A must read for anyone interseted in the euthanasia bebate. Hendin went to the Netherlands and interviewed a number of key figures. He exposes the major problems the Dutch are having in regulating euthanasia. The paragraph below is an excellent summary of his findings:

"The Netherlands has moved from assisted suicide to euthanasia, from euthanasia for people who are terminally ill to euthanasia for those who are chronically ill, from euthanasia for physical illness to euthanasia for psychological distress, from voluntary euthanasia to involuntary euthanasia The Dutch government's own commissioned research has documented that in more than one thousand cases a year, doctors actively cause or hasten death without the patient's request."

Hendin looks at the issue from ethical, political, and practical viewpoints. He also looks at the why the U.S. could possible be the next country to legalize euthanasia.

Trams, metros and automobiles! Streetwise Amsterdam is the map you need. Wandering through Amsterdam's semi-circular canals from Anne Frank House to the Van Gogh Museum, you'll find your way without difficulty with Streetwise Amsterdam. All major museums and points of interest are shown.

Daring enough to try public transportation? This map shows tram and metro routes for the city center together with the street - no more trying to match public transport grids to street maps!

Very small, laminated to be waterproof (which any Amsterdam veteran knows is invaluable!), and no fumbling with huge paper maps that won't refold correctly! If you will be traveling outside of the city center you will need a larger map as this does not cover the entire metropolitan Amsterdam area.

As an American living in Amsterdam for three years, I still use this map to find the quaint cafe's and other treasures hiding in small side streets and alleyways.

I recently found myself needing to know more about the Dutch estate tax system. After writing a professer in the Netherlands, I was referred to this book by Gerrit te Spenke. I had my university library obtain it and I found it to be very informative. The book covers various aspects of the Dutch tax system and is useful for anyone thinking of investing there or doing business or estate planning for persons with property interests in the Netherlands. As the only English-Language information that I could locate on the Netherlands tax system, I found this book to be informative and helpful

Sustainble development has become one of the catch phrases of the 1990s. In this text the author seeks to unite the issues of transport, planning and sustainability. He starts the book with a comprehensive overview of transport policy and sustainability in the future. He also makes a good attempt at defining sustainability - not an easy task. All aspects fo the impact of transport on the environment have been well researched.

The author shows that although Britain and the Netherlands used to have different views on transport, their ideas are now similar and the comprehensive chapters on the two countries describe past, present and future theories of planning and policy making.

The text also provides an extensive review of environmental impact assessment (EIA) and strategic environmental assessment (SEA) in Britain and Europe. The final chapter deals with the future of sustainability and how planners and government officials will deal with transport policy in the next millennium.

The author attempts to examine how the differences in national transport policy affects decisions taken to deal with transport congestion on a main transport corridor in each country.

The book is well written and easy to read and is aimed at everyone who has an interest in sustainable transport. It highlights the differences in the rhetoric and reality of Dutch policy, which is often held up as an example of best practice.

Although the policy debate has moved on in the UK, the book provides a good background to the development of UK and Dutch transport and environmental policy. The basic concepts and issues are as just as relevant to today as they were in the 1990s.

A interesting and informative read.

This book is a minor classic in Friesland, the northwest part of the Netherlands. It was originally written in Frisian, a language restricted to that tiny corner of the world.

The book is an uncompromising look at the life of a poor fisherman and his encounter with Nazi occupiers during WW II. The fisherman has (almost against his will) sheltered some Jews and Allied pilots in his shack. He is found out by the Frisian version of a Quisling. Arrested by the Germans, he resists, then is crushed when he sees his son's few possessions in the office of an interrogator. But it is too late; he is shot.

Not fun reading. But if you want to get a feel for the lives of poor people in the thirties and forties, this gives it to you straight. If you want to feel the horror of the trap closing on the man, you will feel it. [By the way, the title of this book in Frisian translates as "The Fish Trap;" it is an apt title as fish traps are easy to enter but difficult to escape.]

Try this book. It is clearly, beautifully, and bleakly written. You will remember it. I did.

REASON FOR 4 STAR RANK: This book is definitely worth purchasing if you love giant photos of Vincent's work-- a great coffee table book! The only thing that keeps me from giving this book 5 stars is it does not have a table of contents! It just goes right into "whatever." I like to know what I am reading before I just plunge into a 160 page book! The photos though truly make it a 5 star book! I wish I could give it a 9 of 10 stars!

