Jim Thompson, Beyond Silk, Beyond Thailand

I had no idea a former spy kickstarted Thailand's silk trade—that backstory alone was worth the read. The chapters on turning a local craft into a global lifestyle brand are packed with detail without ever feeling like a textbook.

I picked this up before a trip to Bangkok and ended up reading it cover to cover on the flight. The way it traces a former spy's role in reviving Thailand's silk industry is genuinely fascinating, and the photos of the textiles are gorgeous.

The book does a solid job tracing how a former spy built a global lifestyle company out of Thai silk, and the photos of the mid-century textile designs are genuinely gorgeous. My only gripe is that the chapters on the business side drag a bit compared to the biographical sections.