Netherlands Books

Shipman has done a spectactular job of chronicling the life of the man who many acclaim the father of modern paleoanthropology. This intrigiung man, Eugene Dubois, dedicated his life to a cause (elucidation of the link between humans and primates) with a passion not often found in scientific circles.

I found the details regarding ED's personal interactions and relationships crucial to gaining insight into the persona and character of the man. He worked with a stern presence and perserverance that I found unbelievable. His dedication to his work really amazed me. In a sense you feel that he was destined to make such an earth-shattering discovery, but at the same time you can help but feel that he was also lucky. That is, many devote lifetimes to an investigative cause and come up empty handed or never live to see the fruits of his or her labor.

I really enjoyed the book. As a scientist in another field (a paleoanthropology layperson at best), I found the book very informative and digestible. I did have to research some of the details to develop an understanding of some of the anthropologic principles and moreover the history of the discipline. It was a great learning experience.

I like other books by Johanson and Leakey, but this one has a historical third person perspective that adds intrigue to the topic.

Again, A great book.

I confess I ended up first skimming the last half of this book, then several weeks later going back and reading the last chapter and dipping in various other places, so I possibily have not read the whole book, which is extremely unusual for me. But like some other reviewers, I found the style - especially the present tense - awfully annoying and tedious. It also seemed halfway between historical fiction and scientific biography, with all the reconstructed (or imagained?) conversations and thoughts; and you can't which are which. The extensive documentation endnotes indicate that some of these reconstructions are based on letters, etc., but there's no way to tell, and much of it seems just too far over the edge into historical fiction. I enjoy historic fiction very much, but that's not what I was looking for here, and felt I'd been drawn in under false pretenses. Overall, interesting but a tough slog of a read, even if you're really interested in the subject.

Many thanks to Pat Shipman for bringing alive this strange man who lurks around the edges of the story of evolution, jealously hiding his treasure trove of bones. He is one of those characters who always shows up, but you never had a chance to meet.

Just as skilled paleontologists reconstruct long-dead animals from a bone here, a tooth there, Shipman resurrects Dubois from a note here, a letter there. Of course much of this we have to accept on faith: we have no more solid proof that Dubois's behavior in many cases was just as Shipman has recreated it. But without her leaps of judgment, this book would be very dull, very scanty reading. Parts of the book are slow as we examine the ins and outs of old controversies and theories, but this detail is important for us to understand Duboi's character and work. Slog on through, but remember that Dubois was kicking and screaming into his eighties, so the book does go on. Maybe just as well we did not digress into the Taung baby and other contemporary discoveries.

I have read other books by Shipman, so it came as no surprise to me that the book was meticulously researched, informative, and enjoyable to read. However, I hope I never again have to read a book written almost entirely in the present tense. Shipman is a good enough author that she does not have to resort to such a tiresome gimmick to bring immediacy to her scenes.

Professor Shipman, if you are out there in front of the computer screen, please keep typing, I am looking forward to your next book. But please do remember how interesting the tenses of the English language are.

I recommend this book to anyone regardless of her or his interest in human anthropology. Shipman's portal to the science is well written and tinted with full details of family life. A three dimensional portrait of Eugene Dubois that Shipman has deftly produced in the manner of a Masterpiece Theatre episode. This flavors the science so it goes down like dutch chocolate. Now that I'm hooked on the science, I'm tackling her co-authored "Neandertals".

The sentences in this book have been so elegantly crafted that they flowed like a smooth running brook. Since my wife and I like to alternate reading chapters from anthropology adventure stories out loud to each other, we were captivated by the editorial polishing that allowed us to pick up speed with nary a fumble (except for the occasional technical, Dutch or Indonesian words). While we had expected rough and tumble science, we were pleasantly surprised by how much this one was about Eugene Dubois's human relationships and the ups and downs of his feelings. (Perhaps there is a sex difference among biographers that accounts for this.)

