Tarot Interactions // Deborah Lipp

Tarot Interactions (★★☆☆☆)
By: Deborah Lipp
Genres: Non-Fiction, Tarot, Personal Development
Pages: 288
Format: Digital ARC

Unfortunately, the first thing that stood out to be were issues with her credibility.

I haven't read any of Lipp's works before this one, so I don't know if this is a normal thing for her, but I found the repeated mentions of having been married to Isaac Bonewits to be... banal. It was almost as if she was teaching to him to lend some kind of credence to the fact she was writing a book on the Tarot and veering away from her normal fare of books on ritual and Wicca. Having to rely so heavily on another immediately takes away from an author's ability to stand on their own - as is the case here.

There are also certain things that she took credit for, that have been floating around the Tarot community for a number of years. I understand she has been reading Tarot, and teaching it for quite some time but the fact remains that certain things have long lost any capability to be traced back to any specific time or person. Many elements she claims as her own are nothing new to the seasoned Psychic, and it seems highly pretentious of her to try and claim them.

The problems didn't stop there... Is her mind still in the years she was married to Bonewits?

The book reads very old. A lot of the notions and thought patterns that were mentioned aren't nearly as prevalent as Lipp would have us believe. Long past are the days of TV psychics, while intuitives and mediums have followers numbering in the millions. Ever heard of Theresa Caputo? Yeah, she has her own show called Long Island Medium. It's in it's 7th season, and her fans actually take her seriously!

I'm hoping some of the issues I encountered in continuity were due to the fact I was reading an ARC.

I really, really hope someone over at Llewellyn was paying attention before they put this book to print. There were quite a few areas where Lipp referenced something from "earlier" or "above" that just... wasn't there. Not to mention, when specific so-called facts are mentioned, there needs to be a cited source. I don't care if there's a bibliography. If there's no direct reference to where a date or number comes from, it completely invalidates the claim.

So, what did I enjoy, exactly?

Her approach to meditation was, I think, one of the best parts about the book. Due to some strange fluke, I've always had a hard time meditating, along with everything else that goes along with it. Blame my ADD, but as that has recently changed, I can truly appreciate the need to really be expansive in your search for a meditation practice that actually works for your specific physiology and psychology. Meditation is not a "one shoe fits all" practice, and Lipp clearly acknowledges this. Her approach makes it less scary and more accessible to people who may have struggled with it before, while giving them a unique approach to consider for themselves.

Lipp also makes some very good points regarding trust - both our trust in ourselves, and our clients trust in us. So often we allow our own instincts and intuition to be overridden by our clients reticence. The example she gives is if we were to tell her a name for her aunt she had previously been unaware of. To her, the "client", we would not be telling the truth, even while our intuition was telling us otherwise. I feel the point she was trying to make here is that, it is up to us to speak the truth, not just the truth the client thinks they want to hear. If we are conduits, we tell the client what they need. It is their job to take the information we give them and do something with it.

Would I recommend this book or not?

As I read further into the book, exploring the ways she gives to learn the cards, how they interact with each other, the spread, the environment, and just about everything else under the sun, I was reminded of a book I'm actually working through right now, written by a very highly acclaimed Tarot expert. Next to what I am already exploring, some of the exercises Lipp recommends seem... shallow.

Couple that with the fact Lipp is clear early on that she is mostly referencing her own experiences, and interpretation of books, that takes me back to the beginning issue I had with her credibility.

I fully believe in supporting authors when support is warranted. There is some good information in this book, if you can get past the banality of it's presentation. Having already gone through the book, if I were to receive it as a gift, I would likely return it in favor of something less contrived and written by someone who could stand on their own two feet without having to rely on anyone else's name but their own.

Two stars for having usable information, but the presentation was all wrong.

2016 Reading Challenges

Normally, I only ever take part in the Goodreads yearly challenge, dedicating myself to reading (and only reading) a certain number of books per year. I usually meet my goal, yet fail to actually update any reading progress on Goodreads. I'm aiming to make this year different.

I spent the first part of last year furiously reading and writing reviews, before life failed and I found myself without access to my desktop computer, my webhosting, and all of the content that I had written up until that point. I spent the remainder of the year trying to recover.

Now, I have a 3 year old laptop, and around 100 ebooks on my Kindle, with my hard copy books all in storage. With this set up, I can do what I do anywhere! So this is where I'm starting. Book challenges that encourage actual reviews.

First, an oldie but a goodie - the Goodreads yearly reading challenge:

2016 Reading Challenge

Kali has read 4 books toward her goal of 75 books.

