Stradivari's Genius: Five Violins, One Cello, and Three Centuries of Enduring Perfection
(Paperback)

An outstanding read, the book chronicles the birth and subsequent history of five violins and one cello, over the course of time and history. If you are interested at all in history, music history, classical prose, or any genre in the history/music categories, this book would be a great read.

Toby Faber  presents the two most probably technical hypothesis in the very last chapter as to what exactly was responsible for producing the legendary Stradivari tone and power. Hint: one has to do with a pretreatment of the wood and the other what appears to be a unique "base coat" applied prior to that famous red varnish. But, you'll have to read it to find out exactly what.