Netherlands Books

This is the first book of this series that I have had the pleasure to read. It is a page turner of a police procedural that allows development of believable protagonists. Mr. Baantjer takes us on the hunt for a beautiful, and at first, likeable, missing young woman. She is found, only to be not as beautiful as she first appears. All characters are multi-dimensional.
Great read!

This is a great series starring Detective-Inspector DeKok of the Amsterdam Municipal Police, Homicide. Albert Baantjer is the most
widely read author in the Netherlands. This series is "rapid-fire
storytelling" with the laconic detective-inspector calling the shots.
The SOMBER NUDE deals with a dismembered body and DeKok's relentless
pursuit of the murderer.
If you like JANWILLEM VAN DE WETERING's police novels and GEORGES
SIMENON's Maigret series, you will enjoy the DeKok mysteries. The
covers of the American editions are bright and sometimes garish
and may put off some readers. What is inside the cover is just a
"good read".

On a rainy day, Kristel van Daalen with two A's comes to Amsterdam's Warmoes Street police station to report her nineteen years old cousin Nanette Bogaard with a double A is missing. Kristel explains to Inspectors DeKok and Vledders that she and Nanette co-own the Ye Three Roses floral shop, which they bought with money they inherited. She further explains that Nanette is an artistic free spirit, but always came home to the apartment they share above the store. Kristel believes Nanette is dead.

Vledders thinks it is too soon to assume foul play, but DeKok has a hunch that something bad has occurred to Nanette. They begin making inquiries starting with a spawned reporter Barry Weilen that lead to Kristel's addict brother, a "Somber Nude" painting done by Pierre Popko and aging paramour Staaten and his adult son. They see a picture of a mesmerizing serpent wearing an angel's garb before the dismembered corpse of Nanette is found in a garbage dump. The now murder investigation keeps tilting like a pin ball game that flickers back and forth between anyone who was in Nanette's sphere.

This is a fabulous DeKok mystery once readers accept the inspectors take on the missing person case (most will agree with Vledders that its pouring rain, less than 24 hours, and she is nineteen). The story line is driven by DeKok's investigation as each new clue he uncovers seems to open more questions rather than resolving any of them. Fans of this superb Dutch police procedural series will gain immense pleasure from the latest translation.

Harriet Klausner

Kollwitz's lithographs captivate any feeling viewer. Until there's some way to render raw emotion on paper, especially the many different sorrows of war and poverty, her monochrome lithos approach that goal most closely. That makes it easy to forget her mastery of other media and other feelings, too. This book broadens a reader's view of this wonderful artist.

The cover image, "Female Nude with Green Shawl," starts to break the reader free from the easy stereotype of Kollwitz. It adds color to her commonly dark palette, and presents a simple celebration of womanly elegance. "Self-portrait laughing" and "Lovers" show that she could not only express joy, but depict different kinds of it. Woodcuts, etchings, charcoals, ink and wash, and wonderful pastels each display her drawing ability in different ways. "Tower of Mothers," "Mourning Parents," "Lovers," and other sculptures show her skill in bronze, granite, and plaster. Kollwitz's skills range far beyond what she's best known for, and this book helps us appreciate the breadth of that ability.

Given so many reproductions of her work, lovingly printed on bright, dense paper, a reader like me becomes easily distracted away from the helpful and informative text of the book. Three long essays, a catalog, timeline, and bibliography invite the reader to various kind of commentary, both in historical fact and in considered opinions. Her personal story as woman, mother, and artist as well as her work deserve attention; this gorgeous volume is a wonderful way to give her work and life some of the attention they deserve.

-- wiredweird

I am slowly but surely collecting books on Kollwitz. One of my art professors compared what I was doing to her work and I have since become a nicely obsessed student of everything she did and I read everything I can get my hands on.

This book is one of the best. First of all, I didn't have to get out my German lexicon and second, the narratives that go along with the many pictures are full of detail that you don't get in the smaller books. One of the major improvements that you will see is in her work, "Woman with Dead Infant." In many books it appears that the woman's face is melting in to the child, but in Prelinger's narrative, you see much more detail of the nude, vulnerable woman and her child with little covering up his bones.

