Rated De saamhorigheidsgroep 6/10
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Rated The Bible: A Very Short Introduction 2/10
Very poor compared to the standard of the other VSI's I have read so far. The other books in the series did a great job in providing a very concise overview of a vast subject. Written by experts yet quite accessible to those unfamiliar with the topic at hand.<br/><br/>John Riches starts rather conventional, outlining the Bible's origins and canonization but one third in slips into a sloppy kind of 'social life of the Bible'. From there on he seems to be cherrypicking from his favourite parts of his own lectures, seemingly unaware he is not writing for theology students. It all lacks both focus and overview. What should have been examples ('Jewish and Christian readings of the Binding of Isaac', 'Galatians through history') are promoted to entire chapters. <br/><br/>His main point: people have read the texts of the Bible in very different ways. His main concern: how to keep people reading the Bible.<br/><br/>Awful read. To be avoided if you don't know much but are curious about the famed book. This doesn't teach you anything you couldn't have figured out yourself ('people have read the texts of the Bible in very different ways').
Rated Homegoing 8/10
This is an ambitious book. Homegoing follows the descendants of two (half)sisters born in present-day Ghana in the 18th century. Following the two family lines, both tangled up in the history of slavery, Gyasi maps the experience of being black on both sides of the Atlantic. She manages to wrap a lot of history and a lot of pain in this novel. Downside of her broad scope and multigenerational approach is that her characters lack some depth, sometimes merely cardboard pawns pushed through the historical scheme in which their lives are embedded. Yet, to fit all this into just 300 captivating pages is quite an achievement.
Rated Ik lieg de waarheid + CD: de beste kronkels 8/10
Rated Multatuli: leven en werk van Eduard Douwes Dekker 8/10
Dik van der Meulen lijkt alle informatie die er over Multatuli/Eduard Douwes Dekker te achterhalen valt, achterhaald te hebben en heeft op basis van al die gegevens toch een bijzonder leesbare biografie geschreven. <br/><br/>Fijne studie van dit "vat vol tegenstrijdigheden" en zijn werk, tijd en omgeving.
Rated The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories 6/10
Wants to read Africa's Discovery of Europe: 1450-1850
Rated Amsterdam: geschiedenis van de meest vrijzinnige stad ter wereld 6/10
No shocking new information for those familiar with Amsterdams history here but Shorto is a skilled writer and effortlessy weaves the stories of some of Amsterdams defining characters into the city's history and that of the modern world. His enthusiasm for his 'adoption city' is charming and makes this book an easy read but it also seems to inform a lot of his rather bold claims about the city's role in the defining of liberalism as the world knows it today. Interesting approach nonetheless, though somewhat overstretched at times.
Rated Blacks in the Dutch World: The Evolution of Racial Imagery in a Modern 6/10
Impressive survey of the ambiguous ways black people have been portrayed in Dutch painting, literature and religious discourse over the centuries. Blakely shows how current bias towards black people in the Netherlands has a long history, grounded in the formation of one of Europe's first modern states and its empire.
Rated Tales of Falling and Flying 10/10
With deceptively plain language and within just a few pages a story, Loory paints little universes in which a little magic and imagination overrule everyday reality. Easy to read, hard to forget.