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READING AND TRAVEL GUIDE

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Enrich your travels with reading! Here's a hand-picked list prepared for your journey in conjunction with the book experts at Longitude.

Item EXNTH69. Buy these 5 items as a set for $84 including shipping, 15% off the retail price.
With free shipping on anything else you order.

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A Worldly Art

by Mariet Westermann

• ART & ARCHITECTURE
• 2005
• PAPER
• 208 PAGES

This appreciative analysis of Dutch art in its Golden Age (1585-1718) features 100 exemplary illustrations by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Pieter de Hooch, Frans Hals and other masters. (NTH46, $25.00)

Tulipomania

by Mike Dash

• HISTORY
• 2001
• PAPER
• 288 PAGES

The story of the world's most coveted flower and the extraordinary passion it aroused, this vivid history traces the story of the tulip from its origins on the Turkish steppes to an absurdly coveted object in Europe and its key role in the financial follies of 17th-century Holland. (NTH30, $13.95)

Vermeer's Hat, The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World

by Timothy Brook

• HISTORY
• 2008
• PAPER
• 272 PAGES

Brook uses the domestic detail in Vermeer's art as a window into the 17th-century Dutch world, a golden age of trade, painting and prosperity. (NTH125, $18.00)

Fodor's Amsterdam & the Netherlands

by Fodors

• GUIDEBOOK
• 2011
• PAPER
• 464 PAGES

The up-to-date, full color Fodor's guide features invaluable recommendations on where to stay and eat and what to do throughout Holland. With side trips to Belgium, it's ideal for either a weekend trip or an extended visit. (NTH105, $21.99)

Benelux Map

by Michelin Travel Publications

• 2010
• MAP

Covering the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg at a scale of 1:400,000. (NTH03, $11.95)

 

Also Recommended

Eyewitness Guide Brussels, Bruges, Ghent & Antwerp

by Rebecca Miles

• GUIDEBOOK
• 2011
• PAPER
• 210 PAGES

This superbly illustrated guide features color photos and maps of city neighborhoods, with information on history, culture and sightseeing. (BLG16, $20.00)

Designed for Dry Feet, Flood Protection and Land Reclamation in the Netherlands

by R. J. Hoeksema

• HISTORY
• 2006
• PAPER
• 168 PAGES

The best technical overview of the massive efforts of the Dutch to reshape their environment and protect themselves from the North Sea. Not for the casual reader, but those with a modest technical background will find much in this monograph to enrich their understanding of the Netherlands. (NTH114, $54.00)

Economic and Social History of Medieval Europe

by Henri Pirenne

• HISTORY
• 1936
• PAPER
• 224 PAGES

Pirenne, an important economic historian, traces the economic and social development of Western Europe from the end of the Roman Empire to the middle of the 15th century in this classic book, first published in 1936. (EUR18, $15.95)

The Autumn of the Middle Ages

by Johan Huizinga

• HISTORY
• 1997
• PAPER
• 467 PAGES

A pioneering work of social and cultural history, this well-translated classic is a richly detailed portrait of life, thought and art in 14th- and 15th-century France and the Netherlands. (EUR17, $30.00)

The Embarrassment of Riches

by Simon Schama

• HISTORY
• 1997
• PAPER
• 698 PAGES

An engaging cultural history and much more, this book is a study of the Dutch in the 17th century and their surprising challenge to Spanish rule. (NTH04, $25.00)

The Undutchables

by Colin White

• CULTURAL PORTRAIT
• 2010
• PAPER
• 308 PAGES

A laugh-out-loud, irreverent guide to Dutch character and habits, including how to drink coffee and why you shouldn't even think about haggling over prices. (NTH12, $16.00)

Dutch Painting (World of Art)

by Rudolf Herman Fuchs

• ART & ARCHITECTURE
• 1985
• PAPER

Starting with Van Eyck and his 15th-century contemporaries, this volume in the "World of Art" series surveys nearly 500 years of painting in the Netherlands, ending with a discussion of late 20th-century artists. Featuring almost 200 illustrations. (NTH72, $14.95)

