Netherlands Books

I've always wanted to visit Holland. This guide let me imagine what I'd see and do if I ever get there. Of course, the museums in Amsterdam like the van Gogh Museum or the Anne Frank House are pretty special. The book gives a number of walking tours that take you along the canals.
For the armchair traveler, you'll want to team this book up with some heftier coffee table books on Amsterdam. For the actual traveler, this slim book will be handy to carry around with you to find the best coffeehouses and entertainment.

I now own just about every travel book you can buy on Amsterdam. I am drawn to this one because it isn't too wordy - it provides nothing but the information you need without all the fluff and fuss you find in the other books. It also lists a number of places of interest that the other books don't.

While it may not be the most aesthetically appealing travel books I've come upon, it has certainly proved itself to be one of the most useful.

I took this book to Amsterdam and was a little disappointed. It's small (which is good) and mentions everything important (also good) but so superficially that a lot of important stuff is glossed over or omitted. Friends who had read the Rick Steves book were much better informed than I.

This book, as do many of the Benge's biographies, begins the first chapter in the middle of the story to capture the reader's attention. The second chapter goes back to Corrie's younger days and shows the reader of her background and heart for service.

This biography is a great introduction to Corrie Ten Boom for children or those unfamiliar with her life. If you are already familiar with her story, read "The Hiding Place", and "A Prisoner and Yet...".

Corrie Ten Boom was clearly an incredible woman, but this book really only scratched the surface of her story. It didn't go in depth on any of her experiences. I would say this book would be best for children.

"There is no pit so deep that God's love is not deeper." This is the message that Corrie ten Boom brought to the world after she went through the horrors of Nazi prison and death camp. This book will inspire you and teach young and old that God can do extraordinary and marvelous things even in bleak and terrifying surroundings.

Corrie Ten Boom was an ordinary watchmaker's daughter when her family was arrested for helping Jewish people escape the Nazi's. They were taken to prison and suffered greatly under the hands of their captors. Yet Corrie and her sister always looked towards God and where thankful for all of the blessings he gave them, such as a patch of blue sky, a hidden Bible, the women they read the Bible too. This book tells the story of Corrie and how she survived the war and went on to help others by telling them about God's love and forgiveness. Corrie learned a lot from her prison experience, but most of all, Corrie learned that by leaning on God, she can share God's love and forgiveness to all, even to her enemies and those who hurt her.

Do not make this the first van de Wetering book you read.

It takes some getting used to, this mix of Buddhism, police procedural, Simenon-like psychonovel and bizarre imagination. In this book, those factors collide sharply. The solution the the pseudo-locked-room mystery is odd, at best. Mix in street riots and a strange interlude where police do a most unconvincing undercover act and the reader who expected something like the 87th Precinct transplanted to Amsterdam will be baffled by the strength of the cover blurbs. Praise for this?

But if you've already become familiar with the characters, you know these books aren't so much about the plot as the people and the mood. Read a few others first (make sure you start with the good ones, the ones based in Amsterdam) and then move on.

"Death of a Hawker" is the fourth book in Van de Wetering's Amsterdam Cop Series and is a return to top form after the somewhat disappointing second and third volumes (the first, "Outsider in Amsterdam" is magnificient, and the proper place to start reading this excellent mystery series).

Amusing, ruminating Amsterdam cops Detective Grijpstra and Sergeant de Gier are as much a part of the story as the mystery itself (this is typical of this series, although the detectives' observations were less a focus of the second and third books). In this mystery, Amsterdam's market square is beset by protests and riots over government-forced construction. Meanwhile, a wealthy hawker (an individual who sells items for profit in the market) is murdered in his apartment. The man's roommate is upstairs and his beautiful sister downstairs (it's a three room flat) and both claim to have heard nothing unusual, nor did they see anyone enter or exit the flat. Cops outside the flat (for riot protection) noticed nothing unusual either. Nevertheless, the victim's face has been smashed in by a heavy object. The question is: who did the smashing, how, and why?

