If you want to channel the power of the cosmos through tarot, this accessible and practical guide is for you. Written for novices and seasoned readers alike, How to Deal is packed with artwork and includes prompts, exercises, and layouts to give you the answers you're looking for. Sometimes you just need the universe to tell you whether your crush likes you or how to handle that awkward family situation or which life path is the best one for you. Sami Main breaks down how the cards relate to one another, explaining spreads for future readings and questions to ask the cards. And she takes you through all the Major and Minor Arcana, with colorful illustrations of the cards and detailed descriptions of what they mean. As Sami will teach The cards are here to guide you through life’s ups and downs—you just have to understand what they’re trying to say.
I was sent this by the publisher in exchange for an honest review, a big thank you to them!
More of 2.75 star rating.
This book is a YA manual about tarot cards and readings. Since I have been getting into tarot and interested in it, I was quite excited for this! It was standard in my opinion- good but not great. Personally I think the language was very juvenile, I was tired of the use of "BFF and bestie", though I do realize this is for a young adult audience. Still the language began to irk me and the activities within in this book started to really drag on. Despite the negatives I had with this, it taught me the meaning of the cards, information about tarot and different layouts- which is what I was hoping for! It is a standard guide and does exactly what it says its going to. The illustrations in this were also very nice and I think this is a good introduction to tarot. Though some of the cards mentioned in here, did not match up with my deck. It is stated sometimes why there may be a difference but sometimes it does not. It refers to "page of pentacles" when that is not in the deck I own, I could figure out what card it was talking about but it sometimes was a bit of a hassle. Overall, I cannot deny this give me a simple introduction to tarot, which is exactly what I was looking for.
I've been trying to dab into Tarot for a little while and feel so overwhelmed by everything! This book broke it down in a very fun and light way, perfect for beginners. It includes exercices too, which I will revisit often for sure.
Plenty of space to add your notes too, and so cute. It's clear a lot of love and thoughtfulness went into this.
In other words, if you're a baby tarot reader, this is perfect. If you have more experience, you might find it too simple.
This was a quaint little book. Even though it was geared towards teens, I still found it to be as enjoyable as it was informative. It definitely broke the cards down so that they were easy to relate to and the illustrations were very nice and unique.
If you are curious about tarot cards in general, this is a nice little book that will walk you through them. I do recommend this and it was a quick read.
okay. this is a cute tarot guide. you know as much as i like my kindle (i'd rather have ipad if we're being honest) this is a book you need to get a physical copy of. you know so you can mark it up, make notes, use cute pastel highlighters to go with the cute pastel illustrations. thankfully it's simple though.
I use tarot for reflection and introspection instead of prediction or tapping into the spirit of the universe, and as such, I'm always curious to explore new or interesting archetypal aspects of the cards. To that end, I thought How to Deal did a fairly good job of presenting some more modern facets of the cards in a very simple and easy-to-remember way.
It doesn't touch on upright and reversed meanings, and some of the Major Arcana felt a little vague—which makes sense, considering they depict significant and nuanced elements of life, not easy to capture in a short cheery paragraph. In fact, a lack of nuance characterizes all the card descriptions, but in the Minor Arcana, that simplicity invites the reader to note patterns across the suits and ponder each court card as a person in their life.
I haven't tried any of the spreads yet, but the instructions Main offers on how to "get your space into the tarot mood" were encouraging and appealing. I'm usually pretty utilitarian in my spreads—I have fond memories of laying them on the reference desk during slow winter days—but maybe I'll try the scarf and candle approach next time.
Definitely written for an audience of teens who are still in school, but a lot of fun to read. I enjoyed the simplicity of it and sections to write your own notes. They ask questions that get you thinking and provide helpful notes to help with memory. This would be the perfect book for middle school and high schoolers, even young adults just starting college. I'm 27 and even though the examples and topics they use don't pertain to my life, I can still use it to help with learning my deck and work on my memory. The plus side to this book is how absolutely ADORABLE it is. The pastel colors and cute illustrations will have you turning the pages just to keep looking at the cuteness. Even the short paragraphs on each card have a little humor to them making it a fun one to read.
