Book recommendation

Jewelry Discussion
1

I have a summer book recommendation for you metalsmiths who are also
fans of fantasy. It’s actually a trilogy, the Mistborn series by
Brandon Sanderson. It’s one of my favorites. The first book is
called, The Final Empire. The tie-in to metalsmiths is that the
magic system in the trilogy is based entirely on metals. Some of the
people that populate this wonderfully written tale have "abilities"
when they ingest and then burn small amounts of particular metals
(at will), different metals fuel differnet abilities. Those that are
gifted with a single ability are called Allomancers, while those
rare few who have multiple abilities are called Mistborn. The books
move quickly, the story is rich in its details of many aspects
personal character, politics, government, philosophy and religion.
Each character is developed to a point where we probably care about
all of them including some of the bad ones, which is the mark of a
good story. But it’s the relationship with metals that prompted this
post, the Allomancers and Mistborn all struggle with metal cost,
availability, purity, alloying. It’s a great trilogy.

Mark

2

thank you for the recommendation. i have just ordered it from my
local library. i love the online catalog and services.

john

3

Just finished a new book, “The Crowd, the Critic, and the Muse: A
Book for Creators”

“Art is like fruit, and if we want to improve the quality of our
creative output, we must tend not only to the fruit, but to the tree,
its roots, andthe soil that it is planted in. To become free as
creators, we must not simply try harder, we must become different.
Gungor argues that this kind of change demands both an awareness of
one’s own cultural conditioning and a healthy degree of faith, doubt,
hope and love.”

I liked the way he digs in to the topic/principles/problems as how
his life experiences relate. Being a musician he dissects in musical
terms, short listening 5 & half hours, but it’s one of those you may
want to listen to twice.

Pretty good if you’re into these kinds of books.