Naturally, Grijpstra and de Gier are put in charge of the case and along with the aged Commissaris (their boss) they unravel the mystery. Along the way, they interview prostitutes, hawkers, importers, bar maids, attend a raucous party, and even fall in love (de Gier). The dialogue is amusing and insightful and the solution of the mystery is fairly clever (although not too complicated). This book is more similar to the first book in the series in that suspect interviews are more confrontational and Grijpstra and de Gier spend a lot of time offering their views (and complaints) on life.

Overall, a quick read--both humorous and mysterious. Highly Recommended.

Interesting and atmospheric book. I don't know if mysteries written by foreign authors just sound more intelligent or really are, but the effect remains regardless of the reason. These detectives, Grijpstra and de Gier, really come alive in these books. They have a warts and all kind of approach not only about their own personalities, but also the personalities of their friends and family members as well that I really like. Almost incidentally, van de Wetering makes you very interested in the ultimate whodunnit. As an American living in the Netherlands, I also appreciate the view of Amsterdam.

In Search of a Brilliant White Cloud examines the life and struggles of Eric. The beginning of the story introduces the shy, awkward Eric at the onset of the German Invasion of Holland. At this time, the boy has little comprehension of what a Jew was, why his family are in danger simply because his grandparents were Jewish, or how his life would change as a result of such racism. The constant danger, hate, and uncertainty of life in the next few years force the frustrated and confused boy to draw further within himself making it extremely difficult for Eric to open himself up to love and to the other treasures that life brings for the rest of his life.

Though, most of us have not had to endure the extreme pain and suffering that Eric had to endure as a child, Eric is basically a representation of each of us. Each of us has been influenced and shaped by our own experiences. All too often, we close ourselves off from love, possibilities, and living life because of our own insecurities and the inability to see past the trauma to the miracles and gifts that each situation brings. In Search of a Brilliant White Cloud urges us to look at our treasures found in both positive and seemingly negative situations.

Simon Van Der Heym gives us the fictional biography of Eric, starting when Eric was a young boy, experiencing the Nazi invasion and occupation of the Netherlands, and taking us through Eric's peregrination to North America, his business career, his personal life, and his coming face-to-face with a life-threatening illness.

In the first part of the book, Mr. Van Der Heym describes Eric's fairly ordinary childhood life in the Netherlands, that is turned upside-down when the Nazis invade and occupy the country. At first, it does not look like there will be a lot of impact on ordinary citizens in their everyday lives. However, the oppression slowly but inexorably mounts, as rationing sets in, and then bigotry-based laws, aimed at denigrating and persecuting the Jews, grow in scope, severity, and harshness. Eric's parents must eventually help the family escape from this oppression, by fleeing the Netherlands. Their subsequent moves, from country to country, trying to stay one step ahead of the Gestapo, and often finding unexpected allies along the way, makes for a very interesting reading experience.

At this point in the book, I was looking forward to the story of how the traumatic early years, and the family's harrowing flight from the Nazis, would resonate through the rest of Eric's life and the lives of his parents and siblings. That is not what I found in the rest of this book. In a somewhat jarring transition, Eric is suddenly an adult, is married, has children, and is living in Canada. Instead of maturing and growing as a person, it seems like Eric's childhood flaws have grown, without his positive traits keeping pace. As I protagonist, I found him to be no longer likeable or sympathetic. And, unfortunately, the story also lost most of its drama and interesting detail. Instead, we learn about Eric's difficulties relating to others, his adventures and misadventures as he becomes involved in sailing, his business ventures, and his repeated mistakes involving his love-life, his relationship with his son, and his efforts to find a reliable general manager for his company. For many pages, it is as if Eric's parents and two brothers, who were an important part of the early story, have simply vanished.

Toward the end, as Eric moves into retirement, and faces a health crisis, the story again becomes more interesting. This is also where we finally find the meaning of book's title. It is also where Eric finally finds some level of maturity, and becomes a more interesting, and a more sympathy-worthy protagonist. It is also in this part of the book, where the reader finally finds out what has been happening with Eric's parents and siblings, as those characters get reintroduced into the story.

On a technical level, this story is well-written. The editing is good, as are things like sentence structure, grammar, scene description, character description, and character development.

