Netherlands Books

When I decided to write my first mystery novel, which I wanted to set in Maine, I asked the manager of Murder Ink, a mystery bookstore on Second Avenue in Manhattan (now closed) to give me a list of all mystery series set in the Pine Tree State, so I could get a feel for what was already in the marketplace. (I didn't want to repeat something that had been done before.) God bless him, he insisted that I read JUST A CORPSE AT TWILIGHT.

Reading it was both a blessing and a curse. I knew that there was no way I could make better use of Maine as a backdrop to my novel than van de Wetering had for his. I also knew that it didn't matter. This novel is a one-of-a-kind wonder. I could only hope in some small way to create characters and situations both as realistic and as absurd as he had. I hope to hell I haven't unconsciously copied anything he's done, but I couldn't blame myself too much if I had. Some writers - Hammett, Twain, Salinger, Kerouac, and Faulkner - are so good that it's hard not to emulate them. Van de Wetering is on that list.

WARNING: Read this novel only if you like Zen detectives from Amsterdam who get drunk under the stars, fall in love with Polynesian beauties working at coffee shops along the Maine coast, or feel that the mysteries inherent to forensic and legalistic puzzles don't matter half as much as existential ones.

I love this series. Oddly, this was the first book that I read. It's not often that you have a fallible, real person as a detective. This intense story is both funny and thought provoking. The atmosphere provoked in this Maine setting is the best I've ever read, and in the back of my mind I picture the place as if it really existed. I theorize that all books are about escapism, and this detective team has a member who is all about escaping and finding the REAL meaning behind things. Quite a good read. In all, I would say that this is my favorite detective series because I don't feel as if I've eaten potato chips (metaphorically) after I've read it, but that I've furthered my mind along.

I read in another review that the translation is a bit sluggish. Could be, I can't really judge that, being Dutch myself and living in the Netherlands.
The pictures in this book though are very inspiring! Great use of color, lighting and different materials. Very sleek style, with lots of room to breathe!

Lush, sophisticated colors, minimalist design - this book exemplifies the best Netherlands has to offer in term of design.
Translation of text is a bit sluggish.

This review is based on the original (1957) edition. Felix Kersten, Himmler's personal physician, had numerous heart-to-heart conversations with him. Historian Trevor-Roper credits Kersten's intervention with the saving of the lives of 60,000 Jews (p. 11) and at least 500 Poles (p. 14).

In contrast to those who rationalize the sellout of Poland at Yalta through the west's imagined powerlessness, Himmler recognized the real basis of Soviet military successes: "Without American weapons and supplies, Russia would have been overwhelmed by our blitzkrieg and by the violence of our attack..." (p. 130).

As for Himmler's views on religion, Kersten comments: "Himmler was an outspoken antagonist of the Christian and especially the Catholic religion. This hostility towards Christianity has led him to take a systematic interest in other religions." (p. 148). In fact, Himmler thought highly of the eastern religions (p. 149, 151, 156) and of their concept of reincarnation (p. 154). Himmler foresaw the death of Christianity in Germany as one eventual outcome of Nazism: "The more our training takes root and men become infused with our spirit, the less they will depend on the churches--and one day they will be empty." (p. 136).

In recent decades, there have been accusations of the Church being indifferent to, if not complicit with, the Holocaust. Ironic to this, Himmler attributed much the same malevolence and power to the Catholic Church as he did to the Jews, and even believed that they were in cahoots: "In every crisis, you will trace the influence of two great world powers, the Catholic Church and the Jews. They're both striving for world leadership, basically hostile to each other, only united in their struggle against the Germanic peoples." (p. 155)

Libertines and hedonists sometimes try to tar modern traditionalism with the purported similarity of its views to that of the Nazis. This was far from the case. Himmler, for example, frowned upon sexual and marital monogamy (pp. 176-179), and had no problem with illegitimacy (p. 180). His opposition to homosexuality was primarily based on the fact that it discouraged procreation that would benefit the Reich (p. 57).