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4 of 75 (5%)

view books

But of course, I can't stop there. I then went on to sign up for the Witches and Witchcraft Challenge over at Melissa's Eclectic Bookshelf. I'm participating in that one over at The Inner Deep, my Witchy/Spiritual blog.

Now, we get to the fun stuff. The stuff to challenge me to go outside of my comfort zone. You see, I usually read fantasy, with the occasional romance/erotica thrown into the mix, along with my Witchy reads. Easy enough to fill a quota with those, right?

Pick Your Genre Reading Challenge
Level 1 (Sunbathing): 0/6 Biographies

2016 New to You Reading Challenge
Level 2 (Dipping Your Toes In): 1/12 New Authors

1. Deborah Lipp

Reading Bingo
0/2 Bingos

B

Listen to an Audiobook: 

A Book With a Number in the Title:
Read a Dystopian: Prodigy, Marie Lu

A Book with Star-Crossed Lovers:

A Book with More than 600 Pages:

I

An Author's Sophomore Book:

A Book with an Animal Sidekick: Murder of Crows, Anne Bishop

A Book that Made You Cry:

A Book with an Antihero:

Read a Book with a Cat:

N

A Book with Red on the Cover: Written in Red, Anne Bishop

An Author You've Never Read: Tarot Interactions, Deborah Lipp

Free:

A Book with A Sword or Dagger on the Cover: Nightblade - Garrett Robinson (Completed 1/19/2016)

A Book with a Steamy Romance:

G

Re-Read an Old Favorite:

A Book with a One-Word Title: Champion, Marie Liu

A Book with a Shifter:

A Book with a Male Protagonist:

Read a Middle Grade Book:

O

Read an Anthology:

A Book That's Been on Your TBR List for a Long Time: Tarot Interactions - Deborah Lipp

A Book from a Debut Author:

A Book from a Genre That's Outside Your Comfort Zone:

Read a Book You Own: 

Shelf Love Challenge
My Shelves and I Are Going Steady: 5/51 Books

2016 TBR Pile Reading Challenge
Married With Children: 5/50 Books

Pervy Girl Reading Challenge
Level 6 (Let Your Freak Flag Fly!): 1/50 Books

Hard Core Re-Reading Challenge
Level 5 (Re-Reading Coma): 1/50 Books


Full House Challenge
1/20 for January-March

By Author You Wish Was Better Known:
Published in 2016:

Book from Series You Love:

Debut Novel:

Thought Provoking Book:

Had Laugh Out Loud Moments:

Book Club Worthy:

Color Word in Title:

Author's Surname Starts with Same Letter as Yours:

You Didn't Want to Put it Down:

Way Out of Comfort Zone:

Family Relationship Word in Title:

Book You Bought:

Setting Begins with B: Nightblade - Garrett Robinson (Completed 1/19/2016)

Author Outside Own Country:

Self Challenge:

Memoir:

First in a Series: 

You'd Like to Change the Cover:

A Dominant Color on Cover:

New Author to You: Tarot Interactions - Deborah Lipp

Would Make a Good Movie: The Burning Sky - Sherry Thomas (Completed 1/22/2016)

Library Book:

Published 2015:

Been on TBR "Forever":

Mount TBR Reading Challenge
Mt. Kilimanjaro: 5/60

2016 Nonfiction Reading Challenge

Master: 1/16

Flights of Fantasy Reading Challenge

1/79 Books

2016 eBook Reading Challenge

Level 6 (Empty the Cloud): 8/100 Books

With all of that, I'm going to wrap things up with these four:

You Read How Many Books?

8/100 Books

2016 Pages Read
2,962/52,000 Pages

And finally...

Reading Challenge Addict

In Flight: 0/18 Challenges

Written In Red // Anne Bishop

Written In Red (★★★★☆)
By: Anne Bishop
Series: The Others
Genres: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 512
Format: Paperback

Umm... wow.

I've been a fan of Bishop's for years. I was introduced to her Black Jewels Trilogy back in 2002, and was hooked on that from page one. After I finished her first round, I went on immediately to The Pillars of the World of the Tir Alainn Trilogy, and following those, absolutely inhaled Sebastian of the Ephemera trilogy.

To say I'm a fan of Bishop's by this juncture would be a bit of an understatement. She has a distinct style that's apparent through all her books, and yet each series she produces is unique. She has either done quite a bit of research on all things Fantasy, or she's just an amazing genius.

Then again, some of the things she manages to tie together absolutely baffle me in their brilliance.

Take Meg, for instance. We quickly learn that she's got some seriously powerful blood. The kind that can make or break businesses - which is why she's running away from someone we eventually get to know as the Controller. What I wouldn't give to get behind that name and find out who our antagonist really was! But alas, he appears to be little more than a plot device. So sad.

