You may have seen our Cliffs Notes version of the history of indigo, but if you want a fuller picture, check out the new book ‘Indigo: In Search of the Color That Seduced the World’. Recently published by Bloomsbury, the story is part travelogue and part history, as author Catherine E. McKinley travels to Africa to learn about her own roots and how they intertwine with the origins of the long sought after hue.

While we haven’t read it yet, the LA Times says it “gorgeously recounts McKinley’s journey to West Africa’s teeming markets and churning factories, through funerals and uprisings, to find “the bluest of blues.” Sounds promising. On a side note, even though we love the color, we don’t really love this cover.