The book has, in my opinion, two significant flaws. One involves the flow of the story. There are occasional, significant discontinuities in the tale. The first, and the biggest, is mentioned above, when we very abruptly go from reading about Eric's childhood and adolescence in Nazi-occupied Europe, to Eric suddenly being an adult, married and living with his wife and children in North America. There are other jumps, too, that are not quite as big or as jarring, but they add to the pattern of the story not flowing smoothly in a linear manner. While not all stories have to be linear, and there are good tales that are non-linear, it takes good transitional devices and masterful writing skill to pull off non-linear jumps without losing the reader's interest. That high level of experienced writing skill is not present in this debut novel.

The second flaw is, for me, a bigger one. While I do not have to like a protagonist in order to like a book, it certainly helps, and the protagonist to be someone with whom I can, to some extent, identify, and for whom I can have some sympathy. For most of "In Search of a Brilliant White Cloud", Eric is not someone I would want as a friend, neighbor, or acquaintance. He seemed to make the same mistakes over and over again, and I found his inability to learn from experience frustrating. I also saw him as arrogant and egocentric most of the time. In the early pages, when Eric's childhood was described, I did not always like him, but I did feel sympathy for him, given his situation. That sympathy did not resurface until late in the book, with the "brilliant white cloud" experience and what triggered it. By then, I had stopped caring.

I am capable of enjoying a book with an unsympathetic protagonist. Stephen R. Donaldson created one of the least sympathetic protagonists in all of fiction, in his The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever (The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant). Thomas Covenant does several despicable things, and his anger and apathy also causes considerable collateral damage. But, I read all six books of the these chronicles, and never stopped rooting for Covenant, and waiting and hoping for his redemption. That was because he was part of a fascinating story and, despite his many flaws, I could understand Covenant, even when I despised his actions. I never cared for Simon Van Der Heym's protagonist enough to root for him or to despise him. Once Eric escaped Nazi occupation, he simply became uninteresting.

This could have been a very good book. Mr. Van Der Heym has all the basic skills of a good writer, but I think he lost his way, in this book, once Eric was safely in North America. "In Search of a Brilliant White Cloud" has a good beginning and a good ending. A book needs a middle, though, and this one has a weak one.

In this book we are introduced to Eric van Polis, a young Dutch boy whose life is about to change forever. We experience the trauma that is his as his family makes a dangerous escape to Switzerland fleeing the persecution of the Jews at the hands of the Germans. The author does an outstanding job in bringing you into the lives of Eric and his family, allowing you to feel the inward emotions that they are dealing with during this traumatic time, their unbelievable horror and the courage each family member was called upon to give. At the end of this experience you know this family and have become one with their hopes and dreams for the future, and the deep heartbreaks they have experienced.

We follow Eric's life as he struggles to understand why he suffered for being Jewish, why his relationships fail and why his life seems to have no meaning. We share with him in failed marriages, father-child problems, career decisions and life in general. In his journey, Eric battles his emotions, desperately seeking answers and longing for a peace he cannot seem to find.
Finally after a lifetime of unanswered questions we find Eric at peace with himself, his family, his past and eternity as he is confronted with the battle of cancer. A gift in disguise, Eric learns as he is confronted with possible death, what life is all about.

I found the experience that Eric had with the 'white cloud' fascinating and would have liked to have read more details about it. Although I felt the author wrote as much about the experience as he could, I long to know the mystery behind it. It certainly was a life changing experience for Eric, and one that added deep meaning to the read. It is through this circumstance that Eric finally realizes what is important in life, his past shortcomings in achieving that goal and the realization that it is within his own ability to reach the peace he has been searching for, for so long.

This work is one mans struggle against the obstacles that life placed before him, his continuing battles and his final conquest. I believe the author finally found his answers and I hope this work will help others to find their peace as well.

Even readers familiar with the tragic events of Operation Market-Garden in September 1944 can learn quite a bit from this thin Battleground Europe volume entitled The Island. Betwe Island was located between the Rhine and Waal Rivers in Holland and had the final stretch of highway that led from Nijmegen to Arnhem. The island was the scene of intense fighting in the final stages of Market-Garden as the British XXX Corps frantically tried to batter its way through the German units that were threatening to overwhelm the British 1st Airborne Division located on the north bank of the Rhine. Tim Saunders, a veteran Battleground Europe author, brings his usual flair for battle narrative and military analysis to this account. The strength of this volume lies in its coverage of many important but oft-neglected facets of actions that contributed to the Allied failure in Market-Garden. Since Saunders covers events on the island between 21 September and 7 October 1944, it also demonstrates that the fighting in this area did not cease with the evacuation of the British 1st Airborne.

