A stack of books from #hiselderliness and a friendly whale (that‘s a mural alongside the America‘s Cup village currently in our harbour)
He‘s got two Picks and two Bails in his #bookreport
On my own two feet - I gave up on it. That guy just wanted to talk about himself and how important he was. He said Edmund Hillary rang him for advice on how to climb a mountain. (That is sacrilege it seems!)⬇️
A fantastic journey of the world's most famous diamond! Was it really cursed!!
This book has been on my TBR for the past one month and I finally got it!!!! 😍
pick
so-soFINISHED!!! Glory of glories, I have FINISHED READING KOHINOOR!!! Ha! Omg, what a *struggle*.
A lovely Litten, moons ago, gave me carte Blanche to DNF this but I‘d promised I‘d read it so I had to slog on.
It‘s not bad, really it‘s not. If you‘re in the market for a good historical treatise and interested in the subject matter, I recommend it. If you‘re an expat in India having bad India Days, Just. Don‘t. An unbiased reader would say “Pick”.
Snarky... love it! The Mughals were Persians, Shah Shuja Afghan, Ranjit Singh Punjabi with his court in Lahore. Assuming for the moment that the British decided to “give it “back””, which modern country has the “better” claim; Iran, Afghanistan, India or Pakistan... ? Arguably potentially Iran in theory? Do we count military defeat for these arguments? Interesting thoughts. (The Kohinoor, I‘m willing to make this claim, is staying in the UK...).
Right. That‘s me out for the night. In the last thirteen pages, 4 wives of Ranjit Singh (& 7 slave girls), 3 wives of Kharak Singh (& 11 slave girls) and two of the teenaged wives of the 19yo Nau Nihal Singh were burnt alive on their dead husband or owner‘s funeral pyres. Nau Nihal Singh‘s eldest wife was spared because she was pregnant and his uncle saved a 12yo wife for being “not yet ripe for the ceremony of suttee”. History. Repugnant 😡😡😡
Ill-timed lunch breaks... wow. (This is a balanced if not slightly pro-Indian, heavily researched book by a Indophile and Indian... so that‘s basically extremely politely scathing...).
Holed up amidst the chaos... 😡 The guys making my bookcase (no “big box” furniture stores in Mumbai so everything needs to be hand made. This is cool until you try it 😭), have “interpreted” direct written instructions as directly the opposite of what they explicitly said & ignored photos. They‘ve missed bits, painted the wrong bits, put horrible handles on AND after stalling for 3 Days, refused to deliver because “traffic”. I long for IKEA. 😭😡
You will notice that I finished the other Arend and am still going with Kohinoor. The Mughals have been defeated, Afghanistan is falling apart & the Marathas lost a battle because of a gattling gun and ill timed lunch break....it‘s taken me one romance to get to the 1800‘s. At this rate, I‘ll get through 3 other books to one Kohinoor but finish it I shall!! (It‘s really not hideous but the tortures, insanity and politicking are doing my head in).
Pushing on with this dratted book. I promised I‘d read it & I usually love William Dalrymple but....oh MAN it‘s dragging. I‘m prodding my protesting brain along with Kindle deals of Canadian cowboy romance (they‘re very polite😂). Kohinoor has history and gravitas, Rocky Mountains has SNOW and stunning natural beauty, neither of which heavily polluted Mumbai is providing today. After I finish this, I swear I‘m never agreeing to a blind read again!
Koh-I-Noor: The History of the World's Most Infamous Diamond | 
Say Nothing - So the Irish wanted to get rid of the English. But there were like four different groups of Irish and they all wanted to do it differently. They ended up mostly shooting each other. I stopped reading after that. ⬇️ 4y