Netherlands Books

If I can get through this wonderful story of sharing and giving without tearing up, then I'll surely have seen pigs fly. It tells the story of Rosie, a little girl that hears about the hardships of families in Holland after the war and sends a care package for a little girl named Katje. Katje doesn't hesitate to share the contents of the box with her family and neighbors. It's a reminder of how thankful and grateful we should be for the things we have.

Just that it is a fabulous book with a great message! I liked it so much when I heard our priest in church read it to the small children that I bought it for him! I will purchase another one for my future grandchildren as well!

I checked out this book after seeing it on Reading Rainbow. The basic theme is about getting together to help others in time of need and sharing with others, and is set during WWII in America and Holland, when the luxuries we're used to are very short at hand and difficult to find. My son's grandmother is Dutch so it had some special meaning to us, as she was a small girl during this time period. The illustrations are colorful and eye catching and very relevant to the time period (hair and manner of dress) and culture (American versus European). Certain names (Katje, Postman Kleinhoonte) might be hard to pronounce but your child probably won't care if you have to fudge your way through them. It does add some "flavor" to the text and is nice to read about people in other countries or time periods that were particuarly different than what we're used to.

People from America gave food and clothes to Katje. Katje shared the food and clothing with people in her town. Katje had a pen pal named Rosie. It is a excellent book to read because it tells about sharing and friendship.

Ms. Whitlock's Thirde Grade Class

This is a children's book based on a true story. Katje,a dutch girl) becomes a penpal with an american girl. It is a story about long distance friendship and freely giving to one another. Two communities giving to each other a priceless treasure. This book is filled with unique illustrations and color. Reading this story is simply pleasing.

I think most of the reviews below cover the bases pretty well, the only criticism I can think of is the book might have been better off printed in the full "coffee table art book" size so the reproductions cited in the text would have been larger...but what a fabulous work it is, an utterly fascinating evocation of a time and place. Even if you only have a peripheral interest in the subject, you will be drawn into the sweep of the narrative through Mr Schama's depth of knowledge and skillful intertwining of the personal and the public world of 17th century Holland. I cannot think of another recent book that I have enjoyed so thoroughly.

Simon Schama's REMBRANDT'S EYES is undoubtedly one of the authoritative works on Rembrandt's life and paintings. Schama vividly depicts the unparalled and tortured genius of Rembrandt, a man who was brilliant in success and even more so during tragedy. To understand Rembrandt's paintings is to understand the man behind each brushstroke: strong-willed, prideful, and uncompromising in his art. Schama conveys the essence of Rembrandt with such force and effectiveness that we cannot help but appreciate Rembrandt's tragic life and artistic genius.

REMBRANDT'S EYES contains beautiful illustrations of all of Rembrandt's major works; the analysis of each is detailed, clear, and interesting. Through the course of the book, you will be fascinated by Rembrandt's self-portraits and the level of understanding with which he painted himself. Perhaps no other artist has given us such a powerful autobiography without the use of a single written word. This deep understanding of the human soul is evident in all of his works. Schama explains Rembrandt's paintings and his techniques in a comprehensive and powerful manner. If you are interested at all in the truly unique and fascinating genius of Rembrandt, REMBRANDT'S EYES is a must.

I would highly recommend REMBRANDT'S EYES to any person interested in art history, Dutch painting, or just Rembrandt. This book also serves as a powerful autobiography of a man with a very interesting story. Be forewarned though: this book is very long, and putting it down may be hard.

Being Dutch, I remember as a kid how my teacher was mesmerizing about how wonderful it would be to have a big enough telescope to catch all the emitted light from long ago and to be able to see Rembrandt paint. I did not know why then, but now I do agree. How wonderful it would have been had he only lived 300 years more to light up all the museums in the world!
This book is about, to my opinion, the best painter of mankind, his life and work. It is also a dual biography about Rubens, since he was so important for Rembrandt.
The book works nicely chronological and winds its way through the younger years of Rembrandt til his last years. In the mean time we also learn a lot about not only his life in Leiden and Amsterdam, but also about the history of Holland of the 17th century. It is absolutely great to learn about for instance the Night Watch, for whom it was painted, who the people are on it, why it was so revolutionary and still the most stunning 17th century painting.
I always wanted to know, as far as recorded history allows us, about the background of his paintings; who ordered it, did they and Rembrandt like it themselves? And most of all: analysis of the paintings themselves: what 'effects' are used, and how? This book goes into wide details of this all without getting repetitive or boring.
Rembrandt is unique among all painters in his combination of talent and 'raffinement'. He could do anything: super precise works, impressionistic style where the paint itself was the 3d effect, portraits, group portraits, history paintings, landscapes, the best etches off all time. His touch and well-aimed strokes immediately got to the essence. His works under scrutiny come out even more unsurpassable and amazing. It is true that none of his students ever came close to his talent, and some of them tried for the rest of their life to master just some aspect of his art (for instance the light effects) while Rembrandt moved on to a more 'rough' style, although it was justly called in this book deceivingly easy to imitate, and of course, 'rough' here does not mean carelessly painted.
Basically he is the first (and best) impressionist in the history of painting.
I have been at the Rijksmuseum many times, and it does not matter which work you look at: Jeremia, his mother reading, the Jewish Bride, his hypnotisingly beautiful self portrait at a young age, it just shows that this is a once in a mankind kind of thing. Rembrandt has shown us once and for all what the art of painting can do, how it can lift our lives by trying so dramatically to imitate it. Indeed looking at his work, it almost seems that his paintings are triumphant over reality.
This book is a great read and the many colour pictures of his work are, needless to say, a pleasure to look at.
Only minus is, that Schama to my opinion is a little too modest about Rembrandt's genius.

