Netherlands Books

I really enjoyed this book. It was such a great story and I could not help but keep flipping back to the front cover so I could look at the beautiful painting again and again! I will definately read this again.

I was fascinated with this book. I also bought the DVD and enjoyed it as well but books add so much more detail and information.

A very interesting and entertaining book. A great compliment to the movie. I had no clue as to who Vermeer was until I saw the movie and heard all about it from my fiance. I bought the book and movie for her for a Christmas gift. She let me leaf through the book and I found the images of his paintings to be breathtaking. The descriptions written about them in the book was very imformative. I would recommend this book accompany any purchase of the movie.

Johannes Vermeer, one of the famous Dutch painting masters from the seventeenth century, in the middle of his career created a portrait of a girl with a pearl earring, in a turban, often called "The Dutch Mona Lisa". The girl from the painting looks at us with mysterious expression, sometimes appears sad, sometimes hiding a smile... What is her story?

Tracy Chevalier created one possible version in her novel "Girl with a Pearl Earring" where some historical facts mix with fiction to create the beautiful story, vivid and colorful, reminiscent of Vermeer's paintings... The atmosphere of the book is incredible, unique, as if it were an account of an eye-witness and not the figment of the author's imagination.

Griet, a sixteen-year old daughter of a glass blower from Delft, disabled after a work-related accident, , from an impoverished, but hard- working family, inherited her father's artistic sensitivity. She starts a job as a servant at Vermeer's house and the painter becomes intrigued seeing her vegetable compositions. When Vermeer notices Griet, her life changes - she becomes his aide and, finally, a model for the famous portrait. She get a chance, but at the same time enters the different world, full of obstacles unfamiliar for her, and she needs to be careful. Their fascination with each other cannot last long...

In Holland of the 1600s the social order is strictly defined. The Protestants are completely separate from Catholics, the poor from the rich, the masters from the servants. This is why Griet and Vermeer do not even think about a romantic relationship, despite their similar view of the world. Johannes has to paint to feed his ever-growing family and satisfy his possessive, jealous wife, Catharina, who except being the mother of his children does not have much in common with him, and his mother-in-law, the greedy and conniving Maria Thinks, who manages very well to get more and more orders for his paintings. The portrait of a servant and the growing, although mainly spiritual, intimacy of the artist with Griet cause tension in the family and after a while Griet's dismissal seems inevitable and many intrigues and repressions from Vermeer's family members and friends make her leave. Such ending is obvious for all involved parties and any regrets remain unspoken... Griet marries Pieter, the cheerful butcher's son, and moves on. Only much later, the surprising gift reminds her of the time at the painter's home.

The characters are full of life: Vermeer, a full-blown artist; Griet, girl who in other reality could change her destiny; Catharina, a woman who does not see beyond her traditional role; Maria Thinks, clever and resourceful; and many other minor protagonists, sketched skillfully and with precision. It is easy to imagine the clothes, simple, ascetic surroundings, streets of Delft - the prose is very descriptive and full of details.

"Girl with a Pearl Earring" is an enjoyable book, but it is also one of the rare examples, where the film based on a novel exceeds it - the 2004 screening by Peter Webber with Scarlett Johansson and Colin Firth is a great movie.

Tracy Chevalier's depiction of societal abnormalities(at least in contrast to post-Marxist Soviet Union or post revolutionary France and America) richly delivers a tender story about a tender girl whose portrait has been named the Dutch Mona Lisa.

Embellishing stories into modern novels has been a successful and fun twist for many writers - perhaps with Maguire leading the 21st century on such with his wonderful twists to the "Wizard of Oz" and other classics. But to embellish upon the unwritten - rather to transform painted art into written art - makes the embellishment seemingly more complex and more impressive. This author looked at a painting and made a story of what happened before, during and after it was painted.

The plot has social injustice placed upon the 16-year old shoulders of Griet, the narrator and protagonist. Forced into becoming a maid because of her father's misfortune of being near a tile kiln when it exploded, from which he lost his sight and career, Griet's "involuntary servitude" offers the family its only chance of survival.

From there we learn she works for Johannes Vermeer--the famous Dutch painter of today. Vermeer came from the Dutch school that veered away from painting only religious relics, and focused instead upon persons and nature. "Is not painting God's creatures equally valuable?" Vermeer asks Griet when she is questioned about her asking him if all Catholics paint only crucifixes and biblical images.

But, even though the story is about a girl and an artist's family, the major theme is about social 17th century inequality in Holland. Social inequality of that time is worse than our 21st century minds can think. Children on Vermeer's house control Griet. Maria Thins, Vermeer's mother, controls the house. But, money controls them all. As Vermeer plodded slowly in his painting, the bills piled high and often unpaid. Behind the satin sheets and cloth drapes were the Vermeers who cowtowed to those who paid them, in a manner Griet did of her master in the Vermeer household.

Sadness resounds in the book. Joyful interludes exist, but are rare. Details about daily accounts at the backbreaking daily labours of the maid and others make one only agree how lucky they are not living then, there and in her shoes. And when we read a few hundred pages of the detailed travails of the teenage maid, we understand why the painting does not include a smile, does not include a twinkle in the eye, and does not include but a tiny hint of her hair color or length. Instead the eyes show obedience and hidden emotion. The outfit is totally unrevealing, unlike the busty aristocratic portraits. And, by such untold statements of her eyes and mouth and clothing, the portrait - especially after reading this book - tells us so much about the pains and misfortunes experienced by someone so young and otherwise innocent.

