Guus Bosman

A sweet little book. Memoirs by a highly acclaimed Dutch children's book author, describing her life until the 1950's and in particular her childhood in Zeeland.

She was born in 1911 and World War I even plays a small role. One of the events is a visit to Den Haag by the family where they see electricity-powered lights and appliances for the first time. While she is growing up, she's looking forward to wear the traditional costume but once she turned 16 it had completely gone out of fashion.

She is a very gifted author and this is a lovely book. My grandmother grew up in Zeeland -- she was born in 1926 -- and it was nice to read about that area.

This was one of the books I bought in October 2014 from the Netherlands.

Interesting book about live in a mental institution in Bloemendaal, the Netherlands. The author spent many months with real patients and weaved their real stories into fictional narratives. Gripping.

I bought this book at a flea market at the Dutch school. I didn't realize this is the author of a book that made a big impression on me when I was younger: het verrotte leven van Floortje Bloem, about a young drug user. Mrs Keuls was famous when she wrote this book and several times characters in the book treat her differently because of who she is.

The author has a talent for telling deeply personal stories. It is scary to read about these people's inner-lives -- some seem almost normal, but with deep and sad problems. The last few chapters, about patient with depression, are particularly tough.

This is a short book by the first female Judge on the Supreme Court. It was interesting to read a little bit how things work behind the scenes, and to read more on the Court's history.

I read this book on the flight from DC to San Francisco.

When I was in my last year of highschool, or the year before that, I read De Kellner en de Levenden. I was very impressed by the book and the author.

A few years ago I brought a pile of second-hand books from the Netherlands in my luggage; mainly Vestdijk novels. I just finished De Koperen Tuin and I loved it.

Made me nostalgic for a time I never knew. Very impressive.

This was a terrific book, and what a story! I didn't know anything about Lewis and Clark, except the fact that they made a big journey to the West Coast. This book does a great job bringing that experience to life, and place it in its historic context. Highly recommended.

It's one of those famous titles that I've always wanted to read, and this book didn't disappointed. I enjoyed this short story of a man who goes out fishing -- and the risks he took. Beautiful prose.

After our visit to New Jersey I caught a cold and I was looking for some easy reading. Yesterday I read The Alchemist after seeing it mentioned several times in a Quora thread.

It was a nice book to read and brought me into another world for a few hours.

I didn't care much for the life-philosophy described in the book. Not only is it a scientifically lazy way of looking at the world, with seeing "omens" everywhere, but it was also presented in a fairly obnoxious way. Too much speechifying, too much elaborating by various characters in the book. It reminded me of the Celestial Prophecy that I read years ago, although The Alchemist at least has some literary qualities which compensates for the medieval worldview.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed reading the descriptions of the life of the shepherd boy and his travels through Spain and Africa and I can see why it is such a bestseller.

After reading De donkere kamer van Damokles I was looking forward to this book, the 2nd one by WF Hermans on the list with 10 most popular Dutch books, and the book did not disappoint.

The style of the book was quite different than the magic realism in the previous one. This one felt like a biography at times and was very realistic. The main character makes a trip through Norway and the cold and rain are palpable. It serves as a good reminder never to visit the northern part of Norway.

The book became quite a page-turner in the end. Enjoyable.