The Island consists of ten narrative chapters, beginning with a short background to the Operation Market-Garden plan. Chapter two covers the failed effort by the Irish Guards to reach Arnhem on 21 September. Chapter three covers the Polish parachute drop near Driel and XXX Corps fire support to the 1st Airborne on 21 September. Chapter four covers the 43rd Wessex Division attack on Oosterhout and the "dash to Driel" on 22 September. Chapter five covers the various efforts on 23-24 September to reinforce 1st Airborne across the Rhine, including the disastrous crossing of the 4th Dorsets. The evacuation of the 1st Airborne is covered in the sixth chapter. Chapter seven covers the "high water mark" of XXX Corps, with the final attacks on Elst on 23-24 September. Chapter eight covers the German bridgehead on the island at Randwijk and subsequent British counterattacks during 27 September - 10 October. Chapter nine covers the Battle of Aam-Bemmel, the final British 50th Division attacks on 4-5 October. The final chapter covers the activities of the US 101st Airborne Division on the island during the period 4-7 October, including the Battle of Opheusden. A short section on touring the battlefield follows the campaign narrative. Saunders provides an order of battle for the British XXX Corps and the US 101st Airborne, but not for the Germans.

Saunders does a great job showing how the British were unable to exploit the spectacular American capture of the Nijmegen Bridge on 21 September and sprint the final distance to Arnhem. The British spearhead - the Guards Armored Division - had become a very blunt instrument by this phase of the operation due to logistic problems and the diversion of forces to deal with German counterattacks on the exposed flanks of the salient. In modern terms, XXX Corps culminated at Nijmegen and had insufficient combat power remaining to accomplish its mission. Nor was the Allied failure only the fault of the ground forces; it was the collapse of Allied air support and artillery support at the critical point that doomed the breakthrough to Arnhem. Indeed, Allied air superiority had so deteriorated that the Germans were able to ferry 20 tanks on to the island and Saunders notes that, "it is a measure of the loss of air superiority, which the Allies had enjoyed since D-Day, that the Germans were able to move in daylight without being attacked by fighter-bombers." However, the Allies did get one lucky break in an operation otherwise plagued by chronic misfortune: the 1st Airborne fire support officers were able to contact and direct XXX Corps artillery despite the lack of proper code books. It was this artillery support that helped to discourage German attacks on the encircled 1st Airborne and probably prevented a massacre of that unit.

After a deliberate attack on a German blocking position at Oosterhout, the British were finally able to slip some units around the German flank and reach the south bank of the Rhine opposite the 1st Airborne. One interesting action rarely covered in other books is the German armored counterattack against the 5th Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry on the evening of 22 September. Five German Tiger tanks were knocked out by a combination of mines and light anti-tank weapons and Saunders notes that, "this incident reveals how a few determined infantry can destroy what would be during full daylight, an overwhelmingly powerful force." However, by the time that XXX Corps reached the Rhine, the position of the 1st Airborne was so precarious that evacuation was the only viable course of action.

Most accounts of Market-Garden stop once the British 1st Airborne is evacuated, but the fact that Saunder's account continues for two more weeks adds great value to this volume. Yet the fighting was not over and Saunders shows that both sides committed new resources to attempt to gain full control over the island. Indeed, flushed with victory at Arnhem, the Germans hoped to launch a major counterattack that would push the Allies all the way back across the Waal River. American readers should also note that the chapter on US 101st Airborne operations on the island highlights the lack of research in Stephen Ambrose's Band of Brothers. In BoB, Ambrose claims that the efforts of E Company, 506th PIR were decisive in stopping the German counterattack on 5 October, but this version is an insult to the men of the 1st and 3rd Battalions of the 506th PIR who did the bulk of the fighting (with British tank support). Overall, The Island does an admirable job filling in many of the important details usually omitted from standard Market-Garden accounts. The author's skillful narrative, combined with excellent maps, makes this volume a first-rate piece of military history writing.