She has many works-- mostly lithographs-- in colour, which is a delight after havimg only seen her work in other books as black and white.

One of her works, "Man Kneeling before a Female Nude" shocked me by it's erotic overtones, just as "Self Portrait en face, Laughing" shocked me with it's joy.

Kollwitz was very much a versatile artist and this book shows that. Any fan of Kollwitz will appreciate the narratives that go with the pictures, and for anyone who isn't a fan-- this book will make them fans!

This is one of the most beautiful books to look at I have even owned - it is highly recommended. The line drawings are accompanied by text rich in information about this woman's life and inspiration. Plates are excellent.

Raphael Cohen-Almagor from the University of Haifa has investigated, studied and published on the issue of euthanasia over the past many years with a special interest in the policy and practice aspects of physician assisted suicide.
This book is a case study over several years of the experience and practice from the Netherlands, where physican assisted suicide has taken place for a long period with this Dutch experience often used by other countries in their ethical and legal search for a solution to this complex problem.
The book is divided into three parts: the background with research reports on the medical practice of euthanasia in the Netherlands from 1990, 1995 and 2001 and the interpretations, fieldwork by the author in the Netherlands in 1999, 2001 and 2002 and finally the conclusions.
The author has produced a well researched addition to this complex and controvertial issue of mercy killing on the basis of an in-depth study of the situation in the Netherlands. The author had published and supported the performance of euthanasia before his study in the Netherlands, but he visits changed his mind and views concerning the practicality and implementation of euthanasia. The shortcomings of the Dutch experience is presented in a clear language and in the conclusion the author provide a set of guidelines for physician assisted suicide to prevent abuse and misuse.
This book has relevance for physicians, nurses, public health professionals, lawyers, sociologists, policy makers and professionals dealing with ethics and the topic of euthanasia.

Professor Joav Merrick, MD
Director, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and Medical director, Division for Mental Retardation, Box 1260, IL-91012 Jerusalem, Israel. E-mail: jmerrick@internet-zahav.net

Euthanasia in the Netherlands is an excellent book on an important topic. It succeeds in giving an even-handed appraisal of Dutch euthanasia practices, providing a better understanding and valuable insights of the Dutch experience with euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. Cohen-Almagor analyses clearly and accurately the weaknesses of the policy and offers recommendations for correcting the deficiencies and developing a sounder policy. He combines an overview of the literature with analyses and interpretations of the intriguing interviews he conducted with key people in the Netherlands.

Cohen-Almagor's book is critical but judicious. He gives a balanced account of the views with which he disagrees and he carefully explains the basis for his disagreement. His style of writing is straightforward, clear, easy to follow, logical, and coherent. Bioethicists and other scholars in medicine, public health, and law will be interested in this book. College teachers of medical ethics will also find it valuable, and educated general readers with a special interest in euthanasia will find it helpful.

Writing a book on the Dutch experience with euthanasia is not an easy matter. Several reasons can explain the difficulty. First of all the ethics of the present palliative and terminal care has not been spelled out in detail until recent years. The difficulties every physician meets more than once in his career when confronted with a sincere wish of the patient to die in a humane way in a situation of unbearable suffering, are still puzzling for moral and legal thinking. Secondly, our ways of legal and public thinking are still not adapted to the situation in which death is a part of life, not so much as a natural fact but as a process that can be controlled. The goals of medicine to uphold human dignity and to alleviate suffering are at stake in this process. The Dutch policy to aim at a system of both legal clarity and control is perhaps at this moment the most articulated answer to the difficulties, but will almost certainly not be the last word in the issues of death and dying.

