They Were Counted by Miklos Banffy

Wow, what a book! I loved this and I have to admit when I lost my Smart Phone part of me was thinking, never mind Jane, now you have more time on the train to read this instead of playing around on the Internet.

I found this by accident on the Kindle store.  It's the first part of a trilogy based around the last days of the Austro-Hungarian empire, 1904-1914, ending with the assassination of Franz-Ferdinand in Sarajevo.  To be honest I thought it would be a bit slow and heavy.  But no way, it has been amazing and this morning I downloaded the other two parts.  I am addicted! 

I have successfully  been transported to life in Transylvania and Budapest between 1904 and 1906. the main character is a lovely, aristocratic naive guy who has returned back to his Mother in their castle and how he falls in love with Adrienne, who is married to a sadistic, evil bastard.

Things I have learnt thanks to this book:

How women in this society wear the metaphorical trousers and run the households like a tight ship. How men can lose everything over the gambling tables.  How to entertain a big-wig at a game shoot who can't shoot straight. How to organise a duel.  How to save villagers from pay day loan sharks.  How to camp in the forest with the gypsies. How poor men manipulate rich women of marriageable age for money.  How servant girls are so easily abused.  How women are nothing more than their husbands possessions.  How to have a successful, secret, illicit affair.  How to trash parliament and have a riot.  How to manipulate the weak (both poor and rich). What to wear to a Ball and what to drink until 6 in the morning if you don't want to collapse in your own vomit.

Yes, it's like a funnier and wittier War and Peace.  A book full of people and life and humanity.  I have laughed and cried and I can't believe that this book is virtually unknown. I suppose Austro Hungary 100 years ago doesn't interest many people here. But it is the characters and stories which are the great pull!  Yes, I loved it but I am a true romantic sucker for castles, duels and doomed love stories.  

Here is a good review, which is exactly my opinion too.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/aug/05/writing-wall-miklos-banffy-summer-readings

State of Wonder

This book did  take a while to get into but as soon as it settled into being based in the Amazon Jungle it was fabulous.   As most people know, I do like a little bit of travel, but the Amazon has never been high on my agenda, and after reading this I can see why!   Ann Patchett really does make you feel like you are there with the doctors and the researchers, totally out of their depths in this alien environment.  Surrounded by the suffocating trees, the local tribes,  the dangerous waters and the massive snakes that can appear from anywhere.  Not to mention the psychedelic mushrooms, the tree eating women and the  mysterious death of a scientist. You really feel part of the action!
  This book is a mixture of a modern Heart of Darkness and a block buster fantasy fiction movie. I love the way Ann Patchett tells her stories.  She really pulls you in and you can see everything so vividly.  I  feel like I have been out in the Amazon with them all! (Much cheaper than a plane ticket.)  She makes it all so unglamourous and you can almost smell the sweaty bodies and feel the stifling heat!  You really get into the heads of these scientists and doctors who are being paid secretly by a pharmaceutical company  to find new drugs.  The secrets which they do find  are  amazing and pretty controversial.
I'm not going to write anymore because I don't want to ruin it for anyone who wants to read it.   Stick with the first 100 pages...the momentum soon picks up!

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

I'm a bit stumped with what to write about this book.  I took it on holiday with me and it should have been a quick read but it ended up being in my bag , living in there, for the majority of my trip!!  But hey, I'm not sure if this book was for me because I think it was written primarily for non-Brits or ex-Pats with a strong cliched idea of what village life in England is/was about.
 I just found all of the characters totally and absolutely unbelievable.  In fact, apart from the main two characters  everyone was  either a caricature of little Englanders from the 1950s or 'evil' Muslims dropped into the book for dramatic affect.( Major Pettigrew should have just shot his annoying son by page 10 and done us all a favour.)
 I didn't feel any empathy for any of the characters and even though it was sold as a Love Story it all seemed  totally sterile and soulless to me. When I found out the Major was only 68 I nearly spat out my Croatian beer, to me he seemed at least 87! When one of the village kids was told off for playing with a kid from a 'One-parent-family'  I almost spat out my Bosnian sausage!   Was this author for real?  Was this really written just a few years ago?!  I then found out that the author hasn't lived in the UK for years.  It showed! This book was described on the back as being 'quirky and full of charm'.  Bullshit, it was as dull and dank as village ditch water.