Bujtor. The glossary at the end of the volume helps the understanding of Japanese terms that appear in the stories. In this beautiful edition, I would highlight the wonderful eggshell-colored sheets and the ink and pen drawings at the end of the chapters, which are works by Japanese artists and make the book even more “Japanese”. In the book we can read 21 tales of Japanese and one Chinese origin, which come from collections published in the 8th and 10th centuries, and which, until their collection in the 19th century, spread only…
The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus
L. Frank Baum: The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus (Macmillan Collector’s Library 2017, first published in 1902) L. Frank Baum was born in 1856 in Syracuse, USA. He had both German and English ancestry, and their family had a long tradition of celebrating Christmas, including decorating the tree and wearing Santa Claus costumes. The writer worked in the oil industry, running a theater and a household store, but inventing and telling stories has always played an important role in his life. In 1900, he published his most famous work, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which led children’s bestseller list for two years, and its musical adaptation conquered the Broadway. Two years after his first great success, he wrote a book about the story of Santa Claus. Although there is no historical evidence for his existence, it is believed that St. Nicholas was born in A.D. 280 in the town…
Christmas Crimes
Agatha Christie: Karácsonyi krimik (Christmas Crimes*, Európa Könyvkiadó 2019) Agatha Christie: Midwinter Murder (HarperCollins Publishers 2020) Cecily Gayford: Murder at Christmas (Profile Books Ltd. 2019) Christmas was a very important holiday for Agatha Christie. It provides the background for several of her stories and she always wanted to wish her readers a pleasant holiday with a new book every year. The three Poirot and one Miss Marple Christmas stories were first collected in one volume in 2019 for the benefit of Hungarian readers. In Midwinter Murder, we can read stories that take place not only at Christmas but throughout this time of the year as well. We find stories starring the two most famous detectives, as well as the adventures of perhaps the lesser-known Parker Pyne, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford or the mysterious Mr. Quin. It is very pleasant to read short stories with winter wibes during this period and…