One of the pleasures of reading books from your own library is that they are always there for return visits. Reading Hockney's 'Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters' stimulated this reader to probe more deeply into some of the venerated painters. Simon Schama's fine book REMBRANDT'S EYES is like an old friend, an excellent resource book for facts about Netherlands painting, social and political history that so affected the works of the two featured painters Rembrandt and Peter Paul Rubens, a page-turner novel, and a catalogue of brilliant reproductions of paintings. This book satisfies - even more the second time around!

A hefty book at over 750 pages, there is not a page that Schama does not use his charming style of writing to slowly inform. We learn about the atmosphere into which Rembrandt was born, follow his works from the earliest examples through his entire career, encounter his passion for elegance and his fall into poverty, and understand his envy of the creatively and socially successful Rubens. Not a book of gossip, this, but instead a biography well documented in a fine bibliography (no mean feat for a history of a great man without much written contemporary documentation!) and a survey of illustrations that augment the story as well as any yet written.

For those who hunger for knowledge about a famous painter yet who deign to wade through the usual dry treatise format, welcome to the class with Schama. This is a book that will endure (first printed in 1999 and now available in paperback) because of the stature of the subject AND the stature of the author. Hats off to Simon Schama who so entertainingly and successfully takes us behind Rembrandt's eyes to see his work as few have shown it. Grady Harp, December 06

When i bought this book, I thought that it would be an amazing and definitive book about one of the most brilliant genius of art.
But i was wrong, this is doesn't have a point, it goes to the biography of Rubens fathers, passing thru history, economy, and anything else you imagine, this is so borring for the people that actually want to know about Rembrandt and his work. So if you are looking for a book abou Rembrand and his work, this IS NOT....

This book is about a girl growing up in Holland during World War Two. It describes how Rachel and her sister Esther have to go into hiding to avoid being seen by Nazi officials. Rachel and Esther, have to be split apart from her family over and over again. Rachel and Esther have to go through tons of very intense things. They have to hide during Nazi round ups and they hear the gunshot of a Jewish girl who was found and was killed. I liked this book because of all the suspense that happens in the story. I would give this book five stars.

During a time of war, families are split apart, confusion is prevalent and innocent people get hurt. World War Two is the setting for Ida Vos's Hide and Seek. The Hartog family lives in a small town near Holland and knows that the invasion of the Germans is inevitable. The Hartog's are a prominent Jewish family and contribute much to their community. Their oldest daughter, Rachel, experiences racial prejudice first hand.
Rachel and her family are forced to go into hiding as the Germans take over their city. The family is eventually split apart and Rachel has no way of communicating with her parents. Day by day she receives a total of deaths and can not help but feel overwhelmed that her family members may be one of those numbers.
Ida Vos allows the reader to feel the hurt and confusion that Rachel goes through. The questions that Rachel asks about the hatred of some people only contribute to the emotions of the reader. As one reads, they are lost in the setting and time of this war and feel as if they were there along side of Rachel.

Ida Vos' book Hide and Seek is written in short chapters that present snippets from the life of the main character, Rachel Hartog, during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. Rachel's first person, present tense narrative draws the reader into her experiences and increases their intensity. As the Nazi persecution of Jews increases, Rachel and her family go into hiding to escape being deported to concentration camps. Readers experience Rachel and her family's fears and hopes, culminating with the defeat of Germany and their freedom from hiding. The Hartog family must then rejoin the outside world--facing the horrible truth that most of their family and friends were murdered in concentration camps.

The treasure of this book is its details--Vos acknowledges at the end of the book that the story of Rachel Herzog is her own, and that she has tried to record her time in hiding as accurately as possible. Details such as Rachel and her sister's intense fear of going outside after the German defeat, caused by their many years of living inside in fear of discovery, and the letters her family received telling them of their relatives deaths in concentration camps add so much depth to the illustration of what it was like to have been Jewish in those times, to have been in hiding, and to have survived.

I recommend this book to anyone who loves thriller novels. I also recommend this book for ages 10 and older, because this book has very scary parts. This book is a bit frightening and interesting. It is also about friendship. I liked this book because for example, Lissa confides in Brian, the boy in Lissa's English class. Brian states, "I'll never do anything to let you down," he said. "Day after day, I'll be honest with you, and I'll never intentionally hurt you. After about seven thousand and eight days of this, you'll begin to realize that this is something you can count on - that I'm someone you can count on." Now Lissa can tell Brian about her fathers violent ways. I also like this book because it makes it interesting when Lissa talks about her past with her friends. She says, "No, I won't say I'm going to die, I have to think about the happy times in my life. I can't think about dying. Not now, not yet, not ever." When she said this it just made me want to read more about what was happening to her, and who was trying to kill her.

