I always enjoy Russell Shorto's highly readable books and use them in my research. His books about New Amsterdam (New York City)—the latest one, Taking Manhattan, and his 2004 gem, Island at the Center of the World—are already proving to be invaluable resources for the next two books of my Van der Voort Family Saga, in which Rolfe sails with Henry Hudson to North America and later settles there. In writing Amsterdam Ascendant, I relied on Shorto's book, Amsterdam, to help establish the city's 1500s milieu.