One of my favorites this book provides Maps Photos showing the routes of
attack and defensive positions, for British and German units locked in a death embrace for the "Island".The writing puts you in the front lines up close . So close that you begin to imagine you hear that dry unemotional British Narative cracking with fear and the bone tiredness that only the walking dead infantry know,Yet rising in defiant waves and carrying the lads to final victory. Filled with comments of Participents BUY IT.

The book is a quick read that provides a good summary of the battle. However, the editing and grammatical errors detract from the rating as they present too frequent distractions to enjoying the book.

This is a good book if you've already read several overviews of the overall campaign and you'd like to learn more about what specifically happened in Nijmegen.

Tim Saunders has written another excellent Battleground Europe series title, this time on the role of the American 82nd Airborne Division and the British Guards Armored Division in the struggle for the bridges around Nijmegen in September 1944. Even readers who have read other books on the infamous Operation Market-Garden should pay attention to Saunder's book, since there is a wealth of information that rarely if ever appears in other sources. Normally, the fight of the British 1st Airborne Division at Arnhem gets most of the coverage in accounts of Market-Garden, with very little space reserved for the fighting at Nijmegen. Interestingly, it was German veterans after the war who noted that it was the fighting at Nijmegen that decided the battle, and the fate of the British 1st Airborne. Saunder's book, which forms a part of the Battleground Europe series covering all phases of Market-Garden, goes a long way toward redressing the lack of coverage of this critical battle.

Nijmegen consists of ten chapters, beginning with a short 17-page section on the strategic background of the Market-Garden plan. The remaining nine chapters cover each of the sub-actions that formed the Nijmegen fighting: the capture of the Grave bridge; the Maas-Waal canal bridges; the Molenhoek; the Groesbeek Heights; Bergen Dal, Beek and Devil's Hill; Nijmegen and the Waal bridges; capture of the Waal bridges; Lent and north of the Waal; and Oousterhout. There are also three appendices covering orders of battle, cemeteries and comparative rank structure. While an index is provided, there is unfortunately no bibliography. Most of the photographs in the volume while excellent will be familiar to readers of Robert Kershaw's It Never Snows in September, and Saunders has also culled that source for much of his information on the Germans around Nijmegen.

The actual coverage of each of the sub-action is simply superb. In the case of the seizure of the Grave Bridge by the 2/504th PIR for example, the author provides an annotated 1:50,000 scale map of the objective, 1944-vintage aerial photographs of the objective, eyewitness accounts of the action, photographs of key terrain around the objective and the aftermath of the action. Most of the other actions are equally supported by aerial photographs, excellent maps depicting tactical movements and dispositions, and photographs of key terrain features. Many of the smaller actions in this area, such as the fighting around Groesbeek Heights, are virtually ignored in other accounts. The incredible assault crossing of the Waal River by the 3/504th PIR is covered in great detail and the comments of the SS commander opposing it are telling: "crossing one of Europe's widest and fast flowing rivers in daylight was inconceivable and dismissed as suicidal." Consequently, the Germans were caught by surprise when the Americans actually did it.

The author also manages to dig up new details about the fighting around Nijmegen that do not appear at all in other accounts. Due to the failure of British tactical communications at Arnhem, most people tend to believe that all Allied airborne units suffered from poor communications during Market-Garden. Not so. As Saunders convincingly details, the American 82nd Airborne Division's radios worked fine and the excellent division radio net allowed Brigadier General Gavin to shift his small forces around to fight off repeated German counterattacks. Furthermore, the 82nd Airborne exploited the still-functional Dutch telephone network and used it for communications, unlike the British. One episode that is rarely mentioned concerns the air-landing of Lieutenant General Browning's Corps headquarters near Groesbeek on 17 September 1944. Apparently, Browning wanted to be one of the first British soldiers to cross the German border and he and some of his staff members apparently made a brief sortie into the neighboring Reichswald to claim this honor. British records appear to corroborate this tale. If true, the schoolboy behavior of "Boy" Browning will surely further diminish that general's already poor reputation.