I first read this book at twelve, and I believe that one of the reasons it's been so unforgettable to me is the fact that I had never read a book written in the present tense before and hadn't known a book could be written in anything but the past tense. It inspired me to use the present tense in my own writing; in this book, the present tense coupled with the tense times and situations the Hartog family must go through makes the story more compelling, immediate, haunting, and page-turning. A story written in the past tense tells us that everything has already happened, but in the present tense, we're living right in each new moment and don't know what might happen next.

I didn't really take notice of this till I recently read it again for the third time, but time really does pass too quickly here; we aren't told how much time has passed between most of the events, and Rachel, who was eight years old in 1940 when the book began, is turning twelve years old in hiding when the book is only about half over. But it only makes sense; Rachel and her little sister Esther are just young children and wouldn't have the same perception of time that an older person would. A person who experienced these events as a teenager or adult would certainly tend to remember in detail how much time had passed after each important event and what all they were doing during the time periods that weren't written about, but a young child is more likely to remember things and people than specifics about the exact passage of time or every little thing that happened. And Rachel sees everything through the eyes of a child, not a mature adult who would have more perspective on these events.

Though the family is happily reunited at the end (even with Rachel and Esther's maternal grandparents), the way Ida Vos and her little sister were reunited with their parents after the war, the story doesn't end there like some childrens' books on this subject might. The family still has to come to terms with all of the missing and dead friends and relatives, finding a new house, catching up in school, having to break out of habits they acquired while in hiding or in the camps (such as Rachel and Esther praying a Christian prayer before meals and their grandfather stealing old bread from garbage cans), and readjust to doing all of the things they were forbidden to do before, like ride bikes, go to school, walk around freely, go swimming, and go shopping whenever they want to. Though it's for a younger audience and thus can't go into the same harrowing detail that an adult book of this nature would, it gets the story and its impact across powerfully.

Emotions are to be avoided, religion is inherently illogical, only rational philosophy can bring you contentment, free-will is a myth; these are the tenants of Spinoza and, yes, the credo of all Vulcans. All these years of trying to get a sense of Spinoza and 3/4 through the book the image of Mr. Spock came floating through the text. Think about it, if Spinoza was successful in changing the metaphysical paradigm of western civilization, we'd all be Vulcans today. Seriously, this is a good book for any serious Spinozists, and puts into context the genius and guts that was Spionza as well as the remarkable period of tollerance which was the golden age of the Dutch Republic. I would suggest reading Yirmiyahu Yovel's, "Spinoza and Other Heretics" for anyone interested in getting a sense of the Pre-converso environment of the Marranos.

I simply could not relate to this book, a reaction which may or may not reflect an adequate idea.

Steven Nadler skillfully guides the reader not only through Spinoza's life but also through the turbulent times of the 17th century Holland. All the more useful ride to enable us to see the courage of an outstanding man, citizen, a brilliant philosopher who taught us that GOD is Nature and us. Great reading!

The book give a great details about the life during the inquisition time in Spain Portugal & Holland..
Is has a very good view about the terrible consequences of fanatics in the Catholic religion, and show why the world was intellectually almost paralyzed during the dark ages of the religion terror.

However, the book only give small inside about the wonderful philosophical thinking of Spinoza, is more a historic book than a philosophical one..

Baruch de Spinoza (1632-1677), an early figure of European Enlightenment like a Netherlands Descartes or Giordano Bruno, - he fought with his publications for the inauguration of modern times, influenced by sober reason - but still caught in the historical context of a society, which was ruled by the dictatorial interests of confessions and government cabals.

During Spinoza's lifetime (only 45 years) Amsterdam probably has been Europe's most alive, free and multi-cultural large city - the true mother of Nieuw Amsterdam = New York. As freely however, that anyone could philosophize, whatever he liked to sermonize - no, that wasn't possible staying completely unpunished.

Many of the perforce secret supporters of Spinoza (publishers, booksellers, authors) landed in the prison or in banishing. Most glaringly is the story of the brothers Johan and Cornelis de Witt, who had protected Spinoza, providing him with food, money and legal support: A furious mob of Monarchists and Calvinists in 1672 got them out of prison and carried out a lynching court in the style of that time: they mangled the bodies and pulled out the hearts, showing them full of triumph to the audience - many of the members of the aristocracy, sitting in carriages. A very anarchistic version of almost forgotten Inca- and Aztec-rites. Only with strive Spinoza's friends could prevent him from posting a placard near the site of the massacre, reading ULTIMI BARBARORUM (You are the greatest of all barbarians).

