I had high expectations for this one. I'm about a third of the way through it at the moment, a bit past the card meanings and starting into the practical instruction. I have the same reservations that Lee did regarding some of the off-beat card associations. I also had this problem with Sylvie Steinbach's book, but at least Sylvie was very clear that much of her keyword material was based on her own intuitive, psychic impressions and not on the tradition (which, frankly, she seemed to scoff at). I found the "parts of speech" segments for each card especially troubling because they often struck me as incoherent, kind of a mish-mash or scramble of strained connections and grammatical anomalies. As a professional technical and legal writer with 30+ years of experience, I became a stickler for just the right word in any situation, and much of this material leaves me unconvinced; too much straining for relevance and too many lapses in style. On the bright side, the practical guidance seems balanced and sensible so far; I'll have to see if that holds up throughout. The production values are undeniably superb as well. On the strength of it's writing alone, and on its conversational, anecdotal tone, I'll take Rana's book over Caitlin's for now, and Andy's for it's conceptual clarity and careful scholarship. Those two I will definitely re-read and refer to frequently, The Complete Lenormand Oracle Handbook, probably not - at least not on the evidence of first impressions. But I will know better after I finish it.
