This small volume book is a collection of short stories involving real lives across continents and cultures. It addresses the general subject of most of them—finding and keeping love in our lives in the form of intimate relationships with lots of disappointments that is a commonplace experience across cultures and continent. A significance of the story of handing over a fake diamond that directly means a fake love. This most extraordinary book explores the quest for relationship across culture and the disappointments and shock or hurts that people encounter as they try to find an everlasting relationship and love as people define the marriage and love they want or desire. This is an exhilarating piece of writing that shows that a real relationship of marriage requires matching based on values. This is a significant shift from the romantic idea that is so dominant in our culture but unsustainable in real life. To rely exclusively on romance does not fulfill all one’s needs; it leads you to fall into unconsciousness. There are other aspects of affection worth cultivating—devotion, friendship, commitment, trust, reliability, unselfishness, support, lack of greed. Love is something that all cultures need and want. When they get it, it’s totally outside their control when they get what they feel they desire. In our narcissistic culture of surfaces a vast majority of men tend to feel or believe that the world revolves around them and that they are the center of attraction at least in this modern world in some cultures men are nurtured to be promiscuous, and it is tolerated.

'Lively, thought-provoking and consistently surprising. Lydia Pyne is the real deal.' Ed Yong, author of New York Times bestseller I Contain Multitudes Does an authentic Andy Warhol painting need to be painted by Andy Warhol? Why do audiences feel outraged when they find out that scenes from their beloved blockbuster documentaries are staged? Can people move past assuming that a diamond grown in a lab is a fake? What happens when a forged painting or manuscript becomes more valuable than its original? This is a book about genuine fakes – the curious and complex objects that provoke these very sorts of questions. Genuine fakes fall into the space between things that are real and things that are not; whether or not we think that those things are authentic is a matter of perspective. Unsurprisingly, the world is full of genuine fakes – full of things that defy simple categorisation. From stories of audacious forgeries to feats of technological innovation, historian Lydia Pyne explores how the authenticity of eight genuine fakes depends on their unique combinations of history, science and culture. The stories of art forgeries, fake fossils, nature documentaries, synthetic flavours, museum exhibits, Maya codices and Palaeolithic replicas show that genuine fakes are both complicated and change over time. Drawing from historical archives, interviews, museum exhibits and science fiction as well as her own research, Pyne brings each genuine fake to life through unexpected and often outrageous stories. Genuine Fakes will make readers think about all the unreal things they encounter in their daily lives, and why they invoke the reactions – surprise, wonder, understanding or annoyance – that they do.

How far would you travel to save a friend? Adrian Tarn would go 700 trillion miles to the Mu Arae system, a place where no real laws exist and even the laws of physics can't be trusted. Join the crew of the starship Griffin on a journey through unexplored space to solve the mystery of the skull, and the fate of lost friends. (Sequel to Deep Crossing)

"Diamonds" by William Crookes is an early 20th century non-fiction book that somehow manages to capture audiences as if it were a thrilling adventure. Crookes explores the diamond sector in this book, including the world of fake diamonds, which were already a popular substitute for the gem over a century ago when this book was written.

From one perspective, we can see ourselves merely as human beings struggling in a crowded and chaotic world of suffering. This book opens our eyes to a different reality, one that turns our familiar world inside out. We need only explore—with curiosity and love—our true potential as human beings in order to discover infinite depth and creativity in our lives as we act and interact in the world. When time and space expand their meaning, we come to know ourselves as having infinite dimensions of being and qualities of spirit, and uncover new mysteries about ourselves, one another, and the reality we live in. This is the last of the five-volume Diamond Heart series of transcribed and edited talks given by A. H. Almaas to inner-work groups in California and Colorado.

In the middle of New York City lies a neighborhood where all secrets are valuable, all assets are liquid, and all deals are sealed with a blessing rather than a contract. Welcome to the diamond district. Ninety percent of all diamonds that enter America pass through these few blocks, but the inner workings of this mysterious world are known only to the people who inhabit it. In Precious Objects, twenty-six-year-old journalist Alicia Oltuski, the daughter and granddaughter of diamond dealers, seamlessly blends family narrative with literary reportage to reveal the fascinating secrets of the diamond industry and its madcap characters: an Elvis-impersonating dealer, a duo of diamond-detective brothers, and her own eccentric father. With insight and drama, Oltuski limns her family’s diamond-paved move from communist Siberia to a displaced persons camp in post–World War II Germany to New York’s diamond district, exploring the connections among Jews and the industry, the gem and its lore, and the exotic citizens of this secluded world. Entertaining and illuminating, Precious Objects offers an insider’s look at the history, business, and society behind one of the world’s most coveted natural resources, providing an unforgettable backstage pass to an extraordinary and timeless show.

Rare, romantic, and forever: The diamond industry depends on these myths to reap billions of dollars of profit. This sensational investigation explodes such fallacies and reveals how multimillion-dollar advertising campaigns create the impression of rarity and romance. It reveals a very secret and unromantic world, one that is dominated and controlled by a handful of mighty corporations. With Leonardo DiCaprio’s movie The Blood Diamond making more people than ever aware of the seamy side of the diamond trade, Janine Roberts’ explosive exposé, taking us through seven decades of intrigue and manipulation, is the right book at the right time.