I found this book delightful and fascinating. Van Meegeren was not only a great artist in his own right but he could do it like Vermeer. And he was so meticulous. This was not someone who slapped paint on a canvas or forged a signature. Van Meegeren was a researcher, a scientist, who did everything right. I enjoyed reading the details of how he replicated the materials and techniques of Vermeer.

The greedy motivation of agents and curators came as a revelation to me. Yes, they are all wanting desperately to believe. The book has become my motivation for more reading about forgeries and art fraud. I've read False Impressions, Fakes and Forgeries: The True Crime Stories of History's Greatest Deceptions: The Criminals, the Scams, and the Victims, and several more. If you enjoy this, try Orson Wells old documentary F is for Fake.

I'm including some of this skullduggery in my own writing.

Fairlee Winfield

This book does have some gems in it--such as the process of creating the forged works--but in general this is just a boring book that never gets off the ground. You never like the main character and his life seems to not make sense--as if it were a forced narrative.

An artist friend suggested this title to me. Not being an artist, nor well-educated in art history, I began to read it only on the strength of his recommendation.

I was pleasantly surprised to find I Was Vermeer both interesting and educational. I was fascinated by Van Meegeren's methods and the politics of the art world. I'm intrigued by the fact that his forgeries still hang in prominent museums attributed to him. How ironic that his talent should be acknowledged after the fact (and fiction).

I've recommended I Was Vermeer to several of my friends.

I found this fascinating and not dry at all! I kept telling anyone who would listen the story. Highly recommended to Art History lovers.

This is a very interesting and well-written account of the "great" (if that word can be applied to a crook!) art forger Han van Meegeren, who during and before WWII made himself about $100,000,000 (in today's money) by painting and selling fake paintings by Vermeer and other Dutch Masters. The story is well-known in art history circles, but author Frank Wynne has made it accessible and entertaining to the general reader, and has brought it up to date as of 2004, with the famous (or infamous) Sotheby's sale, for $30,000,000, of a questionable Vermeer.

Even people who don't know a Vermeer from a Picasso are likely to be captivated by this story of high finance and low cunning. Hans van Meegeren was such an audacious rogue (artist, forger, con man, ladies' man, alcoholic) that he seems almost larger than life, especially in Wynne's witty and pointed retelling.

The book's appendices include a useful bibliography, list of websites, and summary of the present locations and status of Vermeer paintings and forgeries.

here's your unadulterated chance to see just how screwed up van gogh was. letter after letter after letter sitting on the pity pot writing to his younger brother whining for money, crying for assistance, guilting his brother into supporting his art...his art habit...his art addiction. ya know, after reading this book my perspective on van gogh changed. he struck me as an ultra-martyr (in the icky sense of the word), so big into self-pity. now, having since read a little more of his history - screwy parents, etc. - i have some more compassion for the guy and for why he was so screwed up, but these letters are honestly nothing short of tedious. one after the other, whining for money, then waxing eloquent about his art, which actually struck me often as quite manipulative - like he was justifying his existence and his productivity to theo.

anyway, i still think van gogh is a wonderful artist, but what a messed up life - can't miss that from these letters. but god, i wish they'd been even more edited. and one other thing - irving stone (the editor) thinks van gogh is one of the world's greatest writers and philosophers of all times, in addition to being the honcho primo artist. well, as for philosopher, sorry irving, no. the guy was miserable and depressed and lonely, and seemed to philosophize in his letters to just keep contact with the world, but his philosophy gets under my skin.

I, like the many reviewers of this book, was enthralled and inspired by this collection of letters when I first read it 25 years ago. I have recommended it to many friends. At the time I would have given it five stars or even more if they were available. Irving Stone writes in his preface "My aim has been to edit the 1670 pages of material down to a swiftly flowing, continuous normal-sized book..." He succeeded but even 25 years ago I was a little disturbed by the complete absence of indications where exactly Mr. Stone had done his cutting, or his editing. Today, in the age of internet we can now do some easy checking. The unabridged letters are on the net and reveal that basically what this Dear Theo is, is another novel written by Irving Stone. There is almost no resemblance to the original letters. The novelist has used his talents and the raw material to create a beautiful saga. Worth reading, but let the reader beware.

Vincent Van Gogh was a great painter, but not a writer. So these letters are of interest in terms of history and painting. The life of Van Gogh is better exposed here than it would have been in a "real" autobiography, because Theo, his younger brother, was the only real friend Vincent ever had. He was his supporter, admirer and listener, and in fact Vincent had an emotional dependence on his brother. People interested in the process of artistic creation and creativity will find this book of enormous value and interest, since Van Gogh speaks a lot about that process in himself, one of the greatest painters of all time. But it is true, as one reviewer said, that these letters include, each and every one, eternal whining and begging from Vincent to his brother. He was, of course, always out of money and, as a genius really disconnected from the common world, unable to make a living by conventional activities. So he depended almost entirely on Theo. I would like to insist in that, although by no means a literary accomplishment, these letters are worth reading, since they expose naked the soul of a great artist and an extremely sensitive man, certainly a tortured and twisted soul.