The first half of the book describes Dubois's family and friends to the exclusion of much of his science, with somewhat of an opposite imbalance in the second half. For example, early on we gleaned from the occasional aside and bibliography (annoyingly given mostly in Dutch without an English translation) that he wrote several papers and a book on the evolution of the sun as discerned from studying the earth's geology. Unfortunately, the author does not tell her readers how or why he did this, or how much of his time this took up, or even what he hoped these efforts would accomplish for him, though we are told that he was achingly ambitious. Instead we find excruciating details of his relations with his family and friends, and how he traversed the flora and geography of Java. Eventually, he discovered Pithecanthropus erectus, the "missing link" between man and ape.

Later, after Dubois and his family return to the Netherlands, we do get excellent blow-by- blow accounts of the scientific in-fighting as other fossils like Peking Man and other Java men are discovered that cause reinterpretation of his finds and provoke controversy about them (later they are relabeled Homo erectus). By then, despite ourselves, we were hooked on his family relations and so frustrated to suddenly be left hanging about what happened on that front. Shipman tells us how and why Dubois separated from his wife, but not explicitly why they got back together or how they get along after they did. While his children tragically die, or wander off, or or make bad marriages, we get little information about how he does end up with descendants.

Even the scientific story has some inexplicable gaps. The big debate rages over the status of Java Man and Peking Man along with Neanderthal and other finds. Even Piltdown Man takes center stage at one point. But the debates over Taung Child and other discoveries in Africa are never mentioned. Did I miss something? We both came away feeling that the book got too long and instead of editing it down, section by section, a production decision was made to simply delete some of the chapters!

Despite these glitches I learned a lot from this book. Dubois did more than find a great fossil. He wrote a great deal on encephalization quotients (i.e., the ratios of brain size to expected body size) anticipating much current work in the evolution of the brain. He also put forward daring alternatives to Darwinian gradualism, like saltations that occur in brain size and so create new species. He has major triumphs and tribulations, and then triumphs again. And most of all, The Man Who Found the Missing Link illustrates the old adage that a man's greatest strengths are also his greatest weaknesses. The independent, bold, ambitious tenacity of the younger Dubois that enabled him to abandon an early professorship to seek his fortune in Java, renders him a needlessly arrogant, stubborn, recalcitrant scientist and lonely man in his later age.

Excellent book . . .very meaningful . . .hard to put down!

Not all that interesting. I thought there would be more to the story

Quiltmakers will enjoy this bit of quilting history. Pictures of quilts are very "washed out" colorwise, but I suppose I'd be a little washed out if I'd been around since the 1940s also.

Passing on the Comfort; The War, The Quilts, and the Women Who Made a
Difference
By An Keuning-Tichelaar and Lynn Kaplanian-Buller

Just like the quilts pictured throughout this book, this story brings together pieces from two continents, two wars, two generations, and two women from very different backgrounds. An, a Dutch Mennonite woman, who lived through World War II as a pastor's wife, was dedicated to the work of providing shelter, food and strength to the fugitives, children and refugees who came her way. Lynn, whose roots in a Mennonite community in Minnesota shaped her experience of the Vietnam War, eventually immigrated to Amsterdam where she married Avo, a Palestinian man, and began to raise a family. An's stories of everyday resistance are told interspersed with connecting stories from Lynn and prints of the quilts. Both women faced challenging situations for which they at times felt inadequate. Both found strength in their faith.

The relationship between An and Lynn formed out of a connection to the MCC quilts donated to the Dutch Mennonites during the years of World War II. Lynn, with her memories of sewing circles and quilting societies, was surprised to find this same kind of quilt while staying as a guest at a house in the Netherlands. Inspired by these memories, Lynn found the owner of the quilts, An, who had memories of the comfort the quilts brought her and other Dutch people during the war. Together, the two women began the long journey of creating this book and traveling exhibit.