Vincent Van Gogh, The Passionate Eye

by Pascal Bonafoux

• ART & ARCHITECTURE
• 1992
• PAPER
• 175 PAGES
• FAVORITE

From Paris to Asnieres, Amsterdam and Provence, this jewel of a book traces the life and art of Vincent Van Gogh, the spirited, self-destructive painter who celebrated the south of France. Engaging, compact and illustrated with hundreds of photographs. (FRN29, $12.95)

A Tall Man in a Low Land

by Harry Pearson

• TRAVEL NARRATIVE
• 2000
• PAPER
• 246 PAGES

Pearson, a British travel writer, journalist and comic is an entertaining guide to Belgium and its traditions, culture, beer and chocolate. (BLG19, $16.95)

Master of Shadows, The Secret Diplomatic Career of the Painter Peter Paul Rubens

by Mark Lamster

• BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
• 2010
• PAPER
• 316 PAGES

Ranging from his home in Antwerp to London, Madrid, Paris and Rome, Lamster uncovers the gripping tale of the world's most famous painter and his double life as a secret agent, diplomat and political operative in 17th century Europe. (BLG44, $17.00)

The Diary of a Young Girl, The Definitive Edition

by Anne Frank

• BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
• 1995
• PAPER
• 340 PAGES

The classic story of an adolescent Jewish girl's life and thoughts while in hiding with her family in Nazi-occupied Holland. A new edition with added material. (NTH05, $13.00)

Amsterdam, A Traveler's Literary Companion

by Manfred Wolf

• ANTHOLOGY
• 2001
• PAPER
• 238 PAGES

Organized by district, these 17 contemporary short stories by modern Dutch writers, including Cees Nooteboom and Geert Mak, are set among the canals, cafes and neighborhoods of Amsterdam. (NTH33, $13.95)

Austerlitz

by Anthea Bell | Winfried Georg Sebald

• LITERATURE
• 2002
• PAPER
• 298 PAGES

Seabald's haunting book, evocative of WWII Europe, travels from the magnificent railway station in Antwerp to London, Paris and the streets in Prague where the narrator Austerlitz was born and fled during the Nazi devastation. (GER282, $16.00)

Girl in Hyacinth Blue

by Susan Vreeland

• LITERATURE
• 2000
• PAPER
• 150 PAGES

This finely-crafted novel tells the story of the girl in an imagined, undiscovered portrait by Vermeer. Created in the 17th century, the painting passes through a number of people's hands, and following its path provides a series of tales that reflect the history and character of Holland and Europe through the years. (NTH23, $14.00)

Girl With a Pearl Earring

by Tracy Chevalier

• LITERATURE
• 2001
• PAPER
• 233 PAGES

Chevalier's richly drawn novel imagines the story behind Vermeer's mysterious portrait of a turbaned girl with a pearl earring. (NTH25, $15.00)

Headlong, A Novel

by Michael Frayn

• LITERATURE
• 2000
• PAPER
• 344 PAGES

A Bruegel canvas claims a central role in Frayn's hilarious tale of an art heist gone awry. Frayn weaves detailed research about the Old Master with a philosopher's foiled plot to appropriate the valuable masterpiece from a boor he feels is unworthy of it. (NTH68, $16.00)

Niccolo Rising

by Dorothy Dunnett

• LITERATURE
• 1999
• PAPER
• 470 PAGES

From the reigning queen of historical fiction comes this fast-paced, thoroughly-researched novel of ambition and worldly goods in 15th-century Bruges. This is the first volume in her House of Niccolo series. (BLG13, $15.95)

Tulip Fever

by Deborah Moggach

• LITERATURE
• 2001
• PAPER
• 281 PAGES

A surprise bestseller, set in 1630s Amsterdam; in this gripping novel, a man contracts the talented painter Jan Van Loos to paint a portrait of him and his beautiful wife, Sophia. A vivid drama unfolds as a mutual attraction develops between Van Loos and Sophia. (NTH31, $15.00)

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