It is not as easy a read as Stone's van Gog biography Lust For Life, but for fans, it's a deep book.

Vincent tells of how he went into the fields to paint, and then a rain storm came. He sought meager shelter behind a big tree while it lasted, and then resumed. And because he had started with a low vantage point, he now had to stand on his knees in the mud! He seems to merely mention this to point out why he considers common workman's clothes to be the artist's best friend...

He also tells how he went out to paint the sea, in a storm so strong he could barely stay on his feet. One painting got so full of sand from the beach that he went to a nearby inn and retouched it... and then went back out into the storm to finish it with fresh impressions!

Today, most of us: "Go out with the camera today? Nah, it's a bit nippy, and I just got the Sopranos on DVD..."

Irving Stone edited Dear Theo, and while he may have done a good job generally, I think it was a disservice to the material to not indicate where he cut it. It is just one long text, no dates and no indication where each quote starts or ends.

These letters speak the truth of van Gogh. This book opens a window of knowledge on a man so misunderstood to the world. At 14, I absolutely am in love with this book. "Dear Theo" has ignited a fire in my soul, a burning desire to study art and the men behind the works.

Apparently the news that Otto Frank had sold some of his product for making jam to the Nazi Germany during the war caused quite a stir in the occupied country The Netherlands. What is really strange is how we create heroes out of people who do not choose to be heroes. Otto Frank was a remarkable man. The story of his life is equally remarkable. He was the father of one of the most famous people who ever lived, Anne Frank. If it were not for Otto, his daughter's diary would not have been published. The fact that he would want to edit things out that were personal to him and his wife is completely understandable. We will never know whether Anne would have published her diary if she had survived. This is a balanced portrait of a man caught in extraordinary times. If it had not been for the publishing of the diary we would probably never know about this survivor of the holocaust. I think he was quite remarkable.

While there are many things that are explained about the characters in Anne Frank already, this book goes into very deep detail about them, even more than what one would've thought possible. I will reinforce what has been said by saying that the text was a little dry at times, but still a good read.

Some of the complaints I have with this book are, the author tries way too hard to make Otto be the good guy. She contradicts herself when she does this. For example, she claims that Otto married Edith, Anne's mother because he was in need of money. She then goes into great detail about how he needed this for his business and his family, but leaves out that he married her for her money. There are several other little things like that in there, also.

Another thing is with Tonny Alhers. The entire book basically makes the case that Tonny Alhers turned the people living in the secret annex, but in the epilogue, she contradicts herself by suggesting that Tonny's wife did it.

Still, this is a very good and eye-opening book. It shows that there was a lot more issues that went on than is mentioned in the Diary.

I echo the previous reviews in that I did find the writing to be very dry at times, to the point that it was difficult to get through all but the most interesting parts of this book. But, in saying that, I have to admit that the parts I did find interesting were worth the 4 stars in and of themselves.

In reading the Diary of Anne Frank one of the things that you don't realize (or at least I didn't) is how thoroughly it's been edited. Otto Franks took great liberties in deciding what would and would not be shared with the public and after reading this book those edits, and the truth they hid, really shine through.

More than that, I found that Otto Franks to be as fascinating a person as his daughter (even if he is not as likable) and that fact made this book very enjoyable for me.

The Hidden Life of Otto Frank by Carol Ann Lee gives us a look at Anne Frank and her family from a different perspective, that of her father, Otto. The tragedy of Anne's short life is only heightened by the tragedy of her father's, who had to pick up his life and go on living after all of his family was destroyed by the Nazis. The fact that he was able to do so, and even become part of a new family is a real tribute to him. His absolute dedication to the memory of Anne and to the publication and promotion of her diary is laudable-- it is seen not only as a father's desperate attempt to retain some vestige of a daughter he obviously loved, but it is also his attempt to promote Anne's optimism and belief in the goodness of people.

Otto Frank's story is interesting enough; Ms. Lee did not need to spend so much time dwelling on the possible role of Tonny Ahlers into the betrayal of the Frank family. A short chapter would have been enough, but Ms. Lee keeps returning to her theory to hammer her point home. It is distracting from a book that has enough drama as it is. To me, the wonder is that the family was able to remain hidden for so long when it seems that there were actually many people on the outside who knew about the Secret Annex.

Generally children outlive their parents and hopefully become a credit to them. In the case of Otto Frank, however, it is he who is a credit to the memory of his extraordinary daughter.

I first saw this book while browsing through the bookstore, and was shocked by the title. It reminded me of too many tabloid books seeking to expose specious and degrading rumors. As someone who has read Anne's diary many times and who has had a great appreciation of her father from what I had read, I was curious as to what 'hidden life' would be brought against him. I started reading the book at the store, and luckily, it turned out better than what the title proclaimed it to be.

While I thought that the parts detailing Otto's life and his experience's with his family were interesting and well researched, I also felt that the parts about Tonny Ahlers were not so interesting. A lot of times I felt as though she was scrambling for a connection between Otto Frank and Tonny Ahlers when none was to be found. In all, I am not convinced by the proposition she put forth that Ahlers was the one who betrayed the Franks.

I often hated it when she finished talking about the Franks and moved on to Ahlers. If she had left Ahlers out, the book would have been a lot more enjoyable.