Rafi Cohen-Almagor has contributed much to the ongoing discussions by interviewing all the prominent legal, moral, political and medical people involved in the development of the Dutch legal ruling. His analysis of the interviews is based on clear, lucid thinking and argument. Unlike some others he tries to stay with the facts without entangling them with moral or political prejudice. Instead he tries to develop a view according to best standards of academic thinking. In the end he gives his own conclusion based on his experiences. One does not need to subscribe them in order to appreciate the work Prof. Cohen-Almagor has done. This book will certainly be helpful in every discussion on the legal and moral principles of assistance in dying, in traditions of legal philosophy such as the schools of Dworkin, Rawls and Kelsen. It can help physicians, nurses and others engaged in palliative care to sharpen their views in the ethics of palliative care as well in the forms of public and legal control that are needed in the burdensome but rewarding work of assistance in dying.

This catalogue to the current Dou exhibition in Washington (NGA - 4/16-10/6,2000) is as splendid and intimate as the show itself - 35 small, exquisitely crafted paintings by the Leiden master who was Rembrandt's pupil while that master was himself still a teenager. Wheelock reviews the critical history around Dou's work - the minutely detailed paintings, with their startlingly accurate and refined light effects were highly valued and admired until Thore-Burger and the early modern critics heralded the taste for broad, expressive brushwork. They labelled his work as superficial and heartless, but more recent work has rediscovered sophisiticated and thoughtful themes in such works as the Quack (included) and the Braamcamp triptych (two closely related works are included). Baer's essay outlines the career, working method and subject matter of Dou, exploring some aspects of his extraordinary "reality effect" as well, while Boersema explores his extraordinary, painstaking technique, reviewing such technical evidence as paint samples and reflectograms from the Lady at her Toilet and the Young Mother, both part of the show. There's not a lot of new work on Dou, so this catalogue is especially welcome to those of us who love Dutch Art of the Golden Age. This NGA cabinet gallery show moves to the London National Gallery for Sept and Nov, and the Hague's Mauritshuis from Dec to next Feb. This catalogue's gorgeous reproductions and substantial bibliography make it a solid, up-to-date reference on Dou too.

This exhibition catalogue contains enlightening and thoughtful essays on seventeenth-century Dutch painter, Gerrit Dou. Dou, one of Rembrandt's students, was highly esteemed during his lifetime for his exquisite technique in painting, but as Arthur Wheelock explains in one of the catalogue essays, his work began to lose favor in the middle of the nineteenth century. This catalogue is a wonderful account of Dou's rise and fall from fame, as well as a study of his masterful painting technique. In addition to the informative text, the color illustrations are beautifully rich, and they do justice to Dou's incredible paintings.

Although Rembrandt and Vermeer are the two most discussed and honored of the Dutch Masters, and deservedly so, Gerrit (or Gerard) Dou had a far more dramatic influence on 17th century art in the Netherlands than either of his better known countrymen. It is Rembrandt's later work, with an individuality so far ahead of its time, and Vermeer's penetrating psychological touches that make them fascinating to us in light of modern movements in art. But the paintings of Dou, by the laborious nature of their creation if not always their actual subject matter, give a much deeper insight into the culture and times in which he lived, and the growing taste for luxury from the then newly-emerged Dutch middle class. His images were themselves like jewels, with beauty almost impossible to imagine coming from a human hand, and the artistic perfection that began with Van Eyck found a worthy successor. When such virtuosity became less appreciated in the late 19th century, however, Dou then suffered the fate that Vermeer had known all along, and his name was all but forgotten. It is to the world's benefit that recent showings at the National Gallery in Washington, as well as this flawless book, are begining to change that. As with all of the other volumes that Arthur Wheelock has compiled and edited, this book provides a thoroughly detailed examination of Dou's work, with the kind of objective insight that can re-emphasize his importance to all those just learning about this amazing painter.

Tim's book is refreshingly honest. I'm half way through and won't go to Belgium without it.

This is THE definitive guide to Belgium beers, this book rates every Belgian beer, gives brewery tour info, beer tourism info, Belgian beer bar reviews, addresses, hours open, and provides essential insights into the history, culture, economics, and marketing of beer. If you are a Belgian beer fan, this book is a fantastic resource. If you are visiting Belgium, this book is an essential companion and constant reference. Can't say enough about this book!! Anyone visiting Belgium should bring this book with them.