Himmler said that, not only was Heydrich of Jewish ancestry, but that Hitler used it to good Machiavellian effect to keep a man of Heydrich's talents in line. Furthermore, Heydrich was an ideal person to lead the extermination of the Jews because of the hatred of his own Jewish blood (pp. 97-99).

As for the Holocaust itself, Himmler claimed that, all along, he had been content with the emigration and resettlement of the Jews (pp. 119-120, 139, 162). Hitler, Bormann, and Goebbels were the ones who supposedly chose extermination (p. 164), deciding this before November 1941(p. 119)[which was at least two months before Wannsee].

This one of the most remarkable factual documents to emerge from World War II. It is not only accurate history, but it is eminently fascinating--a truly exciting story of a man leading a double life in Nazi Germany. So far as I know, this is the only story of its kind to present an intimate portrait of Himmler--who formed an odd affection for his "doctor," who reluctantly treated him, but was able to rescue hundreds of imprisoned Jews who were released by Himmler under the persuasive powers of Kersten. Reads like a classic mystery story.

Graeme Cornwallis almost immediately makes a misstep with his best and worst lists. The Top 10 is fine, but the Bottom 10? You can tell he was put up to this by the publisher. Arvika is shabby? I didn't find it that way at all! A lovely town with beautiful locations and a great arts and crafts store. Forests extremely tedious? Sorry. Ticket machines? I guess if you like ganging up on an overworked clerk, it's more fun not to have a ticket, but otherwise, it's very civilized. If these are the worst that he can find about Sweden, it must be a wonderful place! And that's how I found it. To be fair, Cornwallis is trying to fit a lot of information in a small book. He did miss an item or two (how could he not discuss allmansrãtt, which basically says you can hike or camp anywhere that you're not being obnoxious?) but he certainly covers a lot of what is available. It would take more than one vacation to cover all the attractions he outlines just for Gothenburg. And his directions to eating places in Gothenburg are right on the mark.

This comprehensive guide assures the best plans for your visit to Sweden. It is jampacked with essential information to get you there and away to wonderful destinations and events for every interest and attraction.

Like an encyclopedia, it leaves nothing to chance for planning each leg of your trip. It has two outstanding sections that sets this travel guide apart from others.

First, is it's Facts For The Visitor. It highlights the Best And Worst of what to hit or miss on your visit, which includes incidentals like free car-ferries, but expensive beer, bread, and parking fees. This section also includes the essentials for planning prior to your visit. It is a must for acquainting yourself with the cultural differences and practicals of visiting abroad.

Second best, but not least, section is the Getting There And Away. This is the best guide I have seen that gives all the transportation alternatives available to get you where you want to be, with schedules and pricing. Though this section does not boast of winning any photo contest, it has more cities per area to give the best overall opportunity to visit the real country, not just the tourist traps. Also included are internet connections to give even greater details, which brings the reference material to life.

Overall, I believe this guide is the bible for experiencing Sweden in the first year of the new millennium.

I just received my copy, but I have not yet used it while traveling.

It looks like this 2007 edition is up to the standards of the classic green guides, dense with cultural information, printed on fine quality paper, and in a wonderful format easy for toting along and reading on a train.

However, it's not vinyl bound as Amazon's listing states...it appears to be a paperback (which is what Michelin's own site admits to). It's just fine for traveling, but while other companies are moving to plasticized bindings that are water proof and wear well after being shoved into backpacks and backpockets, Michelin seems to have taken a small step back. Don't misundertand, the quality of binding is excellent, it would just be a little bit more excellent if the cover were really vinyl. Also, no map is included (as they did with green guides in the old days), but that's not a big loss given the many small but fine maps inside.

This book is a pleasure to hold and read.