This is a great book especially if you like learning about the holocaust. It gets sad but is a very good book!!!!

" The Key is Lost" is about a twelve year old girl that has to move away because of WW two, everyone has to change there name too. The little girl's name was Eva Zilverstijn and then she had it changed to Marie- Louise Dutour. They had to take a train to Enschede. There they had to find a place to live during the war because they were Jewish. Days went by and the owner's of the house realized with more than one family in their house that one family had to move out. The family that had to move out was the Dutour. Do you think that when the family was on there way to another house they got there or did they get caught? This is a good book because it tells what can happen to you during world war two. When I first read the back of the book to see what it was about I really liked it because I wanted to see why she changed her name and what she changed it to. This is a sad book sometimes because the Jews had to have all of their stuff taken away and they were stuck with what they had.

I seriously considered putting the book down and starting a different book but it picked up after page 50. Since, though, this book is inspired heavily on real experiences I read on out of respect for the author. The tale of survival and hiding in Holland in WWII is amazing and I think often over looked in the retelling of that war.

The book could have been better with stronger editing. Keep reading past the slow and rather trite begining.

This book was an excellent outlook on life during the war. When you read from Lisa and Eva's point of view you understand what it must have been like for people during this time. This book was one of the greatest books I have ever read on the Holocaust.

Even though this book was written for preteens, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it as an adult. I had previously read 'Hide and Seek' for the first time at twelve and 'Anna Is Still Here' at fourteen, and had always vividly remembered them. I don't find Ida Vos's writing to be the usual kind of simplistic kiddy fare that only children want to read; the characters are memorable, the themes are thought-provoking, and the stories are timeless. It's also very striking how she always writes in the present tense. Before I read her first book, I'd had no idea a book could be written in the present tense, or that writing in the present tense makes a more compelling story than the usual style of writing in the past tense.

When twelve year old Eva Zilverstijn and her nine year old sister Lisa go into hiding, they are given the fake Huguenot names Marie-Louise and Marie-Jeanne Dutour. Their parents are also given fake names. Like the Hartogs in 'Hide and Seek,' the Zilverstijn family are also at first all together in hiding, even with a bunch of friends and relatives, till it becomes too dangerous to all be hiding together. The Zilverstijns move on to another hiding place, but before long that too becomes dangerous and the parents must hide separately from Eva and Lisa. Before they leave one another, their mother gives them each identical poems, about her hopes and dreams for them and for what they'll do after liberation. Each poem is addressed to their fake French names. We learn at the end of the book that those were the actual poems that Ida Vos and her little sister were given by their own mother before they had to separate, and she included the poem in the book as a way of paying tribute to her. She says she and her sister would always reread their poems before moving to a different hiding place, and it gave them courage and hope.

At first the girls stay with Eduard and Martha, and Martha's obnoxious young niece Trijntje, but things become dangerous and they have to be moved after the police crack down on a group of anti-Hitlerite Germans who have been secretly meeting in the house at night. They next stay with Big Mie and Skinny Rinus, who are also very good to them, but they also have to leave there after one of the boys who regularly comes over to eat Big Mie's pancakes sees her great-great-grandfather's antique rifles and reports it to his father, who in turn tells the police. All weapons were supposed to have been turned in by 20 September 1940, and there will most likely be trouble. The girls' friend Henny, a nurse in the underground, smuggles them to their final hiding place in an ambulance. For the rest of the war they hide with the sweet kindly puppeteer Amici Enfante, an old friend of theirs, who insists they call him Mr. Ami, since ami is French for "friend."

Though there is a happy end in this book like in 'Hide and Seek' and 'Anna Is Still Here,' it's not without its sense of loss, of being forced to come to terms with everything bad that has happened. In real life Ida and her sister were reunited with their parents, but they also lost friends, relatives, their house, and most of their belongings. And in a book written for this particular age group, who would want a depressing conclusion when there were enough real-life sad endings to stories like this?

This book was so great! I absolutely loved it. I am actually feeling kind of down right now because I finished it and don't know if I will be able to find another book as good. I actually had to sit up for the last 6 chapters because I was so into it. I loved that it was such a great story with fictional characters but had some historical facts as well mixed in. It had such a great romance story in it as well. Sara Young I am your newest #1 fan!!

It reminded me somewhat of The Kommandant's Girlwhich I loved as well.

I thought this book was quite entertaining. It kept me enthralled and turning the page so I was pleased. I do however feel that it almost fits better into the young adult category - even considering its dark subject matter. The narrative voice felt a little like something I'd read as a teenager, but I would recommend this book to anyone who likes to curl up with an entertaining read.

this book had me hooked from the first page to the last. it was so sad i cried but i was so happy at the ending. sara knows how to tell a story. i give this book 5 stars.

My praises to Sara young for incredible writing talent. I was so moved by the way she weaves a story so dark but yet capturing images of the beauty of everything around us. The detail is so real you can actually see it in your mind. It stayed with me long after I finished this amazing story.There is some mention in the book about the balance we need in our life. I believe the evil of the Nazi's is balanced with Cyrla's love and her ability to hope for a better life. It shows us all what we have in us to survive.I couldn't put this book down and it had a beautiful ending!