Saunders also addresses two controversial aspects of the Nijmegen fighting. Why did the 82nd Airborne not make a major effort toward the poorly guarded Nijmegen Bridge right after the airdrop? Only two companies were dispatched toward the bridge late in the day and they were stopped by hastily deployed SS reinforcements. Saunder's assessment is that while Gavin's overall generalship was excellent, that he erred on the side of force protection over mission accomplishment. Gavin wanted to secure his vulnerable flanks before pushing into the city and did not expect significant German defenses. This was a mistake, but an understandable one. Consequently, the 82nd Airborne did not secure the Nijmegen Bridge until D+3, which doomed the British effort at Arnhem. Commanders should keep Gavin's dilemma in mind when evaluating force protection versus mission accomplishment. The other controversy concerns the British failure to exploit the American seizure of the Nijmegen Bridges on 20 September; the Americans on the spot criticized the British armor units for failing to push on the 10 miles to Arnhem. Saunders effectively demonstrates that a successful push to Arnhem on the night of 20 September was unlikely for a number of sound military reasons, and probably would have yielded a column of burning Sherman hulks along the road to Arnhem. Nevertheless, the issue of exploiting fleeting opportunities - particularly ones that could decide battles - is a vexing one. To his credit, Saunders examines these controversial issues objectively. Nijmegen also has interesting points to make about the role of luck in combat, particularly concerning the German failure to destroy any of the primary bridges in the area.

I have a more recent edition of this book with a much more action oriented cover- historical military artist James Dietz's depiction of the 82nd Airborne attacking Nijmegen bridge on Sept. 20, 1944.

Tim Saunder's "Nijmegen" is the first of a trilogy of travel log/historical narratives about the fighting along the route to the Dutch city of Arnhem during Operation Market-Garden in Sept. 1944. The efforts of the U.S. 101st Airborne and British Guards divisions to secure the route from the Belgian border to the Dutch town of Veghel are covered in the second volume, "Hell's Highway." And a third volume, "The Island," will cover the action between Nijmegen and Arnhem. "Nijmegen," of course, covers the middle sector of the operation- the area between the Dutch cities of Grave and Nijmegen which was the responsiblity of the famed U.S. 82nd Airborne.

These books are part of a larger series called Battleground Europe whose purpose is to combine the historical narrative of a military operation with travel information for tourists wishing to view the battlefields. I was intially turned off by this concept because in my opinion the history detailed in most travel logs was often extremely lightweight and inaccurate. However, the purpose of the Battleground Europe series is to correct that perception of historical travel logs. I really can't say that the Battleground Europe Series are good travel books. They do have driving instructions, points of interest locations, very general lodging and eating recommendations, and photos of how these battlefields look today. But I can say that the books of this series are really, excellently detailed history books.

The books of this series are thin volumes with none of them being much more than 200 pages. The books themselves are physically small since they were designed to be travel books. Also, they're are plenty of photos, many of them historically rare, and maps spread throughout the books which further cuts down on the text. So what remains is a bare bones narrative which is occassionally intercut with veteran recollections. There is little analysis, although in "Nijmegen" and "Hell's Highway" the British author makes an occassional apologia for British XXX Corps. Also, no footnotes or bibliography are provided.

However, the narrative format is very well done. Since "Nijemgen" only concentrates on a portion of the massive Market-Garden operation, it's able to offer a much more detailed description of the 82nd's fight than most books that deal with the operation as a whole such as Cornelius Ryan's legendary "A Bridge Too Far." Also, the attention to historical detail is impressive with the author giving the correct types of vehicles and planes present during the action. (He even corrects some of the veterans' recollections such as when an American veteran mistakenly recalls the Typhoons supporting his unit as "Spitfires." An understandable mistake since I'm sure that man had more important things on his mind at the time than figuring out what type of plane was blasting the German positions opposite, but it sure makes it confusing to those who want to know the actual details. Stephen Ambrose should take note because he unquestionally accepts often inaccurate veteran descriptions of every German tank being a "Tiger" and every German gun being an "88.")

These are really a terrific set of books for any serious WWII buff. Please do not be scared off by the Dietz covers or the travel log format since these are actually excellent military history books. If you're looking for a straight narrative and some very interesting historical photos then I cannot more highly reccommend "Nijmegen" and the Battleground Europe series.

