Melissa CynovaReseñas

Disclosure: I haven't read through the entire book yet, but I've been using it daily for about two months now and have really been enjoying Cynova's interpretations. She includes reversed interpretations, which I've often glossed over in the past, but now feel more comfortable with, and I love her approach of *really* taking the cards' illustrations and commonalities of suits and numbers/ranks in context--also something I never paid that much attention to. Her tone really does reflect the "kitchen table" feel--it's heartfelt and funny and down-to-earth, just as if you were sitting across from your bestie. I have checked this out from the library, but I totally plan on buying it once my renewals run out.

If you are expecting something similar to her book Kitchen Table Tarot, this is not it. This is not so much a book to learn Tarot. It is more a self help book that uses specific Tarot card readings to provide the self help. If you like self help books and books that claim they can help you fix your life somehow, this may be for you. If you are looking for a book to learn Tarot or a Tarot reference book, this is not it.

(Full review on my blog).

THIS is my go-to handbook at the moment. The examples are great, the categorization of the minor arcana by number rather than suit has been great, and this has been especially helpful as a beginner just starting to include reversed cards in readings.

This is a fairly good introduction. It's not too scant about the card meanings and it doesn't give wishy washy "The cards mean whatever you want them to mean" explanations, but I don't find that it loses itself in the weeds. The author knows what shes talking about but isnt trying to show off and actually seems to want to help those looking to learn tarot.

Good book. Fun to read. Don't agree with all her meanings, but they work for her.

Author is knowledgeable but also pretty funny. This will be a great reference book that I'll keep handy.

I really like the concept of using this set of spreads to focus on problem areas of your life. I don't always agree on what kinds of problems go with which element, but that's easy enough to customize. And I'd read Cynova's earlier book Kitchen Table Tarot: Pull Up a Chair, Shuffle the Cards, and Let's Talk Tarot, so I knew I enjoyed her writing style. But I got a bit frustrated that the five spreads consist of the same three questions (the Spirit spread gets two more). The questions vary in their order and in how many cards each gets, but that's it. Also, the explanations of the example readings is longer and more detailed than I need, and I got a little bored. But overall, these readings are a great idea, and the book is a clear and practical guide to using them.½

disclaimer: I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for review consideration. All of the opinions presented below are my own.

I’ve been meaning to read Kitchen Table Tarot by Melissa Cynova for ages now, so when Destiny let me know that Tarot Elements was available for request on NetGalley, I was stoked. The spreads all seemed immensely helpful and Melissa described their purposes very well in addition to providing some exercises to help you stay in the proper headspace for each element. My only complaint is the specific examples given for each spread. While these were helpful to a certain extent in understanding how the spreads worked, they felt quite repetitive and I ended up skimming through most of them. Regardless, I did enjoy reading through this and will definitely use these techniques in the future!

Better late than never.... I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley, to read it prior to publication.

A year ago.

Uh... my bad.

It made that much of an impression on me, though, that I wanted to review it. Even after all this time had passed!

So, nutshell: I loved it. I loved the style, feel and tone. I loved the layout and design. But most importantly, I loved the methods in which the author "taught". It's not about the precision of the art, but rather, how you intuit the cards.

YES. I love this, and learned a similar outook when taking a card reading class from Doreen Virtue years ago. (Yes, that Doreen Virtue).

Would I buy this for myself? A friend? As a gift? Yes, yes and a wholehearted, yes.

I've read quite a few books on tarot, but really enjoyed this author's fresh take on the subject. Reading her book is, indeed, like sitting with her across the kitchen table, discussing the cards and their meanings. She also includes information you DON'T find everywhere: the ins and outs of doing readings for others, whether it's charging for your time, the etiquette of giving less-than-happy news, and what behavior or situations might abruptly end a reading. Highly recommended for anyone interested in tarot.

When I first put this book on my TBR list, it was a "generic" listing: I put almost every new tarot book on that list unless I can tell from the description that I'm not going to like it. But when I realized that the author was a blogger whose blog I enjoy, I pushed this book to the top of the list. I'm happy to report that this is a fine book for beginning tarot readers.

Like the cover and title suggest, this is a casual introduction to the tarot. Cynova has focused on the practical aspects of reading the tarot, so most of the book is descriptions of the individual cards, including reversed ("inverted") meanings. She talks about choosing a deck, with suggestions which absolute beginners will probably find really useful, and how to take care of it. She describes a few spreads and talks about what it's like to give readings, plus a helpful chapter on how to do this professionally. But there's basically nothing on the history of the tarot or long discussions of the symbolism or anything like that. (If those kinds of things interest you, don't worry—many other books cover those topics.) She delivers all this in a friendly, readable style. From reading her blog, I was expecting that, and I'm happy to see she didn't get edited into an artificial formality.

I think beginning readers will get the most out of this book. More experienced readers may very well enjoy reading it (I did!), but they'll have probably learned these basics already.