We have numerous guides for Belgium (because we live here) and there's nothing like the Michelin guide. It's the only one that really delves into the details of the architecture and history of the many fantastic buildings here, and it provides thoughtful and well-planned circuits for tourism. It's for the visitor who really wants to know the when-who-whys of what they see. (But you can't plan your light-hearted shopping visits with this book. You'll need a second guidebook for that.)
Too bad they switched to these new 'updated' book covers. The old ones had more class!

This book kept me so interested that I kept on reading throughout the night! I have been reading several survivors' books lately and find this one by Faye Adam to be one of my favorites. I had read previously that the people of Holland hated the Nazis and their beliefs. Holland is one of the countries with the highest number of Gentiles hiding Jews during the war. The author's book seems to illustrate that. It would also lend itself greatly to Middle School study. The only reason I rated it 4 stars as opposed to 5 is the skimming over of large chunks of time (months, years). However, you never lose the sense of what is happening to the author and her family.

This book reads like a fast-paced novel. It is not only a look at one child's life during the German occupation of Holland, it is an inspiration to anyone who faces overwhelming odds. The author has written this work in such a way that it touches the hearts of readers from the age of 11 to 80. Middle school teachers would find this an excellent outside reading resource in both the Language Arts and History curriculums. The author is a living tribute to the good people who put their lives on the line to save hers.

This is a very good book for those with an interest in New Netherland in general and New Amsterdam in particular. Jaap Jacobs compares and contrasts the social, economic, governmental, religious, and cultural practices and institutions of New Netherland with those of the Netherlands and describes the role of the West India Company throughout the period of Dutch governance of the colony. The author's text is thoroughly documented with source information in footnotes on nearly every page. For what is clearly a definitive work on life in New Netherland, I found the text to be very clearly written, without tedium, and surprisingly readable. Readers having ancestors among the inhabitants of New Amsterdam may be pleasantly surprised to find accounts of the doings, occupations, or legal problems of some of those ancestors. I found several such accounts and am doubtful that this information would have come to me in any other way. This is a very expensive book, however, and I subtracted a star from my rating because of its cost for an individual purchaser. I would encourage libraries with meaningful history collections or particular interest in 17th-century colonies in North America to obtain Jacobs' book for use of their patrons.

This is a fantastic reference book for anyone interested in the Dutch Atlantic World, specifically New Netherland (obviously). I have not purchased it yet, but the bits that I have read at the library have been most useful.

Note: It is encyclopedic!

This stand alone volume is a wonderful beggining of an index of Jewish sites in Poland and is a worthy addition to any traveller going to that country to examine its Jewish past or his or her Jewish roots there. Although it claims to begin in the 9th century AD the sites do not date back so far. Nevertheless the index provided is extensive and interestaint as it is diverse and gives the reader a true taste of the great wealth of the heritage of the Jews of Poland.

A must have for anyone interested in the Jewish history of Poland.

Seth J. Frantzman

What can you say about Jewish Poland in 264 pages or less?
This is a subject for volumes, not for a thin paperback.
I suppose that if I had to describe Polish Jewry "on one foot" (as they say) this book would be it. This is the book in your backpack when you travel to Poland. It opens with the Kaddish. You'll need that often, as you travel through the country.

It then goes on to list some of the Jewish landmark events in a "Chronology of Jewish Presence in Poland before and after WWII" which starts at 860 AD. That's just to give you a taste of how rich the Jewish heritage was in Poland.

There are several short chapters on the history of the Jews in Poland, and an introduction to Polish Jewish culture. But the most interesting and useful information in this book is the reference material. The book contains maps of various sorts, showing not just geography but also demographic information. There are lists and photos, diagrams, and names, names and more names.

So many contributed to the rich Jewish life in Poland that they are too great to mention. The section on famous figures and their contributions is simply a list of names
and their contributions. This hardly does justice so giants like Shalom Aleichem and Isaac Bashevis Singer, each one line entries under Yiddish and Hebrew Writers. Imagine that.