Grief caused by the realities of past and present wars creates places of tender ache that when carried over decades continue to connect us with the pain of military violence on any and every continent. As we work with the history that connects us as women and as Anabaptists, stories such as this help us to understand a shared history with people around the world and invite us as peacemakers to find comfort today and hope for the future.

Abigail and Lois Nafziger
June 2005

This heartwarming book is primarily set in the Netherlands during and immediately following WWII. It is well written and easy to read the emotional and historical story of An. An, now 82, was a devoted anti-war protestor in today's terms. At that time she was part of the resistance movement who helped the refugees and Jewish people during the terrible years of World War II in Holland. An married a Mennonite minister, Herman, in order to help these survivors as much as humanly possible. She and Herman helped thousands of women, children and men trying to escape by housing them secretly in their attic for months at a time when necessary. They provided food, clothes, bathing, and bedding.

The stories An writes are personal experiences of hers that could not be found anywhere else. I was crying and touched and on the edge of my seat much of the time. It was suspenseful as she talked about her daily work. I learned a great deal more about the European's War experience and I am left humbled by this book. it was so enriching to my life, I highly recommend this book to you. It would be a wonderful gift, especially to older people that may have been more intricately involved with WWII due to their age.

It wasn't until after the War ended that An contacted the Mennonite Relief Organization or Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) to provide blankets for the people leaving her church hiding place to re-enter the community and return to their former land. The MCC sent very thin quilts- or rag blankets - as they referred to them, as quilt was not a well known term. They were too thin for sleeping on or under in Holland's climate, so An contacted them again and was sent 50 comforters (tied, not quilted) and quilts. These provided enough for the people with some left over. It is these quilts, utility in description, but graphically beautiful in their visual essence, that are now touring on exhibit and featured in the book.

There isn't very much information on Curacao in this book, but it is rather helpful for general things.

The biggest downfall to this book is the majority of the book is dedicated to Aruba. That is fantastic if that is where you are going, unfortunately we were going to Bonaire & Curacao. Information on Bonaire and Curucao is reasonable, would be helpful if more information on the restaurants was provided like hours and days closed, we seemed to have some problems with that.

The title of this book is very misleading. I was primarily interested in the section on Bonaire. However, there is only 1 chapter (22 pages) on Bonaire and only one chapter (25 pages) on Curacao. Most of the book (8 chapters, 150 pages) is devoted to Aruba. So, if you are going to Aruba this book might be useful, but if Curacao or Bonaire is your destination there are much better guides available.

I found this book very helpful and easy to read. This was my first trip to Aruba and it provided me with a wealth of knowledge. My traveling companions were passing it around and reading it on the plane and once we got there. This saved us asking the front desk innumerable questions.I felt quite confident leaving the US to vacation in Aruba.

Frommers provides the most detailed and accurate information on travel anywhere in the world. I used this book for information on the island of Curacao. I highly recommend using Frommers travel guides.

This book barely held my attention. The stilted dialog would leave me wondering what the point was, it certainly didn't build character. And the suspense wasn't very strong. I really started caring less whether the "mystery", if you could even call it that, would be resolved. I think readers would be better advised to look elsewhere.

This is the fifth in a series featuring the reluctant detective Evan Horne who is a jazz pianist. He always finds himself involved in the solution of a mystery that concerns a real life musician. Because Bill Moody is a jazz drummer and journalist, he brings a certain authenticity to his stories and if you don't watch out, he may cause you to buy some new CDs. His other books were about Charlie Parker, Wardell Gray, Clifford Brown, and this one is set in Amsterdam where Chet Baker died in 1988 when he either fell or was pushed from a hotel window. Poor Evan, he just had a gig and then he finds himself once again mixed up with the police! I have enjoyed each one of the Evan Horne books, waited for this one for about a year, recommend the series to all musicians and mystery lovers...