Spinoza's family, Jewish, harassed by the Inquisition, had escaped Spain like thousand others to find refuge in the Netherlands, which showed more toleration. Spinoza's first thinking results, which regarded the Bible as an historical writing collection of different humans (thus by no means written by God), led him to be excommunicated from the Dutch community of Portuguese Jews. The autocratic Sephardim rabbinical leadership wrote 1656 in beautiful calligraphic letters: "As to the judgement of the angels and statement of the holy we banish, curse, bewitch and condemn Baruch de Spinoza. Beware of operating with him verbally or in writing, beware of proving him the smallest favor, beware of reading his books..."

The remainder of his life (like an early forerunner of the famous Anne Frank, who was hidden by Amsterdam citizens from Nazi pursuance) Spinoza hid mostly in small grave chambers of rooms and he lost all the wealth of his family business. Secretly he was supported by friends. Additional he earned money by lens grinding (but the sharpening of glass caused an early death: the inhaled dust destroyed his lungs). Convinced of the correctness of his thinking he as long as possible continued writing, persistently and annoyingly - however anonymous.

He did not want to die in public at stake like his forerunner Giordano Bruno in Rome 1600. Spinoza was fascinated by the hypothesis of a Pantheism, first developed by the efforts of Giordano Bruno. In his "Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect" he defined God as ruled by the same causes like nature ("deus, siva natura"). At that time neither the Jews nor the Christians had been ready to accept such dogmatic changes or at least to tolerate such opinions (which of course weakened the religious authorities).

A large city is - today like at that time - characterized by the fact, that trends in different parts of the society are not simultaneous. The aristocratic, bourgeois, working class or religious circles always have different speeds. The intellectual circles, sympathizing with Spinoza, seemed to live already in the 18th century.

Because Spinoza, inspired by Hobbes, also risked to formulate basics of a democratic society, he came immediately into conflict with the Netherlands Orangists, who controlled the state. The mob, brought to a level of puppets as well by the princes as by the clerical - the mob was not enlightenmentable by the shy and sensitive considerations of a cautiously hidden publisher.

We would have to thank Spinoza (if it would be possible) for his persistance, which helped to develop modern constitutions of states and stabilized the opinion, that a religion must not be monopolized, but, in the contrary, has to follow individual interpretations as well. With regard to September Eleven and the US-reaction against fundamentalist assaults we faster could decide, how to response. I think: not using military, but using reason: no religion should lead us to a Crusade or a "Reverse Crusade" anymore. Monopolizing trends of denominations should be stopped. By the name of Spinoza!

The Diary of Anne Frank is one of those books many people read in school. For reasons I don't remember I was not one of them. I stumbled on this version and decided it was time.

Overall this is an excellent compendium of the 3 versions of the diary. The first 175 pages give you the history of the Frank Family, how they were arrested and suspects for betrayal. It also delves into the challenges of Fraud that has been lodged against the diaries. The author shows how these claims are baseless and the gives you the process used to debunk the claims.

This is not a simple read. This book is more for the scholar then the casual reader. Especially when faced with up to three versions of each passage in the diaries. The casual reader will probably find themselves skipping the other passages.

My wife said there were versions that painted Anne as a Saint and I did not see that in this edition. I saw the average teenage girl with the usual complaints about family and the horrible times she found herself in. Yet, she managed to find herself infatuated with boys and tried to outlast the fate that would happen to her.

This is a book all should read especially when considering it has been banned a few times.

I love this book, because it make me understand that all three versions of the diary that know Anne wrote her original diaries,two notebooks and 324 loose sheet while she was hiding.

Anne did write alot about her friends, sexual feeelings, and fighting between her and her mother. The second one is missing,so she did finish the rewrite on loose sheet which is version B that the dated from December 7, 1942 to December 22, 1943. The last page of the rewrite on loose sheet on March 29,1994 about listening the radio broadcasting the Duth Exile from london that collected the daries and letters that people want to read then after the war. Anne did all the rewrite, but she never finished sadly, on August 4, 1944 the day of the arrest the nazi interupted her. She is a great writer of all times. I'm very obessed Anne Frank, because she is so smart!.

Anyone want to about Anne's life was Melissa Muller's Biography "Anne Frank" This is a great book!

I am going to tell you about the best book I have ever read. The best book I have read is
The Diary of Anne Frank. It is about a little girl that is Jewish. It takes place in 1945 during
World War II. It talks about them being scared of hearing a knock at the door. It talks about them getting sent to concentration camps and how the people get tortured there like in gas chambers that is were they stick you in a room air tight and fill the room with deadly gas fumes. They wood also cut all your hair off and tattoo a number on you. Most of the people would die because they would freeze to death because it was so cold. They were fed very little food and their beds had flies all around them and they would make you have a job like cleaning the bathrooms. So you can see people there were treated very badly. And all this happened because one man named Hitler wanted to do this all because the people where Jewish. These are just a few things why this is my favorite book. And I think that you should read this book too.

I really didnt know much about Anne Frank and the Holocaust until my seventh grade year. But once i learned about it i developed an interest in it. It was a sad SAD thing to study but it is life which i want to learn more about and it is history which i love to study. Anne Frank was the most interesting person that i studied about in the Holocaust. Read the book and find out just how interesting she was!!!!

