jewelry books Archives

Win a copy of Brilliance and Fire: A Biography of Diamonds!

June 12, 2017

I just read the best book all about DIAMONDS and I’m delighted to be able to offer free copies to five of you! This fabulous read is Brilliance and Fire, by Rachelle Bergstein, and if you enjoy Diamonds in the Library at all this book is going to rock your world.

It’s totally our kind of reading material, my darlings. First I’ll tell you a bit more about it, and then we’ll have our giveaway!

When I heard Brilliance and Fire described as “A Biography of Diamonds,” I didn’t know what to expect. Would it be a technical overview of developments in stone-cutting? A chatty collection of spotlights on famous diamonds throughout history? Would it be silly, or well-researched?

The reality was better than I even imagined.

Brilliance and Fire reads like an anthropological exploration of the role that diamonds play in our contemporary culture and how these shiny rocks came to fill the role that they do in our lives. It spotlights famous diamonds, famous collectors, and an in-depth examination in how diamond-focused traditions and attitudes have evolved over time. Bergstein considers societal shifts, economic fluctuations, diamond companies’ behind the scenes machinations and more in her quest to trace how we came to feel the way we feel about diamonds.

The tone is friendly but not condescending, intellectual but still accessible. Rather than simply relating history, Bergstein brings the historical characters to life in well-researched vignettes that keep the reading experience lively and dynamic. Would you have loved to be in the room when Pierre Cartier first showed Evalyn Walsh McLean an unusual diamond named Hope? Bergstein brings that scene – and many others – to life.

Brilliance and Fire taught me things I never knew about the history of diamonds, both by filling in details about the figures I already love and introducing me to completely new tidbits, like the fascinating tale of half-nude scientist Henri Lemonine, who tricked DeBeers into believing he had perfected synthetic diamonds in 1905. I had no idea that diamond slingers have been seeing the threat of man-made diamonds as potentially imminent for more than 100 years.

Brilliance and Fire doesn’t ignore the darker side of diamonds either: there’s a whole chapter on conflict stones, the development of the Kimberley Process, and experts’ thoughts on how an ethically minded shopper can make the right diamond-related choices.

Do you want to read Brilliance and Fire yet? Good – because I have the great pleasure of offering FREE paperback copies to five of you.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
All you need to do to enter is sign into the widget above with your email address and complete at least one of the actions. You only need to do one to be eligible, but you can do as many as you want if you’d like to give yourself an edge with extra entries.

Please note that this giveaway is US-only and will be open for one week. I’ll email all five of the winners once the giveaway has ended; winners must reply to my email with a mailing address within 7 days or they will forfeit their win and a new winner will be chosen.

A huge thank you to Rachelle Bergstein for sending me a copy of her wonderful book for review, and to both Rachelle and Harper Collins for offering us all 5 copies of Brilliance and Fire for this giveaway!

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Win a copy of Gem: The Definitive Visual Guide!

October 19, 2016

As soon as I heard the first whispers about Gem: The Definitive Visual Guide, I knew that this book was going to need a spot on my bookshelf.

Created in collaboration with the Smithsonian and with a foreword by Aja Raden, New York Times-bestselling author of Stoned, Gem had a killer combination of minds behind it. The result is even better than I’d hoped: a vividly illustrated, accessibly written powerhouse of gemological knowledge guaranteed to thrill anyone with even a passing interest in the prettiest of rocks.

Gem is organized by gemstone – which makes sense, given its title and focus. The book proceeds in a logical fashion by introducing different gems and minerals; discussing their properties, associations, and typical uses; and including detailed photographs of the stone in its rough and faceted form (usually in several variations) as well as showing several finished pieces of jewelry with the gemstone as well.

Interspersed among the chapters on different gems are mini-features, 1-2 pages long each, about exceptional pieces of jewelry. Gems are definitely the focus, but the role that they play in jewelry is certainly acknowledged as well. The pages are also sprinkled with quotes about gems and jewelry from notable authors, from Oscar Wilde to Beth Bernstein.

The other reviews I’ve seen of Gem liken it to an encyclopedia: I understand that comparison, but it wasn’t what resonated with me. To me, the way that Gem organizes its information and places it in a larger context makes it much more than just a reference text.

Growing up in the DC area, I spent a significant amount of my childhood in the Smithsonian’s museums. As soon as I was old enough to have a preference, I knew that I loved the Natural History Museum’s Gem and Mineral Hall more than I loved anything else.