Then we get into the fact that humans are considered little more than "meat" - at best, "monkeys." Yet somehow, this Meg manages to weasel her way into a very secretive, close community of Others. Even before they find out about her special blood, and the fact that she is very, very different from other humans. So, there's a lot to Meg. She kind of reminds me of Jarod, from The Pretender back in the day. Used and abused for her special abilities, and then used those special abilities to escape and forge a life for herself elsewhere, with a chosen family of people that would destroy everything they had built with the humans without a second thought, in order to keep her safe.

Aside from the Controller, there really didn't seem to be a clear antagonist. It's obvious that Meg is being hunted, that she has been bred/raised to cut to produce prophecy. She fought back against a system that treated her like a commodity, something to be sold. In fact, the true antagonist in this series doesn't really start to become clear until A Murder of Crows, and even then, it's very ephemeral, and you kind of have to read between the lines to get it.

I'm a picky reader. I read a lot, yes, but 90% of the books I start reading go unfinished (thank the gods for Amazon.com's sample feature!) Plus, Bishop set the bar pretty damned high with her the BJT. Her world and character building skills are second to none, and she skates the edge of the dark like one wrong step is the difference between the razor cutting and passing harmlessly over skin.

Not to Criticize, but...

Her world building in this group of books... lacking. Considering what she did years ago with the BJT, and Tir Alainn and Ephemera? It absolutely does not hold up to the intricate and delicate back and forth developed in the lands of those books. I get that this may have been simple creative license to help us focus more on the characters and events of the story - but after reading the second book, I just don't buy it. There simply wasn't nearly enough time invested in creating a world to support the story she wrote.

So far, the story seems fragmented. We do eventually start to understand the fierce protectiveness the Others feel for Meg, but it's glossed over by the characters almost as an afterthought. I mean, they're so secluded, so anti-human, and the fact that they would destroy an entire city of humans to keep her - another human - safe, doesn't seem to strike them as odd enough to give serious thought to. Very... "eh, it is what it is."

The culmination of Written in Red... what can I say? It vibrated. It resonated with something in me so hard my heart literally fluttered for a solid minute.

Raven // Suzy Turner

Raven (★☆☆☆☆)
By: Suzy Turner
Series: The Raven Saga (1)
Genres: Urban Fantasy, Young Adult
Pages: 258
Format: eBook
Features: Shapeshiftrers

Lilly Taylor isn't really Lilly Taylor. In fact, after her parents mysteriously disappear from their London flat one day, she ends up living in Canada with family she didn't even know she had, learning secrets that would likely send even the most well-adjusted, real-life teenager off to wallow in, well, the stuff of parent's nightmares.

Not Lilly, though.  Nope, Lilly spends a night sleeping and all is good in the world. Of course she has questions - who wouldn't? But, this is a young adult novel and thus everything must come easy, right?

I confess, I'm not the target audience for this kind of book. Yet, I have read many young adult novels that have had a compelling story with characters I grow to care for. Characters who respond in a way a normal human being might, who suffer, live and breathe as we do. This is not something you find in Raven.

I gave the book one star, purely because despite all temptation to remove the book both off of my Kindle and delete it entirely from my Amazon order history, something kept me going.  Then again, there were plenty of things that kept me going only to have them succinctly and completely removed with no conflict or resolution. The only conflict we see in Raven is the hope that Lilly's father is still alive, and the confrontation with her father's wife.

Now, I won't spoil it for you, but expect that encounter to end well, very anticlimactically. In fact, if I were to compare this book to sex... lots of talk, very little follow-through. Though, I'll give the author another chance on account of it being her first time and all.

Innocence // Dean Koontz

Innocence (★★★★★)
By: Dean Koontz
Genres: Mystery, Suspense
Pages: 353
Format: eBook

I'm almost ashamed to admit I've never read Dean Koontz before. Almost. After reading Innocence, I've come to believe that was subconsciously intentional.

It sucked me in. Completely. From page one, it gripped me around the heart and hooked my brain. From the second I pick it up until the moment I put it down, there is nothing but the world Koontz has created, the characters and their story woven so expertly I come away from it each time wondering if there are here, too, people hiding in hidden tunnels for legitimate fear of their lives.

It's ethereal, mystical. It's a combination of the real and the fantastical, blended so smoothly one has a hard time figuring if this is meant to be fantasy or something else entirely. Until the end, that is. At the end, the striking potential of reality ripped my heart out of my chest and left my jaw scraping the floor, somehow elated.