I'm glad someone decided to provide an uncensored version of Anne Frank's diary in English. This book contains English translations of three versions of Anne Frank's diaries, printed in such a way as to make it easier to compare them than if they had been printed back to back or in separate volumes. One version is Anne's fictionalized version. One is the, censored version as it was introduced to the Puritanical United States. The unabridged version is excellent, but not for prudes. Anne Frank was apparently bisexual, as well as a young woman of great intellect, insight and literary talent! I was amazed at how well I was able to relate to her, even though she was of another gender, born into a different race, raised on a different continent (Europe), about a quarter of a century before me! Thanks to this book, I fell in love with her!

excellent view of the WWII market garden campaign from the german side of the battle. it provides a whole new perpective of this battle not covered in other books or publications.

Blow by Blow , Maps, Orbats,comentary by those that where there.
After reading this book I felt at first as if I had lost a Family Member.
It shows the British Airbourne to be a Fragile Human thing torn to bits frame by frame in front of my eyes , tear filled I was unable to close them. My own myths where shatered ,they were mere human beings not the gods I had always admired.I went the standard route Denile (nazi propaganda)Anger (so many brave young men and a Division gone)In the End I came to realise that in truth The first Airbourne stood higer shined all the Brighter for that very Fragility. The German reactions should be seen as one of the greatest acts of command and controll ever excersised on a modern Battlefield. Stop reading this and buy the book.....

While Robert Kershaw's "It Never Snows in September" doesn't read like C. Ryan's "A Bridge Too Far", it is a wonderful complement and serious study. Kershaw's book details the Battle for Arnhem and associated actions of the Allies Operation Market-Garden from the German perspective. As such this book is in many way the mirror image of Ryan's book, told from the Allied side of the fence. Where "A Bridge Too Far" is wonderful literature on its own right, independent of its value as a historical work, "It Never Snows" is a more difficult read from a pure reading pleasure standpoint but is a WONDERFUL historical treatise. Kershaw uses both historical documents and first hand accounts from interviews of surviving German soldiers to weave an intricate story of the German's surprise to Market and subsequent response to Market and Garden that ultimately stop dead the push Monty thought could go all the way to the Ruhr and beyond to Berlin. While there are no real surprises in terms of the battle perspectives themselves the vantage point provided from looking back at the Allies rather than the traditional way (we Americans) look out at the Axis armies is very refreshing. Another aspect of "It Never Snows" that makes it a really nice piece of work is its thorough documentation of the 2nd SS Panzer Corps' role that was critical to the German blunting of Market-Garden. "It Never Snows" is possible one of the most thorough studies of the 2nd SS (aside from Michael Reynold's "Sons of the Reich") out there that is also enjoyable to read.

Certainly "It Never Snows In September" is not written a la Ryan or Ambrose - so if you need your history slick and stylish this is probably not for you - but it is readable and fun to read. Kershaw is a military man by training not a writer like Ryan or Ambrose and given that fact "It Never Snows" is actually a quite good read. It's not simple a dry treatise of facts, there is heart and sole. If you want to know more about Market-Garden and the Battle of Arnhem, and want to have fun learning about it, I suggest combining "A Bridge Too Far" and "It Never Snows in September" as a tag-team. These two books alone will give you your fix and them some. "It Never Snows" is currently out of print and getting a copy will cost you (unless you can find one in a library somewhere) but it's worth every cent!!!

The difficulty with reading Ryan's "A Bridge to Far" or Middlebrook's "Arnhem" (both excellent books) is you don't get the full sense of what's happening on the other side. It wouldn't matter so much in histories of many other battles, but Operation Market-Garden was notable for its confusion. As a result, the understanding of the whole story particularily benefits from the German viewpoint.

Kershaw takes a logical method of breaking the battle down into pieces, and has added new insights to each section of the battle. Some parts are slightly sketchier than others, but I suppose that's due to the lack of available information. The book also has several series of photographs, though Kershaw takes the somewhat annoying tack of describing each photograph in the text as well -- one picture is worth a thousand words. Lastly, the author disputes the theory that the British 1st Airborne would have held the Arnhem bridge if they had landed closer to it.

For anyone interested in a comprehensive understanding of how the Market Garden campaign was fought by the German forces, this book is essential. It provides a thorough analysis of the units that fought the battle, their individual strengths and compositions, in addition to the roles they played in the actions at Arnhem, Nijmegen, and other sectors of fighting.
Kershaw's book is concise and objective. He clearly illustrates the actions fought, and draws sound conclusions on how and why German successes were achieved, as well as failiures. It is one of the best chronicles of battle at the Kampfgruppe level that this reader has encountered.
Numerous personal recollections are drawn upon, enlivening the academic recital of operational details. It is also supported by a generous selection of maps and photos that complement the text.
Detailed and very readable at the same time, it must rank among the foremost works on the battle for the crucial bridges targeted in Market Garden.

I bought this book for my daughter, who rarely reads fiction. I recall The Black Tulip as light,humorous and of historical interest. This edition is very attractive.

Who would have thought that a book, with a simple plot about two rivals trying racing to be the first to grow a black tulip, could be so unputdownable? There are no lords and ladies, no swashbuckling heros, no evil cardinals or Miladys -- nothing but a darn good yarn, and a very sweet love story.

