A really in depth biography of an object ( )

Overall, I think that Joyce Tyldesley did a good job with this book. However, I was disappointed in this book, which is why I gave this book a 3 out of 5 star rating — in actuality, I would put the rating at 3.5 out of 5 stars, but Goodreads doesn’t have the option of half-star ratings.
The summary states that Tyldesley goes over Nefertiti’s life and afterlife and how her image — and her bust — became famous. The title of the book, to an extent, is more telling: “Nefertiti’s Face: The Creation of an Icon.” However, from what I read and understood in this book, Tyldesley focuses more on two things: (1) Ahenaten’s life and reign, and (2) the bust of Nefertiti. She doesn’t really focus on Nefertiti’s personal life or possible rule over 18th dynasty Egypt, which is what I was hoping for in this book.
This is what I found to be the most disappointing. My disappointment lies mostly with me, and it’s also possible that it stems from the fact that I started, finished, and enjoyed Kara Cooney’s recent book, “When Women Ruled the World: Six Queens of Egypt” this past week, in which the chapter on Nefertiti did a decent job (given its one-chapter limit) in attempting to dig into Nefertiti’s life, with no focus on the bust, as much as humanly possible with today’s knowledge about said queen.
As I mentioned, this was a very well done book (which is why my own personal rating is 3.5 out of 5 stars), but the summary was misleading. If the summary was truer to the actual content and flow of the book — and if Tyldesley tried to focus more on Nefertiti’s life rather than the life and popularity of the bust — I would have given this book a better rating. ( )

Well-researched and thoughtful consideration of the creation, re-discovery, and "afterlife" of an image that has achieved almost universal recognition and iconic status, in a little over one hundred years since it was unearthed by German archaeologists in the ruined workshop of the Court sculptor who created it (or, possibly, supervised the workshop where it was created).

Tyldesley does a clear, readable job of balancing all of the elements that make this limestone bust so fascinating. Beginning with what we know about the real woman who was the Chief Wife of the Pharoah Ankhenaten (answer: more than you might expect, but less than we would like!), Tyldesley moves on to cover how it was made, the controversies surrounding its excavation (and, especially, its acquisition by the Neue Museum in Berlin), and its impact on 20th Century art and popular culture.

If I have one little quibble, I felt that, after all of her excellent analysis, and her interesting references to her personal love of the statue (I don't think it's overstating it to say that it was a replica of the Nefertiti bust in Bolton Museum, that Tyldesley saw as a child, that might have started her on her future career), the book ended a bit abruptly: I felt like we were owed just one more, short chapter, to draw all the threads -- personal, artistic, cultural -- together. But that's just a quibble -- this is a fascinating read. It's an excellent example of what good popular history writing is all about. ( )