Rate this book

Precious Objects: A Story Of Diamonds, Family, And A Way Of Life (2011)

by Alicia Oltuski(Favorite Author)

3.29 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

1416545123 (ISBN13: 9781416545125)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Scribner

review 1: Thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was a great inside look into such a hidden community and simultaneously one of NYC's well known districts. Since my interests are more culture than the science and politics of diamonds it got a little dense into detail for me but the author always balanced a 'diamond fact' chapter with a human story chapter so I never skimmed.Would definitely recommend this book to jewelry aficionados (I learned SO much!!) and any fans of NYC or anthropology & culture.Appreciate my engagement ring so much more now- picked up a few vocab words that I now use to describe my stone, makes me feel very savvy :)
review 2: I downloaded this from Overdrive and listened to it on my Nook as I did chores around the house. At first, I had a hard time with... more it - I didn't particularly care about the author's personal family history, and that's where she started off. She kept going back and forth between her family's dealings in the diamond world, and the diamond world as a whole - its beginnings, the major players in the industry (hint: they're not related to the author), and some of the negative aspects of the industry, including blood diamonds. These constant switches in focus and attention from personal to global and back again were difficult for me to get used to, but around the middle of the book, my brain finally got passed that and I started to get into the story. The way I judge whether a book is good or not is how much I want to go back to reading it when I have the chance. If I can turn on the book on CD and listen to it but I find that instead, I turn on Pandora because I'm just "not in the mood" for the book, you can bet that book will garner 3 stars, at the most, from me. And that's what happened with this book for the first half of it - I was never really excited about listening to it, but I knew I had to finish it before it disappeared off my Nook, so I stuck with it. Overall, it was a fine story - not overwhelming and not particularly memorable, but I did enjoy learning the ins and outs of the diamond industry, something I knew almost nothing about before I listened to the book. If you're a big autobiography fan, and you love to learn about diamonds, this book is for you. Otherwise, I'd probably pass it by. less

Download links for: Precious Objects: A Story of Diamonds, Family, and a Way of Life

Advertising