While the diversity of the stones and the geology are fascinating, what I particularly enjoyed was learning about the ways in which humans have used these stones, from the Malachite Room in Russia’s Winter Palace to the giant stone Medusa heads in the underground cisterns in Istanbul to the ‘meat stone’ that draws crowds in Taipei.

This book talks a lot about the history of stones, how they came to be, their presence in geological and human history, and culture. I found myself locked out of the house with nothing to amuse myself with, no phone to play with, and a three hour wait for the next person with keys to show up. years ago Babylonians constructed lapidaries - books that tried to pin down the magical secrets of rocks. Following publication of her 2020 study on the impact of motherhood on artists’ careers, in 2021 she worked with a group of artists to draw up the manifesto How Not To Exclude Artist Parents, now available in 15 languages. Through the realms of art, myth, geology, philosophy and power, the story of humanity can be told through the minerals and materials that have allowed us to evolve and create.This in itself isn't a failing, but combined with the overuse of minor historical details and dates and bulky context (which, surely could have been reduced down) it is quite difficult to sift through and actually find any vaguely interesting information. It’s a stunningly presented and designed book, with color-coordinated pictures and beautiful illustrations by artist Nicky Pasterfield for each stone, evoking the charming pictures in old geological and scientific publications. g. the daughters of Helios the sun god, and their tears of elektron or 'beaming sun', and how elektron is the root to electricity etc etc), we are offered the greek name, and then. Judah doesn't pretend to be writing a true scientific work here, and I'm sure that a geologist would find this a very glancing overview here, but she is instead writing at the intersection of geology, history, art history, and philosophy. This book is a fascinating glimpse into the world of precious stones and what they have meant to people over the years.

There are books which really pull together history and science and nature and people but I find this is just not one of them. Here's the thing: I wanted to be able to come away from each chapter able to say a couple of sentences about each stone, but this book will leave you with a half–remembered sentence on someone who owned the stone in a century you probably won't remember. Then electricity is brought up again (without the connection back to elektron) and we are taken through a jarring summary of the discovery of amber's properties with a profusion of unexplained quotes. I had to switch from the book version to the ebook because the print in the hardcover version is just too damned small for my eyes. Hettie Judah is an art historian, so this book about minerals and precious stones is not written from a scientific perspective.The moment I stopped reading, it literally left my head and I couldn't tell you a single thing that had been mentioned so far.

Journeying from granite and old red sandstone, rocks formed deep within the Earth's crust, to the moon rock samples that only recently revealed how Earth's only satellite was formed, and through the realms of art, myth, geology, philosophy and power, from the Stone Age onwards, Lapidarium is a dazzling, epoch-spanning story of humanity, told through the minerals and materials that have shaped us and inspired us.Unearth the mystery of the tuff statues of Rapa Nui, the lost amber room of Frederick of Prussia and the scandal of Flint Jack. The essays are written from a British point of view, which took a little getting used to (especially some of the pronunciations in audio book), but it was very well done. Amongst these essays exploring how human culture has formed stone and, conversely, the roles stone has played in forming human culture, one will read of the Meat-Shaped Stone of Taiwan, a piece of banded jasper that resembles a tender piece of mouth-watering braised pork belly, There is the soap opera melodrama of Pele’s Hair, golden strands of volcanic glass, spun into hair-fine threads by volcanic gasses and blown across the landscape.

It was easy to read, and had plenty of interesting stories pertaining to the rocks that the author chose, but the chapters were very short (one was only two pages) and provided only a brief overview of the rocks in question. Together, they explore how human culture has formed stone, and the roles stone has played in forming human culture.A collection of extravagant stories about artists, miners, princes, chancers, criminals - and above all collectors . Well, not really, but that is the tone this book takes, and despite the interesting collection of rocks and minerals detailed in this book, the focus is heavily and irredeemably skewed towards art and history.