title: The Heartless Stone: A Journey Through the World of Diamonds, Deceit, and Desire
author:  Tom Zoellner 
description: <i>Starred Review.</i> After his fiance dumps him and he's left with a diamond ring to unload, <i>Men's Health</i> contributing editor Zoellner crisscrosses the globe unlocking the mystique of this glittering stone "that brings misery to millions of people across the world." Zoellner probes how "blood diamonds" are used to fund vicious civil wars in Africa; how De Beers, seeing new markets to exploit, linked diamonds to the ancient <i>yuino </i>ceremony in Japan and played on caste obsession in India; and how India is pushing Belgium and Israel out of the gem trade. The author is expert with vivid prose: Australia's Argyle deposit is "shaped a little like a human molar"; impoverished urchins in the diamond-smuggling haven of the Central African Republic get high on bread-and-shoe polish sandwiches; and a Brazilian miner finds a rich concentration of river diamonds but fritters away much of the loot on prostitutes and booze, and eventually is ruined by a dishonest money changer. Politically conscious consumers can now avoid African and Brazilian mines teeming with human rights abuses. Canada pulls $1.2 billion worth of rough diamonds out of the tundra every year while enforcing tough environmental laws, and a Florida company uses Siberian high-pressure chambers to create low-cost chemically perfect diamonds. This is a superior piece of reportage. <i>(June)</i> <br />Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
zlib_text: 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](images/00009.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Heart Stones and Diamonds
  
  A Wings & Whispers Love Story
  
  ©2019 by Linda Boulanger
  
  All rights reserved.
  
  This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in or
  introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any
  means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without
  prior written permission of the copyright owner and/or the publisher of this
  book, except as provided by United States of America copyright law.
  
  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a
  product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance
  to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
  
  Edited by Grace Augustine/Edits with a Touch of Grace
  
  Cover Design/Interior Design by Tell~Tale Book Covers
  
  First released as part of the Between The Tides Anthology
  
  Published by TreasureLine Publishing
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](images/00005.jpg)
  
  I ded