Books Read This Month
1. Stoned: Jewelry, Obsession and How Desire Shapes the World by Aja Raden
"Real jewels," Raden concludes, "are formed in the human mind." Raden's journey through the histories of diamonds, emeralds, pearls, and watches coalesce around the themes of "want," "take," and "have." Her assertions that jewels have changed the history of the world ring truer in some cases than others (while she makes a strong case for the influence of jewelry-centered events, I believe the French Revolution and Spanish Armada defeat would have occurred without the Necklace Affair and La Peregrina pearl, respectively). However, the stranglehold jewels have always held over human economies is loud and clear. Some bits of the book are uneven (Raden dips into the history of Marie Antoinette, Elizabeth I, and Nicholas and Alexandra Romanov, all of whom I happen to be quite familiar with), but her unique focus on distinct pockets of history, and especially her knowledge of and respect for Carl Faberge, of the famous eggs, and Kokichi Mikimoto, the father of cultured pearls, are fascinating. Raden's casual tone is also refreshingly accessible, and I have no doubt that if more history and economics books were written like this, there would be a much greater audience for them. "Stoned" respects the human mind as the most valuable of all jewels...that whose ability to spin a narrative truly does control the world.
2. The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson
"Though you have struggled, wandered, traveled far,
It is yourselves you see and what you are."
-The Conference of the Birds, as quoted in the epigraph at the beginning of The Bird King
What a delightful parable! This is my first G. Willow Wilson book, but it won't be my last. The premise, of a magical mapmaker and his friend escaping the fall of Granada, hardly does justice to the novel's captivating central pair. Fatima, a royal slave who would rather be a sultan, and Hassan, whose taste in (male) lovers is ignored due to his strategic value in creating accurate maps of places he's never seen realize how little they are truly valued by anyone except each other, and as a result, their friendship bears a greater emotional load than usual. When Hassan's skill is betrayed to the conquering Christians, Fatima helps him escape, along with help from the jinn. Hassan and Fatima, to pass the time, make up stories of "The Bird King," based on an old folk tale of which they have read only the beginning. Eventually, the island of the Bird King becomes a destination as much as a mystical journey. On the one hand, the message of The Bird King seems to be that when the world gets ugly, the best thing to do is hide and create our own little utopia. I feel that so hard, and so when Fatima and Hassan find their own little utopia, good for them, I think. But the book isn't over. This is how the dream of utopia has always worked, I think, a dream of getting away from the ugliness, but in reality, there is "no place," (i.e. u-topia) this can exist, because wherever you go, there you are. Fatima and Hassan also find that, wherever they go, there they are, and human ugliness as well as beauty finds them But it is also within themselves that they are able to, literally and metaphorically, find, and create, the island of the Bird King.
- Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
- The Dinner Party by Brenda Janowitz
- Blood of Tyrants by Naomi Novik (Temeraire #8)
- Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
- Off the Sidelines by Kirsten Gillibrand
- Stoned by Aja Raden
- The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson
- Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman
- No Country for Old Gnomes by Delilah S. Dawson and Kevin Hearne
Favorite Books This Month
1. Stoned: Jewelry, Obsession and How Desire Shapes the World by Aja Raden"Real jewels," Raden concludes, "are formed in the human mind." Raden's journey through the histories of diamonds, emeralds, pearls, and watches coalesce around the themes of "want," "take," and "have." Her assertions that jewels have changed the history of the world ring truer in some cases than others (while she makes a strong case for the influence of jewelry-centered events, I believe the French Revolution and Spanish Armada defeat would have occurred without the Necklace Affair and La Peregrina pearl, respectively). However, the stranglehold jewels have always held over human economies is loud and clear. Some bits of the book are uneven (Raden dips into the history of Marie Antoinette, Elizabeth I, and Nicholas and Alexandra Romanov, all of whom I happen to be quite familiar with), but her unique focus on distinct pockets of history, and especially her knowledge of and respect for Carl Faberge, of the famous eggs, and Kokichi Mikimoto, the father of cultured pearls, are fascinating. Raden's casual tone is also refreshingly accessible, and I have no doubt that if more history and economics books were written like this, there would be a much greater audience for them. "Stoned" respects the human mind as the most valuable of all jewels...that whose ability to spin a narrative truly does control the world.
"Though you have struggled, wandered, traveled far,
It is yourselves you see and what you are."
-The Conference of the Birds, as quoted in the epigraph at the beginning of The Bird King
What a delightful parable! This is my first G. Willow Wilson book, but it won't be my last. The premise, of a magical mapmaker and his friend escaping the fall of Granada, hardly does justice to the novel's captivating central pair. Fatima, a royal slave who would rather be a sultan, and Hassan, whose taste in (male) lovers is ignored due to his strategic value in creating accurate maps of places he's never seen realize how little they are truly valued by anyone except each other, and as a result, their friendship bears a greater emotional load than usual. When Hassan's skill is betrayed to the conquering Christians, Fatima helps him escape, along with help from the jinn. Hassan and Fatima, to pass the time, make up stories of "The Bird King," based on an old folk tale of which they have read only the beginning. Eventually, the island of the Bird King becomes a destination as much as a mystical journey. On the one hand, the message of The Bird King seems to be that when the world gets ugly, the best thing to do is hide and create our own little utopia. I feel that so hard, and so when Fatima and Hassan find their own little utopia, good for them, I think. But the book isn't over. This is how the dream of utopia has always worked, I think, a dream of getting away from the ugliness, but in reality, there is "no place," (i.e. u-topia) this can exist, because wherever you go, there you are. Fatima and Hassan also find that, wherever they go, there they are, and human ugliness as well as beauty finds them But it is also within themselves that they are able to, literally and metaphorically, find, and create, the island of the Bird King.
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