Now, to explain all of that? I have a very, VERY difficult time really enjoying books that have no way to hook me emotionally, engage my imagination, or of making me THINK. Sometimes I'll get one, maybe two, but it is the rare gem that manages to capture all 3. Innocence is definitely one of those books that has managed to capture all 3, and it will be read often if only due to that fact alone. The powerful imagery and richly woven story line are the icing on the cake.

Letting Go // Maya Banks

Letting Go (★★★☆☆)
By: Maya Banks
Series: The Surrender Trilogy (1)
Genres: Erotica ~ Romance
Pages: 258
Format: eBook
Features: BDSM

I've been a fan of Maya Banks for a long time. The "Sweet series" knocked my socks off and left me nearly drooling with every installment. The "Breathless" trilogy was as emotionally gripping as it was physical.

In this first taste of the "Surrender" trilogy, however, she falls far short of the impeccable standard she set with her previous books.

I can't really nitpick about the book, because the things that made me grind my teeth about the book unfortunately took up a good chunk of it. So many different decisions, and thoughts, and statements, were repeated. Again and again. And then, yet again.

It slowed down the story and distracted me from what should have been a delicious undercurrent to the relationship building between Joss and Dash. I actually got more out of the budding relationship between Kylie and Jensen than I did out of the two primary characters, and Jensen only made barely more than a cameo appearance.

This was my eventual reaction to a lot of the prevalent "themes" in the story.

Joss' hesitation due to being dead husbands best friend: GET OVER IT!
Kylie's reaction to what Joss wants to do in her life to make her happy: GET OVER IT!
Chessy's reaction to, well, everything: Yeah, you get it. You understand, got it. No, really, I got it.

As always once the relationship between the two main characters actually gets established (this time with WAY more "filler" in the pages than I'm used to from Maya), I can't complain. The sex is hot, the necessary conflict is interesting, and the reconciliation is a struggle between pride and love.

I see a lot of "tricks" that have been used before in the other books she's written, however, which makes me think perhaps Banks should take a break, spend a few weeks in the sack with the lover of her choice, and then come back with some new, fresh and sexy ideas.

I'll probably pass on the remaining books in this series, but pick up the next one.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone // Laini Taylor

Daughter of Smoke and Bone (★★★★☆)
By: Laini Taylor
Series: Daughter of Smoke and Bone (1)
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy ~ Urban
Pages: 420
Format: eBook
Features: Where to begin???

Well, now.

I like to read. A lot. Typically when I read a book by a new author, if I find I enjoy it, I'll set it aside and come back to it later, read it again, and think about whether or not I'll pursue additional works by the same author.

That is NOT the case here. Laini Taylor has captured my imagination with Daughter of Smoke and Bone. The end is merely alluded to in the title, not to be understood until you manage to make it all the way through to the end. And what an amazing end it was.

I had my doubts early on. Karou talking about her drawings of Brimstone and the others made me think of something more along the lines of comic book characters. When the narrative went into conversations she had with these creatures, I raised my eyebrow and wondered what I had gotten myself into. And, wishes? Simple, silly wishes based off of a bead?

Then we actually get to MEET Brimstone, and the entire dynamic changes. We hear more about the other kinds of wishes, and his job of collecting teeth, we see the relationship that Karou has with the chimaera inhabiting the shop. We start getting glimpses hear and there into Karou, her life, and her "job". The split life of someone who works for creatures who don't dare show their faces outside the shop on one side, and who attends an arts school who has friends and relationships on the other side.

Of the chimaera who are merely shopkeepers and caregivers in need of teeth to carry out some unknown purpose on one side, and highly valuable members of an entire race of beings on the other side.

The intricacies of these relationships are handled very well. I was pleased with the continuity, the flow of the story and of the writing. It moved at a very good pace to keep me engaged without being overwhelmed or bored.

Then the angel appeared. It was as if from that point on, the entire story became one gigantic whirlwind of "WTF?!" - which was appropriate considering, had this all been real, Karou's life probably would be about there as well.

The ending revelation wasn't as big of a surprise as I'd hoped, and it was there that I started feeling things got a little too drawn out - a little too... cookie-cutter. From that point on until the end, everything pretty much went as expected, which was a sad turn from earlier.

No matter how you look at it, though, Taylor spins a good story. My imagination was thoroughly engaged, visualizing these characters with all these different features, the remarkable dress of Karou's, the whole idea of... well, I won't spoil that for you. It's one of the biggest curiosities of Karou's throughout the book, and now I can certainly understand why. I thought it was pretty brilliant, myself.

If you're looking for the next great thing in fantasy set in modern times, this is a book you definitely need to add to your collection.