I don't read traditional "historical romance" novels. The faults [and there are many] I found with this this might be explained by the fact that I enjoy a different style of writing. What I don't understand are the blurbs by authors I, generally, enjoy. Jenna Blum's "Those Who Save Us' was incredible!! This book does not come close to Blum's work. My Enemy's Cradle is written in a very elementary way -- no challenges here. It makes the Nazi Lebensborn which Cyrla/Anneke enter seem almost like a spa. Lots of good food, a sympathetic nurse, etc. I agree with another 2 star reviewer and felt that this book does not truly engage the reader. Readers who enjoy a poetic style which engages will be, most likely, extremely disappointed. I'm somewhat aghast that a writer would write about such a dark period in our history in such an almost silly manner. It is [almost] offensive. If Young really wanted some authentic feedback, why not contact Shoah Foundation?? This book does not cut it --sorry to say. NOT RECOMMENDED FOR MATURE, SERIOUS READERS.

Thank God Joseph Heller kept writing after Catch 22! - at least so that Picture This could get written - the ONLY drawback about this book being its TITLE!! This book is just what critics say -spellbinding. As well you get a firsthand feeling of who Rembrandt is in his time and place - which is made totally relevant to present time time and place as well as Greek time and place centuries prior - very zen! But the title is not very zen it does not do justice to this story. Heller had a story to tell and it is a mind blower that keeps on giving! But he honestly does not seem to know what to CALL this or his other works after Catch 22(which was a great title oddly enough!)

Joseph Heller has been compared to Mark Twain and rightfully so. Like Twain, Heller has a sharp sense of humor and can easily point out the foibles of mankind. If you are looking for a modern novel with well developed characters and a plot- look elswhere. If you think you know anything at all about Rembrandt or life in the 17th century, then try this one on for size.
Heller's paints a picture of Rembrandt (and Aristotle) that makes them so human you can laugh out loud at them, and you will.

There are a lot of things I did expect when starting that "novel". A plot was one of them, some of the famous Heller wit another (this book really is unfunny, but keeps winking at you as if you're just a tiny little bit away from getting some cosmic joke it really is about). I didn't expect to be treated to a 326 page long variation of Larry King's obnoxious observations in USA Today, set in ancient Greece and Holland of the 16th/17th century. The chronology is totally mucked up, it seems not because of some artitistic reason, but because it was cobbled together without any sense of structure.

Finally, an author who seriously suggests that some of the dutch provinces are perhaps not even known to many INSIDE the Netherlands (hey Joe: this isn't the US you're writing about) doesn' instill too much confidence about getting his other facts right.

One of the few books in my life I didn't finish (maybe the second half is a LOT better).

PICTURE THIS is a paradox -- a mammoth delight and a monstrous disappointment. It's a startlingly imaginative work in which Heller blends three disparate times in history. Aristotle awakens as Rembrandt applies paint to canvas. When Rembrandt paints his ear, Aristotle hears. As the brush perfects the eyes, Aristotle sees. And always, Aristotle observes.

Heller portrays life in mid-17th century Amsterdam and in the 3rd century before Christ, commenting on similarities to modern living, jumping back and forth between the ages, and tracing the 300-year history of the portrait. It's quite a mix, and that's where the book fails. He just doesn't pull it off.

The book reminds me of a game of checkers played without rules. It's an uncoordinated hopscotch through centuries, filled with distractions, tangents and irrelevant side trips. It's as though he tried to combine several books into one and missed.

Heller's books (CATCH-22, GOD KNOWS, etc.) are unique. Maybe he just tried too hard to be different. The text lacks discipline, organization and the feel for language we expect from master writers. Paragraphs are disjointed, sentences are clumsy and overburdened. Too often they just plain don't make any sense.

"The great seaport city of Amsterdam was then the richest and busiest shipping center in the world. The great seaport city of Amsterdam was not a seaport but is situated a good seventy miles from the closest deepwater shipping facilities in the North Sea." That's amateurish and sloppy. And typical.

Heller's mediocre, journalistic style (reminiscent of Kurt Vonnegut's) is inadequate for the job he has cut out for himself. The superb, sensitive and imaginative scholarship displayed in PICTURE THIS deserves organized, disciplined, and equally sensitive writing. It didn't get it.

Would it be some kind of sacrilige to say that this is a better piece of writing than Catch-22 ? Catch-22 is a superior emotional and autobiographical work, for sure; it is his "best" because of how closely it pulls readers through the dark comedy of warfare, which Heller experienced firsthand. But Heller's particular brand of wit comes through in a different way here, and proves his mettle as a writer, and not just as someone who came back from WWII with a "story to tell." The soul of this book is a political one, but the generosity Heller shows his characters -- who just happen to be Rembrandt and Aristotle -- is wonderful. Catch-22 is immersed in the "present" in that wartime is all about surviving hour-by-hour; what's neat about Picture This is how it looks at democracy and capitalism as they have existed for centuries: Socrates was put to death for "corrupting the youth" long before the NSA turned the U.S. into a police state; likewise the Dutch found out what a mess capitalism was hundreds of years before Wall Street. The genius of this book is in that Heller never really explicitly points a finger at modern states, but just points at the trail of dead they've left over thousands of years. Heller pulls art and history through the lens of capitalism & corruption, and he's deadpan-funny while he does it. Also helping the cause: the last few lines of this book are my favorite ending to any novel, ever.