Dumas is just brilliant (as always) and his dialogue (as always) is among the finest I've ever come across. A very quick, albeit enjoyable, read. Highly recommended.

While The Black Tulip lacks the swashbuckling, derring-do adventures of the other Dumas novels I have read, it is every bit as enjoyable to read.

Beginning with the arrest of two brothers, deemed traitors to the throne, Dumas Holland-based story at least begins with as strong a conflict as his other more action-laced novels. But the story, while shifting focus to the Godson of one of the men arrested, concerns his passion and pursuit of the highly coveted black tulip, a strain of Holland's most popular horticultural export. Cornelius van Baerle, a man of comfortable means, is little concerned with his wealth, or with position; or at all suspicious of the papers left in his care by his Godfather prior to his arrest. M. van Baerle has but one pursuit, one goal, and one dream...to produce a flawless, rare black tulip.

Thus his downfall, as an avaricious neighbor,Isaac Boxtel, shares this dream, but for entirely different reasons. While Cornelius van Baerle cares not for the riches and fame associated with growing such a flower, Boxtel covets both and plots to eliminate his competition and abscond with the delicate blossom which will net him one hundred thousand florins, more than enough to live like the King himself.

M. van Baerle is, therefore, convicted of treason when Boxtel reveals the existence of the papers of va Baerle's godfather to the authorities, and M. van Baerle finds himself on the wrong side of prison bars.

However, the appearance of an unexpected love awakens passions in Cornelius to rival those he feels for the black tulip, and ignites a desire in him to share the possible wealth associated with the flower, simply to assure it's development and care.

Thus, the race is on to plant, grow, and deliver the black tulip to the Horticultural Society.

Dumas' writing skills are in fine form with this shorter novel, sparing none of the humor, grace, and elegance of other works of his I have indulged in. And while foils are left in scabbards, no plots to overthrow a corrupt Cardinal materialize, and revenge is not sought against the bad-guys...this novel is every bit as exciting.

A fine way to experience one of France's most prolific historical authors for the first time, or to further explore his catalogue of works.

I love Dumas. I had never heard of The Black Tulip. It is a big departure from his standard fare. It is also very short. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone that loves Dumas' swashbuckling heros. It is totally different. However, if you can get pass the fact that it is a Dumas book and contains no sword fights, then it is a sweet book.

Not everyone could do it. In fact, almost no one else that I could think of, could construct a story about a gardener whose main passion in life is to grow a new variety of tulip, and turn it into a compelling, intrigue-filled, heroic romance. But Dumas does, here.

Certainly, Dumas shines in his more famous novels, like The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, giants of hundreds and hundreds of pages (thousands if you consider the entire Musketeer cycle), repleat with swashbuckling, conspiracy, murder and ladies-fair. It is therefore understandable that some of his audience might be put off by The Black Tulip, which is a scant 200 and some pages, and has its hero in jail for most of the novel, struggling to grow a flower by proxy. But really, the lesson is how great Alexandre Dumas is, because The Black Tulip manages to be just as rewarding (and at times, as thrilling) as his more renowned epics. Also, Dumas here shows some of his versatility and his incredible understanding of humanity, in the lovers conversations between Cornelius and Rosa, and in his rye, good-natured and subtle observations that, really, concentrating on tulip-growing, as opposed to warfare or violence, is a sign of greatness, not of mediocrity.

You can't come to The Black Tulip looking for precisely the same things you'd seek in Dumas' other winners, but if you're looking for a wonderful little story, almost perfectly told, you're in the right place. With this tale, Dumas takes his place as my favorite author, of all time.

Brian Howell's ambitious novel on the seventeenth-century Dutch genre painter Johannes Vermeer is a complex and thought provoking read. Although the author often struggles between the blending of more complex ideas, historical fact and fictional construction, the overall experience is a satisfying one. Howell takes us into the life and under the skin of the enigmatic painter. The limited biographical information on the artist presents the perfect space for conjecture which Howell readily fills. Few gaps remain in the life and after-life of Vermeer at the conclusion to the novel, as the chapters take the reader from the artist's childhood, to a period in the middle of his career as Headman of the Painter's Guild of Delft (his home town) and finally to the modern reception of his painting 'The Music Lesson' as it is copied by a contemporary artist. The multifarious questions that Howell addresses include issues of perception and reality, childhood influence, painting technique, the effect of the invention of photography and the value, both psychological and material, of a work of art. However, the danger that Howell faces in the exploration of these ideas is that his characters may remain under-developed. I would agree that this is perhaps the case on first glance; but Howell's is a novel that invites a second reading and once one has become familiar with his agenda, the characterisation shines through. Despite the reader's intimacy with Vermeer, he remains the delicate balance between familiarity and strangeness that his paintings are so often seen to possess.

