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| Unabridged Audiobook |
I downloaded this audiobook from Audible. Listening time for Stoned: Jewelry, Obsession, and How Desire Shapes the World by Aja Raden is 10 hours, 56 minutes.
First, let me start out by stating that I am a HUGE jewelry fan, so I couldn't resist listening to this work of nonfiction! Secondly, let me tell how wonderfully surprised and delighted I am to have found such a wonderful read in Stoned: Jewelry, Obsession, and How Desire Shapes the World by Aja Raden!
Stoned: Jewelry, Obsession, and How Desire Shapes the World by Aja Raden is a well written and engaging to listen to. I learned so much world history through listening to this book... It was truly amazing all the stuff I learned from listening to this audiobook. It covers early American history, English history, Spanish history, Russian history, Japanese history and so much more!
The only thing I didn't enjoy about this book was the narrator, Justine Eyre. I wish a different narrator had been chosen as I didn't like the way in which Justine Eyre read Stoned: Jewelry, Obsession, and How Desire Shapes the World by Aja Raden.
The following is the publisher's summary of Stoned: Jewelry, Obsession, and How Desire Shapes the World by Aja Raden from Audible:
What makes a stone a jewel? What makes a jewel priceless? And why do we covet beautiful things? In this brilliant account of how eight jewels shaped the course of history, jeweler and scientist Aja Raden tells an original and often startling story about our unshakeable addiction to beauty and the darker side of human desire.I am giving Stoned: Jewelry, Obsession, and How Desire Shapes the World by Aja Raden a rating of 4.5 stars out of 5 stars!
What moves the world is what moves each of us: desire. Jewelry - which has long served as a stand-in for wealth and power, glamour and success - has birthed cultural movements, launched political dynasties, and started wars. Masterfully weaving together pop science and history, Stoned breaks history into three categories - want, take, and have - and explains what the diamond on your finger has to do with the GI Bill, why green-tinted jewelry has been exalted by so many cultures, why the glass beads that bought Manhattan for the Dutch were initially considered a fair trade, and how the French Revolution started over a coveted necklace. Studded with lively personalities and fascinating details, Stoned tells the remarkable story of our abiding desire for the rare and extraordinary.
Until my next post, happy reading!
I agree. After she mangled my first and last name, then (I think) tried to make Dutch banking and/or genocide sound sexy but using a weird breathy voice, I just gave up and turned it off.
ReplyDeleteI mean I already know how it ends anyway.
I also found her total disregard for written punctuation a little too... high concept?
But I'm glad you liked Stoned! And thank you for the nice review.
Wow, as an audiobook listener, you would think narrators would learn the correct pronunciation of an author's first and last name before the recording of an audiobook began. Makes sense, right?
DeleteGlad you enjoyed my review. Thanks for stopping by and leaving me a comment.