Buy this book! An awesome book for a gift or for yourself.

With the Good Beer Guide Tim Webb does a superhuman job chronicling the staggering array of breweries, beers, and bars in the Benelux region. I took a trip to Netherlands and Belgium expressly for the beer and for me the book was indispensible. It is organized and indexed very well.

If you are reading this review you are likely at least somewhat interested in Belgian beer and if you are, then you probably can't afford not to use this guide. Not all beers or bars are created equal, even in Belgium. With a limited time and traveler's budget it would be impossible to have savored as many beers as I did without Webb's help.

Because the Benelux countries are among the most pleasant in the world and easiest to get around and travel in, you will not even need a Lonely Planet or Rough Guide--the important stuff (the beer!) is in Tim Webb's book. You can easily find hotels, sightseeing info, and food when you are there, because the region is highly traveler-friendly. However, many of the local beer menus include thousands of offerings and so you can imagine how a guidebook like this might come in handy.

The Good Beer Guide to Belgium will also help you decipher those book-long beer menus and select the right brew for you. With the guide in hand you also might find yourself in towns and villages you never would have visited otherwise, because you were drawn there for a Trappist monastary or a special little bit of brewing history. There are a smattering of other beer guides to the region but none even come close to this one!

Don't miss this one. Cover price is $75 and worth every penny. Now available on the Amazon Marketplace for just a few dollars. All of Van Gogh's best work with hundreds of full-color plates.

This is a very useful book. If you are interested only in the reproductions (good drawings as well as paintings), you will enjoy their high quality--and the breadth of Vincent's work that they cover. If you are interested in primary resources about van Gogh's life--newspaper articles; letters and reminiscences from friends, fellow artists, relatives--this volume is a real treasure. Between the excellent reproductions and the extraordinarily fine collection of biographical materials, this must be the best one-volume source on van Gogh. A great shame that it is out of print. Get one NOW!

This book is a georgeous table top or reference work , with comprehensive plate coverage and great colour resolution. What a shame it's out of print all ready!

Janwillem van de Wetering is best known for his low-key tales of a pair of good-natured Amsterdam detectives. Amsterdam is the liberal capital of the world and van de Wetering's police officers look for ways to help and protect their often crazy charges. The last thing they want to do is arrest them.

The Hollow-Eyed Angel is set partly in New York, but the New Yorkers in this story are as easy-going and philosophical as their Dutch visitors. In fact, it's the New Yorkers who are only too willing to assume that Uncle Bert, found partly eaten by racoons in the azalea bushes, died a natural death.

Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys the works of P D James, Colin Dexter or Tony Hillerman.

This 13th in van de Wetering's Amsterdam Police series continues the series' unique atmospheric mix of police procedure, quirky characters and Zen outlook.

The commissaris, whose health has been frail for some time, is on the verge of retirement when he is approached by Johan Termeer, a volunteer police constable, whose uncle has been found dead in Central Park in New York City.

The New York police are calling it a heart attack, but Termeer is sure he has been murdered and asks the commissaris to look into it. Since the commissaris is going to New York for a police convention he reluctantly agrees.

Feverish and haunted by a recurring dream of a leggy streetcar driver with hollow eye sockets, he turns up various oddities - the dead man, who was a prosperous, well-dressed bookseller, was seen cavorting in the park by Dutch tourists. They also witnessed him being kicked by a police horse. When found dead the next morning he was dressed in derelict rags and covered with a filthy blanket.

With drum-playing Inspector Grijpstra and Jazz-loving bachelor Sergeant DeGier exploring the commissaris' theories and questioning the tourists and other background witnesses back in Amsterdam, the story proceeds in layers and parallels. Each encounter supplies something unexpected - a tangential approach, a stereotype revised, a small fact with large implications.

De Wetering's blend of wry humor and Zen philosophy permeate the world inhabited by his tolerant, grumpy and engaging characters. His well-honed writing style transports the reader to that world.