The Dance of Geometry is a beautifully woven piece of historical fiction that examines the life and work of the Dutch artist, Johannes Vermeer, and the speculation among some experts that he used a device called a camera obscura to create the images in some of his paintings. This book is well researched and written in sharp and intelligent prose. Howell grabbed my attention at the beginning and held it until the last page. The voices of the various narrators seem amazingly accurate and capture their respective periods perfectly. There is a hint of mystery in how the story is told that gives the novel a nice narrative drive and lifts it above a mere recounting of the events in the painter's life. If you have any interest in Vermeer, this is required reading. If you don't know Vermeer's work, this novel is a great jumping off point to learn more about this fascinating Dutch Master.

Brian Howell's successful first book, The Dance of Geometry, is an indulgence for all of us art aficionados - those of us who have found ourselves irrevocably lost in a "story" captured on canvas, and the clandestine lives and experiences of the artists themselves.

Howell artfully interweaves three unique perspectives, offering the reader a rare glimpse into the mind and life of 17th century artistic mastermind, Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer - the artist as a child, pliable and vulnerable to influence; Vermeer as an artist in his prime; and a modern-day art copyist in quest of more than a mere replica of the Dutch artist's work. Excerpts of Vermeer's childhood and experiences which would influence his work later on in his life are melded together, further on in the plane of time, with an abstract narrative of his journey to becoming an ingenious and respected artist in later years.

The story casts shadows and light on the beautiful harmony, colour, and depth found in Vermeer's art, possibly enhanced by incorporating the use of a camera obscura, and utilization of de Vries' perspective and visual field.

The final chronicle by the modern day art copyist delving into Vermeer's work and milieu as an artist, is the final `signature' to Howell's literary work of art.

By and large, The Dance of Geometry is an engrossing piece of abstract work that is worth exploring in detail...not unlike Vermeer's own.

Brian Howell's ambitious novel on the seventeenth-century Dutch genre painter Johannes Vermeer is a complex and thought provoking read. Although the author often struggles between the blending of more complex ideas, historical fact and fictional construction, the overall experience is a satisfying one. Howell takes us into the life and under the skin of the enigmatic painter. The limited biographical information on the artist presents the perfect space for conjecture which Howell readily fills. Few gaps remain in the life and after-life of Vermeer at the conclusion to the novel, as the chapters take the reader from the artist's childhood, to a period in the middle of his career as Headman of the Painter's Guild of Delft (his home town) and finally to the modern reception of his painting 'The Music Lesson' as it is copied by a contemporary artist. The multifarious questions that Howell addresses include issues of perception and reality, childhood influence, painting technique, the effect of the invention of photography and the value, both psychological and material, of a work of art. However, the danger that Howell faces in the exploration of these ideas is that his characters may remain under-developed. I would agree that this is perhaps the case on first glance; but Howell's is a novel that invites a second reading and once one has become familiar with his agenda, the characterisation shines through. Despite the reader's intimacy with Vermeer, he remains the delicate balance between familiarity and strangeness that his paintings are so often seen to possess.

Brian Howell has written a 'novel' that is unique on many levels and on most of those levels he is eminently successful. The concept of revealing how an artist of the stature of Vermeer developed his unique method of painting by first (Part 1), letting us hear his child's mind absorb all of the vagaries of light, visual planes, textures, and psychological feeding as young Johannes Vermeer follows his Delft family through the life of the 17th century Dutch atmosphere and training; second,(Part 2) placing us beside an outside observor recording all the intricacies of the adult and successful painter Vermeer became; and third (Part 3), bringing it all round through the tale of a 1980's painter who 'copies' paintings for a living, with all the 20th century information about art history, psychology, and the wacky weird world of business that surrounds art today. If there are stodgy sentence structures and a penchant for the academe in the first part, these are more than compensated as Howell grows into the more readable dialogue of parts two and three.

In the end, we are left with a fundamental explanation of how we, as viewers of art from any era, pass by a great painting, stop a few steps later, then return to truly enter the world the artist has left in front of our eyes and minds. Reading THE DANCE OF GEOMETRY offers insights into the techniques behind fine painting and in doing so Howell has written a 'novel' that is equally valid as a textbook on art appreciation. Well worth your time for either reason, or hopefully for both.

I first read Donald Burgett's "Currahee" way back around 1975 or so. Many years later with the popularity of "D-Day","Citizen Soldiers" and "Band of Brothers" by Steven Ambrose I decided to re-read "Curahee". On doing so I found to my pleasant surprise that Don Burgett had continued his saga with "The Road to Arnhem - A Screaming Eagle in Holland".

When I re-read "Curahee" I found that it now seemed to me compelling but almost amateurish in its writing. Certainly as a 15 year old it had seemed more polished. But I was very pleasantly surprised by "The Road to Arnhem". While still compelling in its honest recitation of Donald Burgett's experiences as a member of the famed 101st Airborne infantry in World Wary Two, "Arnhem" is both more polished and more insightful into not only the events as they occured but also the author's feelings both at the time and in retrospect. For those of us who have never experienced combat Don Burgett does an excellent job of not only describing the physical nature but also of what was going through his mind as the events happened. The author also gives a wonderful tribute to the part played in the operation by both the British and Polish airborne troops - his sense of comraderie with these fellow troops is evident.