ENORMOUS PHOTOS OF VINCENT'S ART: Here are the LARGE illustrations of Vincent's work that you are sure to enjoy:

THE SOWER, 1888 Oil on canvas [I haven't seen this one before] / IRISES, 1889 Oil on canvas [ Beautiful piece] / SUNFLOWERS Oil on canvas [Incredible] / THE RETURN OF THE MINERS, 1881 Pen, pencil & brush [WOW] / THE GREAT LADY, 1882 Graphite & ink / THE HARROWER, 1883 Letter in pen / THE POTATO EATERS, 1885 Oil on canvas [Fantastic use of backlighting and texture] / STILL LIFE WITH BIBLE, 1885 Oil on panel [Speaks to me] / THE QUAY, 1885 Oil on panel [Delightful texture and light even in darkness] / VIEW OF PARIS SEEN FROM MONTMARTRE, 1886 Oil on canvas / 5 small self portraits approx 3" x 5" (I wish these were full page!) / PORTRAIT OF PERE TANGUY, 1887 Oil on canvas / BRIDGE AT ASNIERES, 1887 Oil on canvas / A PAIR OF SHOES, 1886 Oil on canvas [I have never seen such beauty made from a pair of beaten up, old shoes in my entire life!] / VIEW FROM VINCENT'S WINDOW RUE LEPTIC, 1887 Oil on canvas / AGOSTINA SEGATORIIN THE CAFE DU TAMBOURIN, 1887 Oil on canvas / RESTAURANT DE LA SIRENE AT ASNIERES, 1887 Oil on canvas / THE ITALIAN WOMAN, LE SEGATORI, 1887 Oil on canvas / VIEW OF ARLES, 1888 Oil on canvas/ LA CHARCUTERIE, 1888 Oil on canvas / THE OLD MILL, 1888 Oil on canvas / BOATS AT SAINTES-MARIES, 1888 Oil on canvas [in my bathroom] / ENCAMPMENT OF GYPSIES IN CARAVANS, 1888 Oil on canvas / HARVEST AT LA CRAU, 1888 Oil on canvas / PORTRAIT OF MILLIET, 1888 Oil on canvas / PORTRAIT OF ARMAND ROULIN, 1888 Oil on canvas / STARRY NIGHT OVER THE RHONE, 1888 Oil on canvas / SELF-PORTRAIT, 1888 Oil on canvas / VINCENT'S BEDROOM IN ARLES, 1888 Oil on canvas / L'ARLESIENNE, 1888 Oil on canvas [amazing use of color--as always] / GAUGUIN'S CHAIR, 1888 Oil on canvas [perfect complementary colors and tones combined with his backlighting techique I adore] / HOSPITAL IN ARLES, 1889 Oil on canvas / HOSPITAL GARDEN, ARLES, 1889 Oil on canvas [amazing detail and intricasy] / SAINT-PAULS HOSPITAL, 1889 Oil on canvas / IRISES, 1890 Oil on canvas [my favorite Iris piece] / THE VESTIBULE OF SAINT-PAUL'S HOSPITAL, 1889 Black chalk & gouache on pink Ingres paper / PORTRAIT OF TRABUC, 1889 Oil on canvas / GARDEN OF SAINT-PAUL'S HOSPITAL, 1889 Oil on canvas / WHEATFIELD, 1889 Oil on canvas [fantastic texture and color] / WHEATFIELD, 1889 Black chalk, red & brown pencil on paper / BRANCHES OF AN ALMOND TREE IN BLOSSOM, 1889 Oil on canvas / DR. GACHET'S GARDEN, 1890 Oil on canvas [lots of black accents] / FIELD UNDER THUNDERCLOUDS ["My present, almost excessively calm frame of mind is just the state I needed to paint this." Truly magnificient] / MARGUERITE GACHET AT THE PIANO, 1890 Oil on canvas [lovely tones with dots and gorgeous strokes] / THATCHED FARMHOUSES, 1890 Oil on canvas / THATCHED SANDSTONE COTTAGES AT CHAPONVAL, 1890 Oil on canvas / CHURCH AT AUVERS-SUR-OISE, 1890 Oil on canvas [ My second favorite, only to STARRY NIGHT ; in my living room ] / CHATEAU DE AUVERS, 1890 Oil on canvas [so much beauty, brings tears to my eyes: this piece plus the previous have a black and white photograph of the subject and Vincent turned it all to GOLD in comparison!] / THE PLAIN WITH FARM NEAR AUVERS, 1890 Oil on canvas / CROWS IN THE WHEATFIELDS, 1890 Oil on canvas [extraordinary use of color and brushwork.] Keep in mind these are just the LARGE PIECES!

MORE REASONS TO BUY: The end of the book has a "Catalogue of essential works" (thumbnail sketches including title, year, dimensions and location.) Also helpful is a spreadsheet of "The Life of Van Gogh" with the year, Principal works, Artistic and literary life, and History.

EVEN MORE REASONS TO BUY: There are many more of his most renowned pieces including "Starry Night" [ my personal favorite,] "Night Cafe", and "Portrait of Dr. Gachet" but they aren't full page spreads. Another wonderful feature this book has is photographs of Vincent and his entire family!

I highly recommend this to anyone who appreciates Vincent on any level--beginner to advanced!

This book is not an easy read, but it does provide wonderful insights into how Vermeer achieved the effects he did. It certainly heightened my appreciation of his work, both in technical and in artistic terms.

This book gives a very brief biography of Van Gohg's life, although the pictures are large and beautiful. A good collection book or gift for a van gogh fan.

