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shu_long's review
3.0
I wanted to give this book four stars, but I had to take one off for thinly veiled anti-LGBT, anti-kink, basically anti-anything that is not conservative gender and sexual norm language found on two pages specifically. There's also some areas that read borderline judgmental on divorce and a section on vaccinations and autism, which many will find disquieting.
So taking that with a grain of salt, (it's only a few pages towards the end), the rest is a well edited, lively and entertaining read with quick, well diagramed summarizations of palm reading. The author doesn't believe there are very many good palm readers in the world, truly committed to the art. I have no opinions on this. I've never had my palm read past one friend trying out his new found knowledge on me in passing and this is my first book on palmistry I've consumed. I'm reserving judgment on accuracy. I was slightly disappointed that he never really explained how palms are star charts beyond naming the fingers by the planets. Left me curious to read more, if only to understand the mythology of the hand. I think I'll go with a text less focused on popular use next time.
So taking that with a grain of salt, (it's only a few pages towards the end), the rest is a well edited, lively and entertaining read with quick, well diagramed summarizations of palm reading. The author doesn't believe there are very many good palm readers in the world, truly committed to the art. I have no opinions on this. I've never had my palm read past one friend trying out his new found knowledge on me in passing and this is my first book on palmistry I've consumed. I'm reserving judgment on accuracy. I was slightly disappointed that he never really explained how palms are star charts beyond naming the fingers by the planets. Left me curious to read more, if only to understand the mythology of the hand. I think I'll go with a text less focused on popular use next time.
shesnicky's review
3.0
More of a 2.5/5, it's an interesting read, but the author sounds very pretentious in the forward and is obviously very opinionated about things I don't necessarily agree with. The palmistry itself is intriguing, and it's a great intro, I just think that the author comes off as running in those faux spiritual circles of privileged kids who got bored.
tangsprite's review
informative
slow-paced
1.0
There is about 70 pages of good palmistry information & tips in here. (However, about half of these pages are corresponding diagrams, so really it’s around 35 pages) Since the author has been studying so long, I do wish he would have covered more about astrology and its link to palmistry. As for the other 100 pages in this book, I have got to say it’s a total disappointment. Not only is the author’s writing style extremely pretentious and unentertaining, but he also speaks on his trans/homophobia & misogyny, as “abnormal sexuality” and the breaking of gender roles is “eroding” the institution of marriage. This is thinly veiled of course, but extremely obvious. You know what isn’t thinly veiled? The author straight up saying vaccines cause autism. *IN A PALMISTRY BOOK* Additionally, the author uses the Q+A section mostly for the purposes of imparting his life story. While the palm reading tips in this book check out, I feel as if this would be better marketed as something else. The description on the back of this book is 60% false advertising.
alfvitki's review
1.0
On page 41 he gets political. He seems to think, "traditional gender roles" should be reinforced. That and acts as if low morals are a result of, "abnormal sexuality" so rather homophobic. That and marriage is inherently spiritual/religious and without it a society cannot be wholesome (sorry Atheists). On page 37, he gets into Vedic (Hindu) karma. Which the way he explains it sounds very victim blamey. "If a child grew up with an absent father, this child himself was an absent father in a previous life." So if you have a bad life, it's because you deserve it according to him.
On top of everything else, he rarely mentions anything about palm reading. A lot of it is talk about his mentor for too long then on the side mention one line on the hand, now back to my life story. This is how he fills up pages and pretends like he knows anything. Half of the book could be omitted and it would make no difference.
The last thing I would like to mention is the way he puts down other palm readers repeatedly and sternly. They won't teach you right, they don't know what that really means, blah blah. So he pushes the, "I'm right, everyone else is wrong, only trust me and what I say" narrative quite hard. All in all, this is a terrible book that is best avoided. You will not learn much of anything even if you do agree with his politics, which have no place in a palm reading book. If I wanted to read about politics, I would not have picked a palmstry book, now would I?
On top of everything else, he rarely mentions anything about palm reading. A lot of it is talk about his mentor for too long then on the side mention one line on the hand, now back to my life story. This is how he fills up pages and pretends like he knows anything. Half of the book could be omitted and it would make no difference.
The last thing I would like to mention is the way he puts down other palm readers repeatedly and sternly. They won't teach you right, they don't know what that really means, blah blah. So he pushes the, "I'm right, everyone else is wrong, only trust me and what I say" narrative quite hard. All in all, this is a terrible book that is best avoided. You will not learn much of anything even if you do agree with his politics, which have no place in a palm reading book. If I wanted to read about politics, I would not have picked a palmstry book, now would I?
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