The River of Lost Footsteps: A Personal History of Burma - Thant Myint-U

The author of this book is an American writer of Burmese descent. His grandfather was a colleague and close friend of the heroes of Burmese independence and the Secretary-general of the UN from 1962 to 1971. Aung San Suu Kyi, the National League for Democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was a frequent guest at his family's house in New York, before the 1988 uprising.

Angela's ashes - Frank McCourt

I'm not sure how Frank McCourt managed to write such a heart rendering story about poverty, alcoholism, child mortality and hunger that still paints lots of smiles on the reader's face. It's a wonderful gift for an author and a story teller in general.

Napoleon - David Chandler

David Chandler is one of the most celebrated English speaking expert on Napoleon Bonaparte's life. His most critically acclaimed work on the subject is The campaigns of Napoleon, which contains a lot of military related details. Even though I'm not a fan of that side of the story, the life of Napoleon is an extremely interesting topic, as the Corsican was not only a military genius but also had a profound impact on European and world history, society, politics, law and culture.

On the black hill - Bruce Chatwin

I’ve had Bruce Chatwin on my author list for a long time. I thought he was mainly a travel writer: I remember some friends of mine referring to “In Patagonia” and “What am I doing here” as great travel literature. When I found “On the black hill” on the shelves of one of my favorite used book stores I realized that he wrote fiction as well.

Confessions of a citizen (Egy polgár vallomásai) - Sándor Márai

Some chapters of this book read like an autobiography, others like a travel diary. And yet, the whole work is probably neither. It starts with the author's upbringing in a Magyar hometown, before WWI put an end to the Austro-Hungarian empire. After that Sándor Márai started to travel abroad. This is a summary of those years: a collection of impressions, experiences and encounters of a clever, refined, erudite and restless young man, moving around Europe between the two world wars. Tension is in the air. Excitement, desperation and extravagance as well.