One of the frustrating limitations of writing a mystery novel based on a real and continuing mystery, must be the small amount of wiggle room available in which to be creative and still be faithful to the facts that are known. Thus in this case the real story is the time, place and setting of the jazz world in which Chet Baker lived his last weeks and died under mysterious circumstances.
Having read the four previous jazz mysteries by Bill Moody, and enjoyed each of them, I found this one to be the best. The story, mostly set in Amsterdam, is atmospheric, and keeps the reader's interest all the way through both with jazz related information and the longing to know whatever might be learned from the author's research into the strange and sudden death of Chet Baker. This is a lean book that sticks to the point without either going off on tangents, losing its way in sub-plots or developing any bazaar theories. This story of what might have happened to Chet Baker is both realistic and satisfying.

After 5 novels hasn't Mr. Moody learned that you just, can't, put, a comma, wherever you want to? And at times, well, a comma is needed. This could be credited to extreme sloppiness and mistakes that editors should notice right away. Like the fact that California is 9, not 8 hours behind Amsterdam. Consecutive chapter headings of Wednesday the 10th and Thursday the 12th (with a mention of Friday the 13th) make me wonder what happened to the 11th day of that month. Mr Baker is referred to as "Mrs" Baker. (What the hell do editors do these days?) And there are probably others that my quick reading or fading memory have missed.
If you have a craving for some Chet Baker (who doesn't/shouldn't?) I would suggest de Valk's bio, or pre-order Gavin's. If you have mystery fix, just buy Elmore Leonard. I am not familiar with the other works of Mr Moody, I like the idea of jazz mysteries but heavily shy away from silly clichés and most of all bad writing. If anything I hope this will turn a few people on to the lovely music of Chet Baker.

Jazz pianist Evan Horne is drawn into the life and death of musician Chet Baker in this story of an investigator who tries to get away from his career on a trip to London for a gig. When he discovers his fellow musician and hero has disappeared, and Chet Baker's paperwork becomes the only clue to his whereabouts. Fast, involving intrigue with a twist.

Very interesting book; fast reading. Strays from the subject at the end. Casual touch of tourist viewpoint fits in with the general mood. It referred me to Schama's The Embarrassment of Riches, which was HEAVY.

Nicely written and only fairly illustrated, it opened up for me more questions than it answered. I would have liked more illustrations and more discussion of the art of painting in 17th century Holland, but you can't have everything in a relatively short book. The one important point that Nadler touches on is the way the Dutch painters and print makers saw the Jew and the Jewish community and portrayed them in their work. The fact that the Jew was portrayed in the art of an earlier period in Europe as ugly, twisted and dark, gives us an idea as to how the Jews were depicted and thus how this helped to spread anti-semitism among the populations of Europe. Unfortunately, art as well as literature played a role in developing and spreading anti-semitic feelings and beliefs throughout Europe. These Dutch painters break with an older ugly tradition and paint the Jew and his community in a better light. One simply has to look at the paintings and prints to see the sensitivity of the Dutch artists and their desire to capture the Jewish culture of their time.

The Spanish and Portuguese Jewry in Rembrandt's Amsterdam is the ultimate paradigm of Sephardic rebirth. It was realized at the heels of the demonic relentlessness, notoriously known as the "holy office" of Spanish Inquisition. However, in Amsterdam the doors were open to members of the Portuguese Nation to reinvent themselves, to live in relative peace amongst their correligionist. These merchants and their families brought with them strong ties to overseas commerce but most important of all, the unyielding need to shed the dark cloak of Christianity, and worship in their ancient way. Many brought with them the noble bearing of the Hidalgo, With it's love for the better things in life such as; art, literature, and fine dress. Yet, besides bringing Iberian refinement to the Netherlands, together with the need to pursue a better economic life, their greatest achievement was that they built from the ashes of persecution, a lasting memoire, of Sephardic survival. It is From Amsterdam that the spark of Judaism branched out to England and the Americas, The Spanish and Portuguese Jews being historically speaking, some of the first Hebrews to bring Judaism west of Europe.
This testimony of Sephardic grandeur survives within the confines of Art and literature. Here we see Rembrandt in a sense, inadvertently chosen, to be a chronicler of the survival and rebirth of a proud and prominent people.
In Nadler's book we read this episode in Sephardic history unfolding in a very eloquent way. Nadler's research into this perplexing Jewish phenomena is noteworthy and I enjoy reading Nadler's account of interaction between The Spanish and Portuguese Jews and their Protestant neighbors from Amsterdam, specifically Rembrandt, who I have an artistic affinity towards. My only complaint being that Nadler could have given us more color plates to appreciate and mull over, while turning the pages.