A fascinating account of several remarkable women who were lost in the mists of historical records, The Women of the House entertains its readers while still providing historical knowledge of the time period. Women were and will forever be crucial aspects of our society, yet they are constantly forgotten in history. This book allows us to look at the colonial lifestyles in a new way, in the perspective of a talented woman.

In 1659, one of the most remarkable women in history arrived at New Amsterdam, determined to establish her presence in the form of a she-merchant. Her name was Margaret Hardenbroeck, and she would be one of the first to defy societal norms and create a dynasty at Philipse Manor Hall. She arrived with a duty to serve as a representative for a trading business conducted by her cousin, a well-off merchant named Wouter Valck. Margaret had grown up in a middle-class family, and possessed particular skills in the art of business transactions. Arriving at Manhattan, she wasted no time and soon established herself as an important figure within the community. Within a couple months of settling, on October 10, 1659, Margaret wedded Pieter Rudolphus de Vries, who was six years older than her father. The couple hurried to the alter due to their coming baby, despite the Dutch Reformed Church's sinful outlook at premarital sex. By the time the hot sickness of 1661 killed Pieter, Margaret had become a young and financially secure woman. She then married Frederick Philipse, who would become her future business partner. Margaret bought three hundred acres of Westchester County in 1670 to create her storehouse, which would later be developed into the magnificent Philipse Manor Hall. After arranging the betrothals of all of her children, Margaret passed on peacefully in 1691, at age 54. Her property holdings spanned from Albany to the Barbados Islands, and she had become arguably the wealthiest woman in the area.

Margaret's death marked the beginnings of a new era for the rest of her family. Through the next two generations, her property and wealth would continue to expand, creating a rich legacy among the future owners of Philipse Manor Hall.

Zimmerman does a good job engaging her audience throughout the book. Although some parts would appear slow and insignificant, the book was overall very well written. One flaw of the book is its lack of historical basis. Because records containing information about these women have been lost or destroyed, it is nearly impossible to find first-hand accounts. Despite its lack of primary documents, the book appears to be complete in its description and rarely seems ambiguous or false.

The Women of the House traces the remarkable journey of Margaret and her successors. It provides excellent insight and creates a new perspective on life in Dutch America.

I bought this book for my wife and she would really like to rate it at 4 1/2 stars. Interesting characters in an interesting time, a you learn a great deal about New York and the changing position of women in society.

If the walls of the Philipse Manor Hall could talk, what stories would they tell? Zimmerman gives voice to the women who lived in the house, from humble beginnings to New York's high society.

Margaret (1659-1691) would become the richest woman in New York. She attended elementary school in Holland and would use her reading, writing and math skills to become a she merchant. She would own trade vessels, property in Manhattan, New Jersey, Albany and Barbados. Margaret would also have a family and raise five children. (She merchant was a term applied to females who were respected for their skills in commerce.)

Catherine (1652-1730) was an heiress who married Margaret's widowed husband, Frederick. She would build a church and was appointed the guardian of Frederick II, her step-grandson. Frederick II would inherit a large portion of Margaret and Frederick's estate.

Joanna (1700-1765?) married Frederick II. Due to the hard work and the business savvy of Margaret and Catherine, Joanna was able to be a society matron. I loved the description of the dessert buffet, complete with marzipan hedgehogs made by the hostess and her daughters.

Mary (1730-1825), Margaret's great granddaughter, was a beautiful socialite. She had a number of eligible bachelors after her hand in marriage, among them George Washington. Mary and her family lost most of the family fortune during the American Revolution.

The book also deals with the unethical practices of this time period: slavery and piracy. (However, in the 17th and 18th Century, many people did not think these practices were wrong.) Margaret and Frederick added to the family fortune through transporting and trafficking slaves from Africa. Frederick also did business with "the King of Pirates," trading in slaves, tobacco and rum. The Philipse family would continue to own slaves until the very end. They would also have a personal connection to a slave revolt.

Zimmerman makes the colonial period come alive with her storytelling and interesting trivia that ranges from hummingbirds to slave gangs. There are detailed notes for each chapter and sixteen pages of black and white pictures. It is unfortunate that the women in the Philipse family did not leave any journals or letters because it would have been interesting to read their own thoughts.

Armchair Interviews says: Travel back in time to meet the colorful inhabitants of Colonial New York.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It gave interesting insights into how colonial New York was developed, mixing the lives of one family with the broader stage of changing governments and cultural values. Great book!

Early America, and indeed most of the world, was a man's world. Women couldn't own property, vote, etc. etc. Margaret Hardenbroeck must have stood out as a wolf among sheep. In 1659 she moved to New Amsterdam (Manhattan) -- young (22), single, a business factor or agent for her family's business, a 'she-merchant' or today what we could call an entrepreneur.

Our limited studies of the women of the time usually show them as individuals but reflected in the light of their husbands. Martha Washington, Abigail Adams were indeed strong women, but we would never have heard of them except for their husbands.

Margaret made her own life, hers was not a reflection of her husband. She made her own way. She was probably not a nice person. In the way we think of Martha Stewart, she was tough. And as a slave trader we need to remember her in the light of her time, not of ours.

