Looking back on this summer, every book I picked up helped me dive deep behind the scenes. It wasn’t just the stories that drew me in, but the realization of how layered and complex the world we live in truly is.
The Story of the Female Body Through a New Lens
Elinor Cleghorn’s Suffering Women touched me deeply. Starting from her own experience—years of being dismissed and sent away before finally being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease—she launched a thorough investigation. Her research reveals just how much prejudice, mystification, and misdiagnosis have shaped the history of women’s healthcare.
Throughout my reading, a growing anger stirred inside me. How much physical and emotional pain, how many humiliations did our ancestors endure simply because they were born women! Cleghorn’s book offers not only a historical overview—from ancient times through witch trials, the birth of hysteria as a diagnosis, to the advent of contraception—but also shares many (often modern) stories that highlight how long women have suffered in silence.
Semmelweis: The Truth That Came Too Early
Gárdos Péter’s novel Semmelweis Ignác’s Brief Happiness brought a very different vibe to my summer evenings. Everyone knows Semmelweis’s story—from school or the recent film about his life. He discovered that disinfecting doctors’ hands could save countless lives. Yet, like many groundbreaking geniuses, he was mocked, rejected, and humiliated by his peers, ending up tragically isolated with his ideas.
Reading this, I felt the suffocating injustice surrounding him. Was his discovery really just ahead of its time? Or did he push his truth with a passion the world wasn’t ready to accept? What would I have felt in his place? And how many similar stories are unfolding around us right now? I closed the book, but the questions stayed open…
The Secret Side of Coco Chanel
Pamela Binnings Ewen’s novel Queen of Paris presents the legendary Coco Chanel’s life from a fresh perspective. We all know her for the little black dress and Chanel No. 5 perfume, but this book goes much deeper.
I’ve been avoiding war stories lately, but I couldn’t resist this one—and I’m glad I didn’t. It let me experience the tension of occupied Paris, the power plays behind the walls of the Hotel Ritz, and of course, Chanel herself—both generous and ruthless. Those familiar with her story know she worked as a spy during the war and made decisions that still divide opinions. This book reveals what led her down that path, without excusing her choices.
Behind the Scenes of the Hungarian Underworld
I’d read some of Dezső András’s books before (Hungarian Cola, Big Boss), but Mafiosos in Sweatpants struck me as his strongest novel yet. It felt like watching an old movie unfold, with scenes I vaguely remembered from childhood: criminals, secret files, explosions, old newspaper clippings, and legendary characters coming to life between the lines.
What made these books especially gripping for me was how they portray recent social changes. Who started where, what they became, and how they influenced their surroundings and even our country’s life. Facing this Hungarian reality was both chilling and impossible to put down. After finishing Cover Story, I couldn’t walk through Budapest without imagining half the population as spies or secret agents.
A Nighttime Adventure with the Hungarian Elite
Szabolcs Kordos’s books are always easy to read—you almost devour them. Maybe because we all love a little peek behind the curtain or a glimpse into other people’s lives. His novels reveal what life is really like in hospitality and hotel industries, offering a look inside Hungary’s elite world: wild parties, VIP lounges, secret clubs, and even the backstage of showbiz.
When you see beyond luxury and surface, you find the absurdity of social divides—funny, shocking, and thought-provoking all at once. Reading felt like I was in a parallel universe—sealed off and invisible to most of us. But honestly, I realized I don’t miss that universe in my life at all…
