PG Editor

Reviewed by Doug Fiske


An interviewer once asked Gloria Steinem, the co-founder of Ms. magazine, how her experience in the publishing business had changed her. Ms. Steinem replied that she had learned to believe a lot less of what she read.

Generally speaking, people read nonfiction books to learn something they don't know. Readers trust the book's authors, editors and publishers to accurately convey information. For Tears of Mermaids, Stephen Bloom dove into a subject he didn't know...

Here's a list of Pearl-Guide.com terms that might help you understand the site's terminology better.

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Japan Black Pearl Promotion Association: Founded in October 1993, the association promotes cultured pearls from French Polynesia in Japan.

Japanese lingah: Popular name for the Pinctada fucata martensi mollusk.

Japanese pearl mollusk: Akoya pearl mollusk.

Jewelmer: Philippine producer and wholesaler of South Sea pearls, primarily those produced by the gold-lip Pinctada maxima pearl...

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L-grade: Letter grade assigned to low-grade pearls by Japan's Pearl Inspection Offices from 1952 to 1998.

La Paz pearls: Natural pearls from the Gulf of California, Mexico. Produced by the "Panamic Black Lip Oyster" or Pinctada mazatlanica.

Lacquer coating: Temporary coating applied to some imitation and cultured pearls to enhance their color and luster.

Lake Biwa: Located northeast of...

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Cabochon: In gemology, a usually round or oval shaped gemstone with a domed top and flat bottom; hence, a pearl of that shape.

Calcareous concretion: Whether nacreous or not, all pearls are calcareous concretions.

Calcite: A form of natural calcium carbonate that, together with aragonite and conchiolin, makes up the structure of nacre.

Calcium carbonate: Pearls are mainly composed of...

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Dadjin: A 19th-century pearler's basket used to hold mollusk shells and a knife.

Dana: Historical Persian quality factor describing a perfect round natural pearl larger than 7 mm.

Diffraction: One of the ways nacre layers interfere with light, causing light to split into its component colors (the spectrum), one or more of which can be displayed as overtone and/or orient.

Dobo pearl: An...