I thought that the best thing in this book was a story about an ancient Greek painter named Zeuxis. Back before photography, painters put a lot of effort into trying to capture reality in a picture, which might not sound too hard until you find out that for a guy like Zeuxis, "the situation seemed so ridiculous that he burst into laughter. And he laughed so hard that he died." (p. 8) The amazing thing for me is that anyone who had so much talent could live to be 61, which is the setting that is used for Rembrandt to be the narrator of this book: "Zeuxis ~ he was as old as I am, sixty-one." The dates on pages 55-57 reveal that Rembrandt lived to be 63. Most of the information in this book is about his art.

Last year I read Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier. It was my best book of the year, and happily I could keep on reading Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland. I loved both books, and when I saw Tulip Fever at my local book store I knew I had to buy it.
Now, a few day later the book is read from cover to cover, and I have to leave the 17th century world of Amsterdam and all it's inhabitants, paintings, lust, love and intrigues to come back to today's Norway.
Tulip Fever tells different stories, but they are all woven together through the main character Sophia. She is a young woman married to the old and prosperous Cornelis. He deeply loves his young and beautiful wife, and wants a painting to be made of them to take care of her beauty for ever. The painter, young and charming Jan Van Loos falls in love with Sophia, and as the portrait grows so does the passion between Jan and Sophia.
This is a surprisingly story with more secrets and surprises as the chapters unfold.
Every chapter starts with a famous sitat, and Deborah Moggach also uses sitats and famous people in the story. My favorite is when Cornelis and Sophia visits the painter to look at the finished portrait. Cornelis can't take his eyes from the beauty of his wife shown and says: "You have certainly caught her beauty.....The bloom on her cheeks, her freshness and youth like the dew on a peach. Who was it - Karel van Mander? Who, on seeing a still life tried to reach into the canvas and pluck the fruit......not realizing that this particular peach was not to be eaten"
Jan has already picked the fruit in his painting, is she to be eaten? You will have to read the story yourself, and I can promise you that you will not regret it.

In this lovely little book Amsterdam's Golden Age comes alive with its fools, drunks, painters, moralists, Calvinists, and capitalists.

The period and place are very well and engagingly described as backdrop to the story of an impetuous and impecunious painter and an unawakened, beautiful burgher's wife. Several Tulipomania legends are interwoven, including the famous one of a man who inadvertently consumed a fortune (though in the legend it's a sailor who hasn't been in Holland for several years).

This novel is a charming, fast read, consisting of short chapters that are written from different characters' perspectives. Through this device, their personalities are quickly but deftly drawn (the priggish painter's apprentice, the slightly smug neighbour's wife, the callow but sharp-eyed maid). The only problem is that the main protagonists also remain perhaps a bit too faintly and impressionistically sketched, rather than being portrayed with more verisimilitude, in a more highly detailed way -- which would be more stylistically and chronologically consistent with the style of portraiture prevalent at the time in Holland.

The final denouement should not have come as a surprise to anyone familiar with Amsterdam's history and geography, but the writer drew me into the story so well that the earlier hints were superseded by the red herrings and other fish that Moggach merrily layed out along her paths and canals of misdirection.

The "illustrations" to the book -- major period works, many of mistress and maid scenes -- are a wonderful addition, as are the almost throwaway lines about the later life of and scholarship about the works of the fictitious painter Jan van Loos. Altogether, a very enjoyable, entertaining book, even if the protagonists are not the most compelling thing about it.

I absolutely loved this book. Tulip Fever was a vivid and engrossing read that had me turning pages into the wee hours of the morning. And while some feel this novel is only a Harlequin Romance in disguise, I truly believe it is much, much more than that. The 1630s Amsterdam background lends rich definition to the characters and story line and makes Tulip Fever a highly readable, thrilling book.

Wealthy merchant, Cornelis Sandvoort, and his young wife, Sophia, have a good marriage. Sophia is ever grateful to Cornelis for saving her family from destitution, while Cornelis feels Sophia has given him another chance at life after the death of his first wife and two sons. But with there being 40 years of age between them, Sophia feels, no matter how grateful she is, that she has traded one life of imprisonment for another. The couple is childless despite Sophia's dutifulness, and in the hopes of achieving some sort of immortality, Cornelis has commissioned young, passionate artist Jan van Loos to paint their portrait.

During their sittings, something transpires between Jan and Sophia. Their love for each other becomes frantic, like another form of life support. Desperate to be together, Jan and Sophia concoct a devious plan. Lies, lust, greed and the dizzying passion of the tulip craze create an intoxicating and dangerous mix. What ensues after is the devastating windfall of their deception and selfishness.

Very intense and fast once the love affair begins. Each chapter is narrated by a different character so readers are treated to the minds of all involved. I believe Deborah Moggach has written a solid, deftly written piece of fiction. Although there are bits of Harlequin-ness, the historical references; allusions to actual Dutch paintings; sharply defined characters; and lush, vivid backdrop surely make up for it. An exceptional and sensuous feast for the mind.