100 books like Acres of Diamonds

This book is a profound meditation on human resilience that never fails to move me. I'm constantly in awe of Hemingway's ability to weave so much meaning into such a deceptively simple tale. The way Santiago's unwavering determination shines through, even in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, resonates deeply with me.

I find myself returning to this book time and time again, drawing inspiration from the old man's quiet strength and dignity. The vivid portrayal of man's relationship with nature—both its beauty and its harsh realities—leaves me breathless. What I love most is how Hemingway captures the essence of the human spirit in Santiago's struggle, reminding me that true victory lies not in the outcome but in the perseverance of the journey.

There has never been a more powerful and significant voice in the field of success and personal development than Napoleon Hill. I had become a student of his timeless classic, Think and Grow Rich, but had never read this novel until my friend, Sharon Lechter, edited a new edition of it, and my colleague Mark Victor Hansen wrote the foreword. I was only intending to read enough of it to tell Sharon and Mark I enjoyed it, but was drawn in by Napoleon Hill’s image of the devil which all of us have within our hearts, mind, and soul. This story teaches us that the devil is not a guy in a red suit with a pitchfork. The devil is our own apathy, lack of focus, and limited thinking.

Among the 50 books I have written, eight of them have been turned into movies with a ninth currently in pre-production. For this reason, even as a blind person myself, whenever I read a novel—or in my case, listen to the audiobook—I see the story unfolding in my mind as a movie. Never have I read any novel that is more screen-worthy than The Twelfth Angel. In this story, Og Mandino teaches us that we all have talent, value, and worth. Even the most insignificant among us can create an impactful change in those around them and the world. You will feel that kind of impact as you meet The Twelfth Angel.

When Greg Reid asked me to co-author a novel with him that became our book, Passport to Success, I thought I would sample some of his previous collaborations. When I discovered he had written a book with my friend Sharon Lechter, I decided to give it a try. Three Feet from Gold is based on a classic story brought to light by Napoleon Hill. Many people fail because they are afraid to persevere, but once you read Three Feet from Gold, you’ll be afraid to quit. Success is your destiny and you’re closer than you think. 

I am in awe of the sheer breadth of knowledge in this book about diamonds. I am amazed that diamond has such simple chemistry, made by bonding carbon atoms, yet forms the hardest natural substance known. Scientific experts, including geologists, gemmologists, and physicists, tell the story of its formation, exploration, mining, and economic value, but I found that there is so much more in this book of interest than just the science.

What I particularly liked was reading about the cultural nature of diamonds and what makes diamond so special to so many people worldwide from artisanal miners scraping a living out of the ground, to monarchs and millionaires who adorn themselves with diamond jewellery.

The new technologies of making diamonds in the laboratory left me wondering what that might mean for the future of diamond mining and sales.

I have a special fondness for 11 Harrowhouse, the 1973 thriller that spins the tale of a huge theft of rough diamonds from The System, a fictional London diamond powerhouse modeled on the real-life De Beers. When I started writing about diamonds, De Beers was still the Darth Vader of diamonds—all-powerful, feared, despotic. More than eighty percent of the world’s rough diamonds poured through its London headquarters at 17 Charterhouse Street. In the novel, thieves thread a hose from the roof into the diamond vault, and hoover up the loot. In reality, a different method was used to steal diamonds from De Beers’s London fortress, which I described in my non-fiction book, then re-tailored for my own purposes in The Russian Pink. 

Marian Fowler’s lavish non-fiction account tracks the storied diamond from its origins in India, where it was bought by the great French jewel merchant Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, who sold it to Louis XIV. Weighing 110 carats in the rough, the blue was eventually cut into a heart-shaped jewel of 67.13 carats, known to history as the French Blue. In the turbulent early days of the French Revolution, all the crown jewels were moved from the Palace of Versailles to the Garde-Meuble, a treasure house in central Paris. On the night of September 11, 1792, thieves broke in and stole the jewels. Many were recovered, but the French Blue vanished forever. Too famous to be sold as it was, the London jeweler who eventually bought it, cut it down to 44.5 carats—the jewel sold to Henry Philip Hope in 1830. The Hope diamond passed through many hands, leaving behind a trail of… show more.

I was looking for a writer to breathe new life into the sometimes-stuffy traditional English novel format, and Wilkie Collins is that man. In what is widely considered the first detective novel, Collins introduces many of the tropes of the classic whodunit, including the English country house setting, the gentleman detective, the skilled professional contrasted with the bungling local investigator, and a generational curse arising from the initial theft.

Underlying this gripping tale is the truth that the moonstone belongs not to one of the principal players who compete for it but to the religious site in India from which it was originally stolen. Justice has an immediate, local, eternal, and global context. The result is a book with memorable characters and enough twists and turns to keep you guessing until the end.  

The first chapter book I checked out from the school library when I was in third grade (in 1980) was a biography of George Washington Carver. I have always remembered how inspiring I found his story. This new picture-book biography is a beautiful addition to what is now a very large number of children’s book tributes to Carver’s legacy. Morrison’s use of light and color results in stunning images to illustrate Carver’s motto and the book’s central theme, “Regard nature. Revere Nature. Respect nature.”

The story follows Carver from childhood, when he first learned to experiment by gardening in a secret plot tucked in the woods of the farm where he grew up, to his days as a young scientist in the laboratories of Iowa Agricultural College and the Tuskegee Institute, the time he spent traveling through the southern countryside bringing new agricultural knowledge to poor farmers, and finally his… show more.

Part of the value of diamonds comes from how avidly people steal them. The cat-burglar on the French Riviera. The miner swallowing a stone and trying to make it past the x-ray at the gate. Or the conquerors, snatching jewels from one turban after another as they ride through history. That last is the story of the Koh-i-Noor (Mountain of Light), told with his usual panache by William Dalrymple, the celebrated historian of Mughal India, in this non-fiction account. It falls to Dalrymple’s co-author, journalist Anita Anand, to track the jewel though it's last, decidedly inglorious change of ownership—stolen by the British from the Maharaja Duleep Singh, when imperial forces prevailed upon him not only to sign away the Punjab, but also to make a “gift” of his family’s famous diamond to Queen Victoria. Sure, the Maharaja did in fact sign the document. But he was 10 years old.