Anne Frank: A Portrait in Courage written by Ernst Schnabel is a wonderful story about the Holocaust in the view of 42 witnesses that knew Anne. Through Anne Frank's dreams, diary entries, friends, school, across borders, and through much time, the author finally ends at the death of Anne. This book is not a biography on Anne Frank, for she only left a small trail of character behind for people to discover, but it is rather a book on how she lived. Using these 42 testimonies, we find out how hard it was for the Jewish people to live during these terrible times. This book is a delightful experience for anyone who loves children, courage, freedom, or humanity. This book is anything more than a simple child's diary.

Anne Frank: A Portrait in Courage written by Ernst Schnabel is a wonderful story about the Holocaust in the view of 42 witnesses that knew Anne. Through Anne Frank's dreams, diary entries, friends, school, across borders, and through much time, the author finally ends at the death of Anne. This book is not a biography on Anne Frank, for she only left a small trail of character behind for people to discover, but it is rather a book on how she lived. Using these 42 testimonies, we find out how hard it was for the Jewish people to live during these terrible times. This book is a delightful experience for anyone who loves children, courage, freedom, or humanity. This book is anything more than a simple child's diary.

If you don't feel like reading Simom Schama's 600+ page EMBARRASSMENT OF RICHES, or Israel's 1100+ page THE DUTCH REPUBLIC, Simon Zumthor's DAILY LIFE IN REMBRANDT'S HOLLAND may be the book for you. Zumthor's book was written in French, and first published in English the early 1960s. My paperback copy was published in 1994 by Standford University as part of the "Daily Life" series.

If you're not particularly interested in the politics of the 17th Century, or the military action that took place during the various wars (which Schama and Israel cover in more detail), and you want to delve right into the everyday lives of the people, Zumthor's book allows you to do so. Zumthor covers everything from clothing to food to employment to housing to you name it--all those things all of us do that make up our daily lives.

The section on the artistic elements of Dutch society is relatively short, and Rembrandt is really only mentioned in passing, but you do get an impression of what he, and Vermeer, and other painters probably experienced as they went about their business. Rembrandt and the other painters were not seen as "artists" but rather as "painters" and as such were members of guilds--Medieval organizations that were organized by various occupational groups and still thrived in the first part of the 17th Century in the Netherlands. Zumthor spends some time discussing how the guilds worked and how they were regulated by not only their members but the towns and villages.

Zumthor also provides much interesting information about Dutch church life, community life, and home life and the obsession of the people with cleaning -- stoops, linens, clothes, but according to Zumthor, not always bodies. The Dutch in the 17th Century were a complicted folk, and although I have read Schama and Israel, I enjoyed this book. It's great background reading, especially if you wonder how your own ancestors lived. Read it with Poortvliet's illustrated books, however, as it lacks illustrations (my paperback copy did).

If you can, imagine a slice of time and space from The Structures of Everyday Life set in the world of An Embarassment of Riches. If you keep that idea in your head, and spice it with the tone of an occasionally ironic French medievalist then you have a fairly good idea what it is like to read Daily Life in Rembrandt's Holland.

Daily Life looks at what living would have been like in the Netherlands from the years 1606 to 1669. These years were not only the demarcation of the life of Rembrandt, but also corresponded with the Dutch golden age. Instead of focusing on the great political and military movements that happened during that period (the end of hostilities with Spain and participation in the Thirty Years War), Zumthor chooses to write about the commonplace.

The book is structured in eight chapters, with the first seven chapters addressing major subject groupings. The chapters include: The Background of Daily Life, The Dutch Interior, The Course of Life, Recreations, Arts and Letters, Dutch Society, and Holland At Work. The final chapter is a brief summing up in which Zumthor makes a number of points about Dutch life during that period that I believe would still be interesting and relevant when related to the Dutch society of today.

Living in the Netherlands as an expatriate, I have read quite a few books about the history of the country in both English and Dutch. Daily Life is a fine addition to my collection, and a very enjoyable reading experience. The translation by Simon Watson Taylor is clean and smooth and managed to capture the obvious quirks of the tone of the author. It is a good complement to Schama's book An Embarrassment of Riches. If it is less of a book than the Schama it is because the more encyclopedic nature of the project lacked a bit of depth and narrative flow.