Almost a third of this book is a glossary of Polish Jewry. Here you will find an alphabetical listing of some of the most significant locations and a paragraph on each.
Though some of the entries are very thorough, I was disappointed in the number of items missing from this 100-page section, particulary the religious references.

The chapter on major Jewish centers in Poland, focuses on Cracow, Lodz, Lublin, and Warsaw. The book has an interesting chapter on tracing ones roots in Poland. It discusses the types of documents that are helpful for tracing family members and the repositories in Poland where they can be found. There is a list of modern day congregations and synagogues, striking in that it is two sides of a single page. There is another section on current Jewish organizations, recommended reading and an index.

I suppose if such a rich topic as Poland's Jewish Landmarks had to be summed up in a portable paperback, this book does the job. But readers of this book should take the recommended reading section seriously, and use this book as just the start of a fascinating study.

STORY TAKES PLACE ON THE HIGH SEAS IN 1725. A DEEPLY RELIGIOUS SAILOR, JAN SVILT, IS MAROONED ON A DESERT ISLAND BY THE SHIP'S CAPTAIN BECAUSE OF ACCUSATIONS OF BUGGGERY,AND LEFT TO GOD'S MERCY. SVILT HAS A WIFE AND TWO DAUGHTERS IN AMSTERDAM. BAD ECONOMIC CONDITIONS IN HOLLAND DROVE HIM TO JOIN THE DUTCH EAST INDIA COMPANY AS A PURSER.

The Queer Dutchman is a fascinating tale, appalling for the suffering it describes. It tells the story of a Dutch sailor set ashore alone on Ascension Island in 1725, after being accused of an affair with a boy. The book contains his daily journal written on this barren and uninhabited island "found beside his skeleton," which recounts his finally fruitless search for water during five months. There are also excerpts purportedly from his shipboard journal at Capetown and Batavia. The intriguing question is how much of this is historical fact. It's not clear from the text. The Ascension diary was first published in London in 1728 under the title "An Authentick Relation of the hardships and sufferings of a Dutch sailor..." (There is a later reissue under the title "The Just Vengeance of Heaven...," 1730, 1747, etc. which I have not seen, but which I assume is the same text.) The Ascension diary in QD repeats the material in the 1728 pamphlet, but claims to be a translation from a book of sea adventures published in Dutch in 1762 or 1803; however, since the title of the book isn't given, I haven't been able to trace it. In addition the QD version of the Ascension diary includes passages in which the sailor (whose name is Jan Svilt) reflects on his former life in Holland; these are interesting, plausible, and well written, but read like novelistic flashbacks added by the translator (M. Jelstra) or the compiler (Peter Agnos), as do the Capetown and Batavia episodes. Finally, the book includes records, purportedly from the Archives of the Dutch East India Company, of Svilt's ship-board trial which led to the decision to abandon him on Ascension, and a second report, also by the captain, of his response to a charge by the chaplain that he (the captain)had acted too leniently (!) The chaplain held that man and boy should have been thrown overboard to the sharks. (One possible punishment for sodomy in Holland in the eighteenth century was drowning.) This archival material may possibly be authentic, and could be checked in Amsterdam. I'd be interested in comments on these speculations, especially from Agnos or Jelstra.

The book isn't easy reading, but it has some very useful information for artists regarding pricing of their work.

Getting a handle on the economics of the art market is much like grabbing smoke. Dealers are loath to discuss the financial side of their business and the private nature of their transactions frustrates researchers. Even the ostensibly open world of auctions is full of slippery practices. None of that deterred Olav Velthuis, whose exhaustive research into the art market yields a fascinating economic analysis. He explores the anticommercial bias of dealers and even finds some tangible factors that influence art prices. While impressive, Velthuis' work would have benefited from a more conversational, less academic tone. His fascinating price study, for instance, focuses on "coefficients" and "t-values" rather than on actual prices. Still, we recommend this study for its ambitious and intriguing attempt to shed light on a little-known corner of the economy.