For anyone interested in a "ground eye view" of events of Operation Market Garden this book is a must.

I had a hard time understanding why Burgett's book about WW2 are
such good reads. The prose is relatively simple and direct, and
he most certainly does not rely on any literary devices. But perhaps it is exaclty
this, together with the fact that the man must have a most extraordinary
memory (or most vivid imagination - although I assume the former),
that makes these books so gripping. His books do transport
the reader back to the fields and foxholes of Europe in late 1944.
While no book can bring across the actual firsthand experience of war,
Burgett's books are probably as close as one can get.

The real story of how the pompous banty rooster General Montgomery nearly lost the war on the Western front. It is a tale of arrogance and betrayal, wherein the betrayed fought nobly and many gave their last measure of devotion to a lost cause.

This is Burgett's personal account in Operation Market Garden. A good read if you enjoy first-person accounts sprinkled with liberal dose of humor.

Donald Burgett's "The Road to Arnhem" is a gripping look into the lives of paratroopers involved in arguably the greatest feat of arms ever attempted by airborne troops - the Market portion of Operation Market-Garden.

For those who might not already know the basic story of Operation Market-Garden, it was the brainchild of commander 21st Army Group, British Field Marshal Bernard ('Monty') Montgomery. Monty conceived of Market-Garden as a war-winning 'knife-like' stab (to borrow terms from Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower) into the heart of Germany. By using a combined airborne and armored-infantry attack through Holland as an end run to the North around the main defenses of the West Wall (aka, Seigfreid Line to the Allies) to the Rhine at the Dutch-German border city of Arnhem, Monty hoped to cross the Rhine and push on to the Ruhr - the industrial heart of the Reich, and possibly straight on to Berlin. The airborne portion of the Operation, code named Market, was to lay a carpet of men from the start point on the Belgian-Dutch border to Arnhem, capturing all the necessary bridges spanning the various rivers and cannals along the single major highway running through this region of Holland and securing the flanks such that the Garden portion of the operation could be put into affect. Garden represented the armored-infantry portion of the operation, a thrust up this single highway by British XXX Corps to and across the Rhine at Arnhem. Operation Market-Garden was extremely bold and imaginative but suffered considerably from the standpoint of tactical and logistical options, relying exclusively on a single route from Belgium to the Reich, and near perfect timing of all portions of the operation. While Monty later claimed 'ninety percent success' for Market-Garden, it was a clear tactical and strategic failure that contributed significantly, if not directly, to attrition warfare of the fall-winter '44-45 the Allies were to endure. Considerable human and material wastage occurred as a result of Operation Market-Garden for essentially no tactical or strategic gain. "The Road to Arnhem" is one mans take on this Operation and its impact on those taking part in it.

Burgett doesn't hold back in his descriptions of his daily travails as an airborne trooper. This is not a book for the faint of heart wishing to have war completely sanitized. Rather the reader sees all the warts, brutality and heartbreak of war. If not a great writer, Burgett is in fact a solid storyteller who sucks in the reader to be part of the 'band of brothers' to which he belonged. Fortunately for the reader Burgett not only tells a story of this portion of the war as he saw it, but places this firmly within the context of greater Market-Garden Operation as a whole. In doing so Burgett gives the reader the broader picture of war since the experiences of a single trooper is but a tiny portion of the whole, often limited in space to hundred of yards to a few miles over the entire period of a 1-2 week-long operation. Many readers familiar with Market-Garden will also get the bonus of reading about 101st operations post achievement of their goals but within the temporal window of the Operation on the whole. Upon reading most accounts of Market-Garden readers might tend to think that the paratroopers only captured bridges and waited for XXX Corps. In fact they were in action throughout the month of September '44, although not always on Hell's Highway.

"The Road to Arnhem" is a 4.5 star read worthy of praise and wider readership.

I read this book for the first time 9 years ago and I have read it each and every summer thereafter. In reading about the Holocaust, it is rare to read about what happened after. What happened to the generations of people whose lives were affected. This story tells about how children deal with the grief of such an tragedy. I will continue to read this beautiful yet haunting story over and over again.

I have read a huge selection of Holocaust-related books and I think to date this is probably at the top of my list of must reads for anyone who is interested in the Holocaust. The Loom is also good but doesn't quite compare with Nightfather.

Nightfather is a novel that lingered in my mind, days after I finished the book. It doesn't read like a translation.

I was amazed at how much emotion and substance was present in such a short book. Whereas most contemporary depictions of the Holocaust focus on what is lost in death, Friedman shows the nature of staying alive in a concentration camp. A man loses many things, but what is gained from "having camp" will be with him for the rest of his life.

I've read many books about the Holocaust, and this book is like no other I've come across. It mainly deals with what happened afterwards, and how three siblings struggle to understand what their father went through while imprisoned in a concentration camp. The youngest sibling, a girl, who remains unnamed for the duration of the story, listens along with her two older brothers as their father tells them stories of torture, murder, and survival. Each chapter is short, but tells of one experience, some big, some small, of how the children were effected their father's stories, or, struggle to understand the man behind them. For the amount of time it took me to read, I sure got a lot out of it.