I would recommend this book to other expatriates living in the Netherlands who would like to know a bit more about the history of the country. I can imagine that it would also be invaluable to someone who wanted to get a feel for the background of life at that time. Please note that Rembrandt is not the subject of the book, and his life is only used as a ruler to mark the relevant time period.

I could not disagree more with the reviewer below. This is a thorough treatment of Dutch painting that includes both the heavyweights and lesser known figures. It is rarely technical; instead we get Slive's visceral (but authoritative) reactions to individual artists and works. He gives us context, but never overdoes it till the life is drained from the art. As a result, he explains Dutch painting but doesn't lessen the wonder that draws us to the Dutch in the first place. His moving analysis of Frans Hals is a case in point.

Should you be uninterested in Slive's text, however, the reproductions he has selected alone justify buying the book. I have not seen a more complete collection from this period available in a single volume.

Slive's book is a basic introduction to the art of the Northern Netherlands during the Baroque era. It covers a wide range of artists and genres, but fails to consider the wide interpretative issues of the art. When Slive does attempt interpretation, he tends to fall back on old-fashioned methods that have since been disproved by modern scholarship. The prose is boring and bland, but the book does feature many photos (although more of them could be in color). Overall, an introductory text that covers a lot of ground but has little depth.

The Dutch Disability Insurance Act (WAO) is an infamous Dutch social policy instrument aimed at providing compensation for those who experience a reduction in earning capacity because of disability. The growing volume of people in the WAO, among other things because it was a convenient way to get rid of superfluous employees at little cost, was and still is a major concern for the Dutch government and for social scientists like the author.

The book consists of two parts. An overview of the history of WAO regulation and a careful inquiry into the conditions that affect the likelihood of exit from the WAO. The overview of the history of the Disability Act is interesting in its own right. It brings across an image of a government struggling to reverse a development that should have been dealt with at a much earlier stage. Any government, even the Dutch, can learn from viewing the process of mistakes and quasi-solutions that are painstakingly collected by the author.

The explanatory part addresses several questions, all of which have to do with the factors attributing to being able to leave the WAO once you're in. That this question is an important one is convincingly shown using a multitude of figures. Heart of the matter is: when you're in, you're stuck. In fact, when you're a woman and you're in, you're certainly stuck. The author meticulously pinpoints all possible factors attributing to this process, thereby exhibiting the nature of the true scientist. Sometimes you learn something, sometimes you don't, and the author is honest enough to acknowledge not only her victories, but also the occurences where the cold facts slay a carefully deduced hypothesis.

This is a carefully written book on governmental policy and the way in which it affects the decisions of people, of interest for those who want to more about the Dutch social security system, for social scientists interested in regulation issues, and for anyone who wants to see a proficient social scientist at work, trying to make sense out of the messy world around us.

The Dutch Disability Insurance Act (WAO) is an infamous Dutch social policy instrument aimed at providing compensation for those who experience a reduction in earning capacity because of disability. The growing volume of people in the WAO, among other things because it was a convenient way to get rid of superfluous employees at little cost, was and still is a major concern for the Dutch government and for social scientists like the author.

The book consists of two parts. An overview of the history of WAO regulation and a careful inquiry into the conditions that affect the likelihood of exit from the WAO. The overview of the history of the Disability Act is interesting in its own right. It brings across an image of a government struggling to reverse a development that should have been dealt with at a much earlier stage. Any government, even the Dutch, can learn from viewing the process of mistakes and quasi-solutions that are painstakingly collected by the author.

The explanatory part addresses several questions, all of which have to do with the factors attributing to being able to leave the WAO once you're in. That this question is an important one is convincingly shown using a multitude of figures. Heart of the matter is: when you're in, you're stuck. In fact, when you're a woman and you're in, you're certainly stuck. The author meticulously pinpoints all possible factors attributing to this process, thereby exhibiting the nature of the true scientist. Sometimes you learn something, sometimes you don't, and the author is honest enough to acknowledge not only her victories, but also the occurences where the cold facts slay a carefully deduced hypothesis.

This is a carefully written book on governmental policy and the way in which it affects the decisions of people, of interest for those who want to more about the Dutch social security system, for social scientists interested in regulation issues, and for anyone who wants to see a proficient social scientist at work, trying to make sense out of the messy world around us.