I loved the pretty, shiny finished jewelry, but I also loved looking at the raw stones. I gloried in the colors of the specimens, the way their forms ranged from angular to blobby to almost fuzzy. But the thing I loved the most was the fact that these crazy rocks that naturally formed in the earth were the same stuff as the glittering, polished works of art in the other room. It was the combination of science and art, of nature phenomena and human accomplishment, that killed me.

I’ve never gotten over my fascination with that dichotomy, and that’s really the reason that I’m here today, with a blog that gives me the chance to offer a copy of this book to three of you!

That’s right! I mentioned a giveaway in the title of this post, and I’m going to deliver. I have three copies of Gem that I’m delighted to be able to offer as a giveaway. I loved it, and you’ll love it too.

Thanks to DK, publisher of Gem, I have three copies of this wonderful new resource to give away to three of you.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
In order to be eligible to win, you must enter your email address in the widget above and also complete at least one of the entry options. You’re welcome to enter more than once if you want better odds, but as long as you’ve submitted your email address and completed one of the options, you’re entered.

I’ll choose three winners next Wednesday. If any of the winners do not reply to my email within one week, a new winner will be chosen. Please note that this giveaway is US-only.

My thanks to the publisher for providing me with a copy of Gem for review, and for making this giveaway possible.

If these Jewels Could Talk by Beth Bernstein.

October 14, 2015

If These Jewels Could Talk: The Legends Behind Celebrity Gems, by Beth Bernstein.

This book is: a fascinating look into the relationship between the silver screen, fabulous jewels, and the celebrities who love them both.
Read it: if you love movies, jewelry in movies and on movie stars, film history, glamour, and/or incredible jewelry.

If you’ve been hanging around the jewelry world for any length of time, you probably already know who Beth Bernstein is. A wearer of many hats, Beth has left her mark on our industry in any number of ways: from writing to design and consulting, not to mention her two already published books. What you might not know is that Beth is also a serious movie buff.

In the author’s own words:

“[I] have been watching movies since I was six with my grandmother playing dress up. I loved the melodramas of the 1950s and my grandmother told me I was a drama queen. I also loved the romantic comedies of the 30s and 40s—I wanted to marry Gary Cooper, Jimmy Stewart, William Powell, and Cary Grant –in no particular order. I was a sucker for men who made me laugh—and also cry.

[…]

And then my love for jewelry translated over into the way I would tell my own life story in my memoir in 2012—“My Charmed Life” (Penguin 2012) which also gave me the idea for telling the stories behind the jewelry. Those are the real gems—the stories that relate the jewels to the experiences and most significant moments in one’s life.”

If These Jewels Could Talk has been an idea floating around in Beth’s mind for 22 years. Now it’s finally here, and it’s fantastic.

If you’re imaging chapter after chapter of celebrity’s names with jewels listed underneath them, you’ve got the wrong idea. If These Jewels Could Talk is so much more than a list of who owned what.

It is a comprehensive look at the relationship between jewelry and film industry; from anecdotes about a famous actress who baked her 37.41-carat cabochon emerald ring into a cake to tidbits about the power struggle between watch brands that decided which timepiece would be on each movie 007’s wrist.

Instead of going celebrity by celebrity or even chronologically overall, Beth opens If These Jewels Could Talk with a brief overview of famous cinematic jewels, focusing on one gemstone category at a time. The book kicks off with “Sapphire Sirens,” which leads to “Emerald Enchantresses,” and so on, each chapter taking the reader through a particular gemstone’s history in the public eye. Organizing the material by gemstone rather than by owner allows nuances of stylistic trends to emerge and allows pieces owned by less prolific collectors to have their place in the sun.

After a review of notable pieces with sapphires, emeralds, diamonds, and pearls; If These Jewels Could Talk takes on sentimental jewelry: looking at the coded inscriptions on many of the Duchess of Windsor’s collection and revealing the stories behind particular pieces in other famous collections.

You probably know about Elizabeth Taylor’s “ping pong” diamond ring, but did you know Richard Burton also bought La Liz a Van Cleef & Arpels diamond choker to apologize for not being there when she had an appendectomy?

The book also does a survey of film stars known for wearing their personal jewels on screen, which I find unaccountably delightful. If I had collections like Marlene Detrich and Merle Oberon’s, I’d want to wear them to work, too.

(Just kidding: I work from home. I wear my jewelry at work all the time. Often with pajamas.)

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