Shmuel Fuentes Hazzan

Part Art History, part Jewish history, and with beautiful illustrations, this book tells the story of the Jews who were expelled from the Catholic countries of Southern Europe, and how they were fortunate to find a home in Holland for the 400 years up until the Nazis. Rembrandt did quite a few Old Testament paintings and had Jewish neighbors and patrons, thus the connection. This is more a Jewish history than a Rembrandt biography.

After having enjoyed Michael Zell's book on Rembrandt and the Jews, I looked forward to the release of Nadler's publication. While Rembrandt's Jews is well-written and at times touching, I found it to be a pastiche of other books I have read on Dutch Jewry. What Nadler has done, albeit in an engaging way, is combine other scholars' ideas about Dutch tolerance of the Jews and Jewish life in seventeeth-century Holland (Yosef Kaplan and Miriam Bodian, for example), while throwing in a few works of art for illustration.

This is a pretty good book, but I prefer Anne's point of view to Margot's, so I didn't like it as much as other Anne Frank books.

I saw this book as very insightful. Rather than the story being told by Anne's point of view, Denenberg writes a fictional diary by Margot, Anne's older sister, to help the reader understand the story line from a new perspective. I thought that this was a wonderful idea, because it really helped me to see that, the book The Diary of Anne Frank, is telling the story in the way that she saw it, and expressing her feelings and her opinions. However, in The Shadow Life, it shows the point of views of various characters.

Denenberg used spectacular imagery, his sentences beautifully described the pain and hurt in that time era. His use of words and detailed sentences painted pictures in my head of what it was really like.

This is a must read book that really went over and beyond the expectations I had for it, I enjoyed this read, it is not to big, and it is a book that you cant tear yourself from, I sat in my room and read this book from cover to cover, Denenberg really did a great job with this book to help the understanding of the holocaust. This book is amazing.

As a middle school teacher, I have read and taught the play many times. While I have seen the impact (mostly positive) the play has on readers, I also quite agree with the criticisms (of the play) presented in the book. What *Shadow Life* adds to appreciation and knowledge of Anne's story cannot be overestimated.

The book's content and structure have been previously discussed at length, so I will just hit some high points. The three sections of the book are complimentary, yet almost completely separate works. Section One provides some interesting background material, though nothing particularly new. Section Two is an imaginative diary written by Margot during their time at the annex. It is both interesting and tiresome in the way that teenage diaries can be.

The truly remarkable portion of the book is the final section, which concentrates on tracing Anne's history to its end in the death camps. Through eyewitness accounts, letters and historical evidence, the author weaves the story of Anne's last days in a clinical, yet strangely emotional way. It is profoundly moving, profoundly disturbing, and profoundly redemptive in a way that no other work written about Anne has been. For the ending alone, this book should not be missed.

Barry Denenberg's Shadow Life offers yet another, different perspective on the Anne Frank story: this one following the Franks from Frankfurt, Germany to Amsterdam, where they are forced into hiding. A fictional diary presented from Margot Frank's perspective provides a different viewpoint of events and compliments the original Anne Frank Diary quite nicely.

Since the publication of her diary, much has been written about Anne Frank and her family's remarkable story. In "Shadow Life" Barry Denenberg has tried to throw some illumination onto that story for a young adult audience, and for the most part he succeeds.