Van de Wetering continues his search for the true meaning of being and nothingness. The commissaris and Sergeant de Gier travel to New York to investigate the death of an uncle of a member of the Amsterdam Police Reserve. Throughout the course of their investigation, the Dutch detectives continue their own personal search for enlightenment. Van de Wetering has a talent for giving his readers more than a casual glimpse of the philosophy of Zen Buddhism, yet he manages to do so without preaching about it. As always, he makes us laugh along the way. This book did not feature as much interaction between Adjutant Gripstra and Sergeant de Gier as some of Van de Wetering's previous efforts, as Gripstra did not travel to Manhattan with his colleagues. The focus in this story was the commissaris, and his attempts to solve both the case, and the meaning of life. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I am glad that the author has continued this unique mystery series after a long hiatus.

This book is a great book and it deserves the 5 stars

Mr. Frech is the best teacher around and the biography is WRONG he lives in the heart of Da Nati. And he is a great teacher. He is my teacher and i like his book

Consuming Reading...and I am not a frequent peotry reader! Each poem took me to a seporate time and place - making me pause and think deeply about my life. Excellent collection to pull out daily. Very tallented poet with a bright future...I'll be watching for and buying his next book without question!

Although I read this book over a year ago, I haven't been able to get Louis Bannet's story out of my mind. Being a musician myself (albeit an amateur one) I can't even begin to imagine my life riding solely on the merits of my playing. But regardless of how wonderful a musician Bannet was (and he was), his humanity and courage is more impressive. Shuldman captures this without overshadowing it. Bannet is the star; Bannet is the inspiration and Shuldman makes sure of this. The writer is the conduit for Louis to come alive again to all who read "Jazz Survivor". An amazing tale told with love and admiration. I highly recommend this book.

I was profoundly moved by the story of louis bannet.
though a true story about the horrors of the holocaust it is also a read that is more inpiring than any book written with the sole purpose of inspiring.
Louis Bannet will live forever in me.

"Jazz Survivor" by Ken Shuldman is one of those marvelous books that opens up our hearts and minds. This book allows you to be introduced to an amazing man... Louis Bannet. Louis was a Musician, Performer, Holocaust Survivor, Husband, Father, and a masterful Storyteller. This is the true story of a man who lived each moment of his life to the fullest. Louis had such a generous spirit, that he was able to keep his memories of the horrors of the holocaust at hand, to share, inform and inspire others. "Jazz Survivor" is a celebration of Louis' life. This is a book I will cherish, and so will you.

Rare to find a novel that conveys deep meaning through humor. The Limits of Pleasure does that. It made me smile and think at the same time. And it was often arousing too, not such a bad thing, as this novel tries to point out. Feels very true to life. Deals with the sort of issues we wish were not there. Not always PC, but we aren't always politically correct in our heads and hearts and lower, are we?

The Limits of Pleasure explores a vast reservoir of possibilities that exists between the constrictions of psychic and emotional pain and the expansiveness of physical sensation and desire. With great wit, insight, and imagination, Mr. Jaffe reveals in his characters a stunning inner landscape that pits smoldering, down-the-throat sensuality against heartfelt nostalgia for cultural awareness and familial belonging. Keep this book by the nightstand for erotic and psychical stimulation when the other side of the bed is absent a warm body to do the needful otherwise.

Ron Suresha, editor, Bearotica; and author, Bears on Bears

Jaffe's novel is a courageous example of how fiction can challenge our ideas and emotions- creating new spaces where we have never been before. By exploring the intersections where ethnicity and sexual desire meet,by provoking us to reconsider the meaning of identity,Jaffe expands our horizons in dramatic ways. After reading this novel I realized "pleasure" is the final frontier of freedom: how much pleasure is our body allowed to seek, to feel, to enjoy? For centuries we have been living within the ethics of pain: suffering is validation. But Jaffe's book seems to suggest another standard: pleasure is redemption too;sex has a moral value within this novel. It reminded me of Nietzche's opinion: "pain wants to end, but pleasure wants repetition and eternity". And you want to read this book as soon as you can- if you dare!