Writer Wednesday: The Silk Roads

Writer Wednesday

Hello!
On Writer Wednesday, I discuss another author and his or her book. Today’s pick is The Silk Roads: A New History of the World by Peter Frankopan.

I loved this book. I loved this book. I loved this book.

I just had to say that.

I told my husband as I was reading it, “You know a book is really well written when you say, ‘I have to keep reading to find out what happens!’ and of course you already know since it’s history.”

Details were uncovered though, in reading this, as if a curtain were being pulled back as Frankopan said, “tada!” and as the reader, I said, “wow!”

On the cover, the blurb says, “A book of dazzling range, ambition and achievement.” Yep. I agree.

Spanning centuries, this tells history from the view of the nations that lined the routes of the silk road. With each chapter devoted to a different topic and moving chronologically forward, everything from religion to commerce to contemporary questions of terrorism arise. The title, The Silk Roads, is especially fitting as Frankopan unfolds multiple narratives. It is not a single road, a single history, but many. That is what makes this book so fascinating. Rethinking the relationship between Judaism, Christianity and Islam or examining the connection between the Middle East and the relationship with the west are just a couple of examples that are covered in this book.

I read a lot of history. A lot. But, I love books like this that fill in missing pieces or draw connections in new ways. And it inspired my next read- to fill in even more pieces- so currently I’m reading the last 1000 years of history in the BBC book: Russia.

My best to you all,
Megan

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