"Shadow Life" begins with an explanation from the author, giving his reasons for writing this book and his reasons for laying it out in the manner he did. This biographical look at the Frank family is broken into four parts, offering brief overviews that a younger audience can easily digest in order to understand what life was like during this times. For the first part, Denenberg details what caused the Franks to move from their native Germany to the Netherlands, and what eventually caused them to go into hiding. In the third section, he uses testimonials of concentration camp survivors, some who knew the Frank girls, to offer insight into what life in the camps was like. The fourth and final section is slight, an extremely brief sketch of Otto Frank's trek to find out what happened to his daughters after the war, and the publishing of Anne's diary.

While Denenberg has done a good job in making the story accessible to a younger audience and expanding upon Anne's account, not much new light is shed upon the Frank's ordeal. Denenberg mentions the sources he used for his books, and drawing heavily upon these more thorough, adult-oriented accounts, he has little new information to share. What is unique about Denenberg's book is the second section entitled "Hiding". To tell this part of the story, the author claims that he did not want to rehash what others and Anne herself had said, so he imagines a diary that her sister Margot may have kept in hiding, basing the voice upon letters she had written and what is known about her interests. Denenberg ties it into accounts present in Anne's diary, and it offers readers a unique opportunity to see the experience through someone else's eyes.

"Shadow Life" is quick-paced, but often choppy, the author prone to fragments. It lacks much of Anne's presence, relying on others to tell what she has already told. Yet it is a commendable companion piece to the legacy of Anne Frank and allows children to step into the Frank's experience.

Unlike most any biography out there, this book yeilds new insights to the man and his art.

I really liked the perspective of looking at Van Gogh from a psychological view point. However, the first chapter is very dense with names of paintings and their deeper meaning. The author does much better in the subsequent chapters trying to discover Vincent the man.
A must read for anyone trying to understand Van Gogh!

The elegance with which he, Stone, makes manifest the life of this magnificent artist is breathtaking at times. This is not just the work to which all biographical material on Van Gogh is measured, but one of the biographical novels by which all other biographies and biographical novels should be. It is imposiible to not get sucked into the narrative and feel what it was like to be in the company of men who are poised, with their gifts, to change the way we look at the world and ourselves. Nor is it possible to not come away sympathisizing, or even feeling a kinship with the deeply troubled genius whose art bares witness to the human soul. I suggest you read this book if you are interested in anything regarding creativity. Period.

Many biographies and abbreviated collections of Vincent's volumnous and passionate letters to his brother Theo have been published in recent years. The only one that I can recommend though is "Stranger on the Earth : A Psychological Biography of Vincent Van Gogh" by Albert J. Lubin, which provides a fascinating insight into Vincent's life and work. The author examines Vincent's fragile personality with a sensible balance of clinical observation and human compassion. The title "stranger on earth" is an apt description of how Vincent apparently felt about his life. I read this book cover to cover in a few days (a page-turner) and came away with an appreciative sense of Van Gogh as a complex personality driven alternately by great passion and great depression. A tragic yet very human story.

Pure, unintentional, Freudian-style hilarity! This book is what happens when modern psychology ignores modern neuropathy. I was laughing until tears streamed down my face when I read the passage that states that Vincent's early work, (i.e. the Potato Eaters) was his superego rebelling against his mother's "Dutch cleanliness" and her refusal to allow the infant Vincent to smear feces on the walls of his nursery which then affected his pallete choice as an adult. Brown, yep. OK, I'm about to start laughing again . . . (whew!)

Vincent van Gogh was extraordinarily adept at introspection, and through reading his body of correspondence a student of psychology may glean an idea of van Gogh's state of agitation and alienation, and I recommend that a van Gogh scholar, or anyone with a genuine desire to better understand and empathize with van Gogh, read his correspondence instead of this book.

