This endearing book, all about soccer but not really about the sport at all, conveys the wry Dutch character in anecdote, image and history. Winner, a British journalist, interviews football stars -- along with Dutch architects, political scientists, and novelists in this really very insightful look at the transformation of Dutch society since the 1970s. The book opens with the line, "Not so long ago Amsterdam was one of the most frumpy and tedious capitals in Europe." Not so today, and not just because the Dutch play ball and think about space differently than most of us.  (NTH56, $14.95)