Much of the book covers life in New Amsterdam at the time, with only supposition that this was how Margaret lived or what she did. There was limited material available on her personal life, much more on her business activities.

This book opens up a new aspect of life in Dutch America, and of the rights and lives of women in our history.

I really loved this book. I think it is a good book for junior high kids. It was very sad until the end and then I was very happy about what happened. I liked the characters in it they were great. It was a great book.

The book talks about how the Jewish people had still to suffer from the Holocaust although World War II was over and Holland has been liberated. The author reviews a survivor history in Holland and shows that the Holocaust was not over with the end of the war.
This book deals with a Jewish family, which parents were in a concentration champ in Poland during the war. Their daughter Anna was in hifing in Holland in an attic room for three lonely years. That was the past but now the family is reunited in Holland. The war is over, Anna goes to school again and the family has to get used to each other again.
Anna has to face several challenges. She is 13 years old but required to be a fifth-grader, because she was not in school for three years.Therefore she has to deal with a lot of questons all the other studens ask her. Nobody talks with her about what happened in the past, where her parents were and why she was in hiding by a man she didn't know. But one day she gets to know a woman, Mrs. Neuman is her name. she is Jewish too, but alos German. Mrs. Neuman was in hiding too in Holland. Anna and her talk a lot about what happened and share memories from their earlier lives. Anna reminds Mrs. Neuman of her missing daughter Fannie, who Anna tries to find. Mrs. Neuman, therefore, where the same dress everyday, which she wore when Fannie, her husband and her were torn apart years ago. The ideas of the book are represented in a well-done way. Although it's written in an easy language, I didn't get bored but could follow the story even better.
The realism of the characters is shown in a good way, because this story is based on a true story. Ida Vos looks beyond the ususal'happy' ending of survivor stories...to pose more thoughtful questions about the price of survival; her answers are hard-won and profoundly stirring.
The theme of the book is how the Jewish people were treated even when the Holocaust was said to be over. I think it's important that authors are writing about the situations during of after the war. If one thinks about that it's not even far away compared to the entire history, we should be interested what happened, although it might be really difficult to do so sometimes, we try to avoid cultural amnesia.

Poor Anna, and her family. Anna's family made it through the Second World War and Hitler's Occupation only to find it hard to live again. You see part of her and her family died along with the millions of other Jews. It was not their bodies but their spirit.
Anna's father won't allow pictures of murdered friends and family to be placed in the home, Anna's mother pretends as if the war never happened. And Anna cannot make sense of what happened to her while hiding in an attic alone with no one else around.
This book strongly reminds everyone that while the war was over the sturggling of the opressed people never really ended. This can be seen in Anna's troubles at school, Her parents inability to face facts, and Mrs. Neumann's struggle to find her child.
While not everything can be answered in one children's book this book is a great choice for a school list or any family teaching their children about the aftermath of the holocaust. Not just the horrors that happened during it, but the problems the people faced afterward.

Though there are different characters and plotlines, this book easily could have been the sequel to 'Hide and Seek.' The Markus family have survived by being in hiding and, once the War ended, wanted to stay in their home country of Holland. Thirteen year old Anna spent the War in hiding in the attic room of Daniel De Bree, who gives trumpet lessons, while her parents hid under the ground in a forest. The three of them are deeply affected by what they went through; Anna knows enough to know that Marga, her best friend, died in a concentration-camp, along with many of her relatives and other friends, but doesn't know all of the details she wants to know, and her parents refuse to provide any. They won't even tell her where they were during the War. Her father Simon is the more wound-up of her parents; for a very long time he won't let her display a picture of Marga they still have, since he doesn't want to see pictures of murdered people. He also yells a lot, since they haven't been a family in so long he isn't used to anything but being angry, tense, and suspicious. And both of them are angry and upset over Anna's new friendship with a German woman who lives near them, Frau Neumann, thinking that because of her German name she must be a Nazi. At first Anna thought so too, but soon found out Frau Neumann was also Jewish, and was so drawn to her because she looked exactly like her little daughter Fannie, right down to the birthmark on her forehead.

Because her parents are unable and unwilling to talk, Anna goes to Frau Neumann to talk about the War, being in hiding, missing people who are no longer there, the things they have to put up with from people who cannot fathom what they had to go through since they weren't there. She has a very quiet voice from being in hiding, since she barely spoke at all when Mr. De Bree was hiding her, and has been put into the fifth grade despite her age, due to the years of school she missed while in hiding. She can't even answer most of the questions the other students ask her, and she doesn't like to talk about it even if she does know. And even though Holland was one of the relatively friendly and safe places during WWII (there were more people willing to hide Jews and to be in the underground and Resistance than in a place like Poland or Hungary), there are still painful echoes of anti-Semitism to be dealt with.

Some people might find the ending unrealistic and contrived, but it's not like that sort of thing never happened in real life. There are enough sad real-life stories where no happy reunions between separated family members took place; why not have a happy ending when you're working with fictional characters, the kind of happy ending that too often didn't happen in real life?

The war is over, and the Jews have come out of hiding in Europe. However, the trauma isn't over. Anna has been reunited with her mother and her father, but it's been a long time since they've been a family.

Anna is working to be more normal, even though that is hard, considering that she is two years behind in school, she is used to being scared of everything, and she doesn't have to hide in the attic anymore.