This book fails to lend any original - or even modern - insights, it is entirely too subjective, mired in neo-Freudian and occasionally, Jungian, conjecture, it lacks Gestalt, and works to distort and narrow the reader's perception of Vincent's gift as it related to his sustained neuropsychiatric state.

But, if you want to laugh (and laugh and laugh and laugh) at one scholar's attempt at deconstructing art and epileptiform neurological affect via Freud's ridiculous personality-based suppositions, read this book.

I try a lot of new authors and unfortunately, I'm often disappointed. Not this time. Greg Anderson has written a captivating, page-turner that you won't want to put down. I'm thrilled that this is the first in a series of five books. I look forward to many more great "rides." A great read... you won't be disappointed.

Greg Anderson describes the attitudes of Amsterdam and Europe brilliantly. The action and plot are (and I quote from the book itself) "intricate without being overly complicated, and in a lot of ways just plain clever" I thoroughly enjoyed this debut and look forward to reading Laria (the sequel.) By the way this book is being made into a film and the author is currently working on a medical thriller Duplicity. Keep your eyes open for these!

Even the pristine dutch countryside is no place to be when an airliner crashes before your eyes. Luckily the naked eye wasn't the only thing that caught the downing of Moscow Air 119. The suspense begins. Tatiana is thrown into a world previously unknown to her. The cause of the crash was told to be mechanical but unless mechanical means complete sabotage something else really happened.

In an attempt to inform the world community, Tataina weaves her way through human land mines. Who, but more importantly, when to trust certain individuals become the focus of this thriller. Tatiana solicits help from her closest friends who become brokers for death and diamonds. She cleverly becomes every female character we expect in life. Daughter, sister, friend and lover. Cunningly she exposes just enough of each personality to keep herself alive. Who does she ultimately become? Someone even she was unfamilair with until now, herself. Like others, I too find it difficult to believe this is the author's first novel. Great begining! Character development and sensory awareness is this writers finest qualities.

This book will keep you on the edge of your seat, a real page turner! Can't wait for the sequel!

"Meither the charisma of the title character nor the offbeat central plot is likely to hold readers through the comic-book escapes, leaden dialogue and clumsy prose that plague this frantic, blood -plattered chase across Europe and North America. On a carefree jaunt to the remote Dutch countryside, aspiring writer Tatiana Demkakova barely escapes death when she serendipitously videotapes the ghastly crash and explosion of a Russian 747 commercial airliner. Pursued by Israelis, the PLO and assorted other assassins, she eventually discovers they are searching for a missing $600 million in contraband diamonds. Meanwhile, a friendly U.S. secret agent finally helps her bring the tape before a Senate hearing in Washington. Thinly imagined, the debut's banal ending scarcely lives up to the excessive plot twists and high body count. Die-hard thriller faithful should hope Anderson hones his skills before the sequel...

A bit disappointed in the useablility of the book. I've used many Lonely Planet books before, and generally like them. The layout of the book leaves a bit to be desired. The descriptions of attractions and restaurants are pretty good, but where the book falls down is that then you need to look up the map the attraction is on (at the back of the book), then look in the index of the map (behind the map), and then back to the map to find the attraction/restaurant.

It would have been much better if they put those references beside the descriptions as well as the index of the map.

In addition, being in the Netherlands, Windmills are nice attraction, and the book said that we had to go on an excursion to near by towns to find Windmills. The book did not mention that there are 8 Windmills within Amsterdam itself. Granted, the ones outside Amsterdam are probably nicer, but if there is limited time in a city, knowing there were some in the city limits would have helped.

Overall, the book is decent with descriptions and local information, (hence 3 starts), but can be greatly improved.

I wouldn't recommend this book because of some of these errors, but more importantly, like another reviewer said, most Museums are being renovated, or are totally closed until 2009. And if you are going to wait till 2009 to visit Amsterdam, I'd buy a more current book anyways.

Recently I have had the lucky opportunity to go to Amsterdam several times. This book has been invaluable. While you need to double check the operating times for some sites ( you do with any book as there is a lag time between publishing and the gathering of info) the descriptions of places are engaging, accurate and most importantly informs me well as to where I should spend my time. Bender is very good at his restaurant descriptions and his take on all things cultural and historic. A real blessing. I have looked - and bought several others but this is the only one I carry around while I am in Amsterdam.

The value in "Lonely Planet Amsterdam" is in the thumbnail sketches of cafes and reasonably-priced restaurants. The descriptions of the establishments that I am familiar with were right on the money. They are grouped by neighborhood and have basic information, such as opening hours. I was disappointed that Indonesian restaurants were short-changed, because they "aren't authentically Asian." True, but an Indonesian rijstafel shared between half a dozen or more people is not too expensive and is an authentically Dutch form of entertainment. The biggest problem with the book is that it doesn't open flat. You need both hands to force it open wide enough to read comfortably and then it's hard to flip through the pages. And you will do a lot of flipping, because there's no good index to help you find things.

There are about half a dozen pages of photographs of the Amsterdam area, unnaturally sunny and uncrowded. Amsterdam is one of Europe's most interesting and picturesque cities, but nobody goes there for the weather, and the crowds of pedestrians and bicycles are part of the charm. The description of Dutch culture was spot on. Amsterdammers in particular are very broad-minded-one of the reasons that Amsterdam is a favorite vacation spot for gays and lesbians--but they're not part of the have-a-nice-day crowd. Expect them to be polite and helpful, rather than effusive.

I have half a dozen guides to Amsterdam and find that no one of them covers all aspects of a visit. "Lonely Planet Amsterdam" is most useful as a way of finding somewhere quick to eat when you're out sight-seeing.

Over the past two years, I've purchased and used five Lonely Planet guides, and this one ranks among the top. Andrew Bender provides humorous yet accurate information on the culture and norms of Amsterdam as well as key surrounding areas (Den Haag, Haarlem, etc.) Day after day during our week-long trip, we turned to his guide for advice and weren't disappointed. Highly recommended.

Lonely Planet has a 2006 edition for Amsterdam--which you need (or one more recent) because so many museums are closed (apparently until 2008/09) and there is much construction going on in the city.

Easily the best travel guide to Amsterdam and one of the best travel guides I've used. Rough Guides always pack a lot of information and this edition is no different. From how to use the trams to an informative historical backround section, this guide can not be beat.

I just got back from two weeks in the Netherlands on my own, one week of which I spent in Amsterdam. I carried this book with me as I went and consulted it a lot. It helped me decide which coffeeshops to visit, pointing me away from high-neon blaring tourist traps to fun little places like Rusland and the Grey Area. It helped me find restaurants. I liked the neighborhood-by-neighborhood maps. And I loved the glossary of Dutch food terms! The history of Amsterdam in this book felt vibrant and alive, unlike the bowdlerized version given in the Lonely Planet guide. (Compare the descriptions of the Lieverdje and the Provos to see what the LP guide leaves out.) Good guidebook. Thumbs up!

It is not a very helpful book, in my opinion. Amsterdam is the only major city in the world where you can go and smoke a joint legally and they spend exactly two paragraphs mentioning that. How about a list of good coffee shops, etc.?

The book is written by Europeans for EU people and spends a lot of time talking about how you can do things with your EU documents. It has lots of fluffy background information but less hard up-to-the minute helpful lists. This edition was written in 1997.

The best guide to the city I've ever used. Packed with masses of practical/cultural information and money-saving hints, this is among the best of a superb guide series, not yet well-known in the US

If you are looking for a book that will tell you everything you ever needed to know about Amsterdam...look no farther. I have been to Amsterdam three times before, but I never knew there was so much to see, or the history about the places there. This book combines everything. It has great maps, good directions, and colorful historical information. No one would be lost or at a loss of things to do with this book. A must for any traveler going to Amsterdam.