She strikes up a friendship with an odd older lady, who, Anna and her parents first assume to be German, but then find out that she is also Jewish and suffered under the Nazis as well.

This book is an incredibly fast read, but also striking in its language, which is largely unembellished, and serves its purpose well.

This is the new Netherlands, though, and there is hope for Anna and her family, as well as Anna's friend.

Interesante y constructiva visión del hombre que dío las bases de la cartografía mundial, una muy buena y completa biografía de un geografo mundial

Gerard Mercator was one of history's great cartographers, and some of the contributions he made, in particular the "Mercator projection" method of representing a 3-dimensional planet on a 2-dimensional map, have stood the test of time and are still in use today. He was also a very respectable human being, with an unrelenting work ethic and incredibly high standards for his work. His strong personal convictions allowed the son of a cobbler to become something of a celebrity throughout Europe.

In addition to being an extremely comprehensive biography of Gerard Mercator, Nicholas Crane's book proves equally interesting as a history lesson on 16th century Europe. The Reformation, and the efforts to quell it, influenced the work of Mercator and other scientists of the time, and were responsible for Mercator's uprooting and imprisonment and nearly saw him executed for heresy. The state of mapmaking is another intriguing subject, as it involved a surprising amount of guesswork and reliance on ancient sources.

Readers of Mercator will not fail to notice the tremendous amount of research that Crane put into his book. Considering that the events recorded occurred more than 400 years ago, the level of detail is sometimes astonishing. Not only can Crane tell the reader about secret Protestant meetings, he can tell you where they were held, who attended, and even the occupation of each of the attendees. Unfortunately, the minutiae can become overwhelming and often make Mercator a difficult book to read.

I would recommend this book primarily to those who have an interest in the history of cartography or who are generally interested in the history of Mercator's era. For more casual readers, myself included, the book is a challenge to read and the rewards are not quite commensurate with the effort.

A good biography gives you not only a sense of the person, but also of the place. The very best can leave you believing the person a cousin, or even a distant brother or sister - that sense of person and place magnified almost to familial relation. I have found such books an excellent adjunct to the study of history. Not the least because they bring color and life to the sometimes dry and academic prose wielded by so many historians. Nicholas Crane's, "Mercator " is at times a lively look at the life and achievements of Gerard Kremer (known to most as Mercator); with more emphasis placed on achievement than on character.

The book begins appropriately with Mercator's birth. Crane's style is generally fluid throughout the entire work, but I found myself rereading the first two or three chapters because of what seemed to be inconsistency in dates. It turned out to be more the long expositions on current affairs that Crane sprinkles throughout than any chronological errors. The other problem I encountered was his occasional use of commodity prices to explain current conditions with little other context than implication. How much a particular item costs is useful to the extent that the reader knows such other information as how much the average worker earned in a month, or a year, and the cost of other basic necessities. Crane often fails to provide this context. Once past the bumpy beginning the rest is pretty much smooth sailing.

There are plenty of color and b&w plates. But since most of the originals are large wall-sized maps or enormous globes (at least by the standards of today) the reproductions are nearly useless for detailed examination. They are nonetheless beautiful. Mercator's innovations Crane explains textually, but the lack of useful diagrams makes understanding difficult. This is perhaps a criticism for the publisher rather than the author. The cost of including color plates and diagrams may have been prohibitive - but in that case I would have rather had less breadth and more depth i.e. fewer items reproduced but with each spread over more than one plate to permit detailed study.

"Mercator" sometimes reads more like a history of 16th century cartography than a biography of Gerard Mercator, due perhaps to insufficient primary source material. And that is my most significant criticism - that it loses incisiveness by attempting to cover both subjects rather than allowing his life to take center stage with place as a backdrop. Crane's biography will not take its place beside Ron Chernow's, "Titan" or H.W. Brands, "The First American" as one of the very best. But it is still a pleasant read and aside from my literary criticisms I have no reason to doubt Crane's scholarship. Consider it more of an appetizer than an entrée.

There is no doubt that Mercator was a great geographer. Among his achievements were: the projection bearing his name, the first modern Atlas, and even the naming of North America. He played an important role in the amazing successes and adventures of the Age of Discovery. He truly was an amazing man.

Having said this, I found Crane's book to be lacking. I thought that the book was well researched and well grounded, but the delivery was poor. When buying a popular history book, in addition to the facts I expect a gripping story, masterfully told. However, Crane's writing style is dry and while the book is filled with names, dates, facts and figures the story telling is simply not there. Crane often gets bogged down in minute details that are distracting, dry and are simply not important to the story he is trying to tell.

In short, this may be a good history book, but it is not a book that I would recommend for the typical reader of POPULAR history.

The man who figured out how to make maps of the globe flat and made us think Brazil was smaller than Greenland.
A problem with reviewing a history book for a non-professional is that we can't be sure how accurate it is and we have to leave that kind of review to the historians. I enjoyed it but it is a long densely packed 320 pages. At that length I think he could have given us a little more technology and more lucid explanation of the mathematical problem involved. I would have liked more detail of how the globes were made. Since some of them survive this should be feasible. He describes some of Mercator's predecessors and might have explained more about Ptolemy's maps. But I quibble; it's a massive achievement, lucid and enjoyable.