I give it 4 instead of 5 because they left out reversal card meanings and I feel they could have added in some keywords or other details while still accomplishing their goal of keeping the book simple.
I highly advise gifting this to a teen who shows interest in tarot or who is wanting to be more in tune with their spirituality or find more confidence in their intuition.
I just picked up this book at Marshall's (Northgate Centre) for $5.99. An awesome book - i just picked it up and started reading it right away. Comes with pictures for each card from a deck I am not familiar with - if it is a deck at all. *Recommended for beginners learning from memorization but not people who are already in a relationship with all the cards.
This five star rating might be a little biased because it led to a great family bonding time. I bought this book and tarot deck today and started reading up on what the different cards meant - as I was learning everything my aunt casually mentioned that I should read for her and that led to me doing a reading for me, my mom, my aunt and three cousins... and ALL of them were SCARY accurate, it was insane. We are all freaked out and amazed at the same time. My dad who believed in none of this even flickered the lights a little succeeding in scaring the shit out me and one of my cousins (we jumped out of our seats and fell on the floor screaming.) It was a really fun night. It also helped me realize how PERFECT tarot cards for me. I am a very introspective person and reading tarot cards is about having a symbol or a figure guide the different elements in your life into carving the future you want for yourself. It's supposed to help discover what your experiences and feelings mean and give you the strength to make your dreams a reality. Does this book have cringe language at times, yes, but it does what it is supposed to - introduce young readers to the world of tarot in a simple and understandable manner. After reading this book and using the layouts it gave me I feel confident into delving into more complex books on the subject. I would HIGHLY recommend this for anyone entering the world tarot cards.
This felt extremely juvenile. I think it would be good for young witches as an introduction into Tarot, but for an older witch (Who left high school many years ago), it was much too childish.
This book was surprisingly good. Goes into detail but makes things easy to understand for those of us who have only been read but haven’t done the reading.
HOW TO DEAL: Tarot for Everyday Life is exactly what a reader would imagine it to be. The book is an easy to read guide for those who want to learn about the art of tarot card interpretation. Main explains the basics of card reading as well as the meaning of each of the main tarot cards. In addition, Main ensures that readers understand the overall meaning of each card category with brief descriptions at the beginning of each “chapter.” The guide also includes worksheets after each section in order for readers to fine tune their abilities. As a bonus, Main includes basic layouts for card readings.
Sami Main’s debut book was written with the intent to help people deal. Although it is her first published book, Sami Main has been an author for Buzzfeed, Business Insider and Adweek. According to Main’s website, HOW TO DEAL: Tarot for Everyday Life was in the works for two years before being published. Seeing the handy worksheets included and the illustrations for every card and margin, (courtesy of Marisa de la Peña) it is not difficult to imagine why.
I love learning new things so it was quite exhilarating to get my hands on this book. The book simplifies the world of tarot cards in a way that I would not have thought possible. As a newbie to this possibly “dark” art I cannot say I wasn’t hesitant to begin reading the book. I thought it would give me a headache to learn about all of the different cards that existed. I was right! However, I know for a fact that the headache could have been much more intense without Main’s book. Main used various literary techniques to simplify the concept behind each card. In addition, the organization was incredibly helpful. Instead of going through each card in alphabetical order as most guides do, Main organized the cards according to one of two overall categories. Then, the card were divided into subsections (depending on which category you were in). Trust me, the book puts this into much simpler terms. With that being said, HOW TO DEAL: Tarot for Everyday Life is all-age friendly. My 11-year-old sister browsed through it and was able to understand a good deal of what was going on.
One thing that may be a downer is that the book does not include tarot cards. That can be overlooked, however, because tarot cards are fairly expensive. Of course, this depends on where a person buys them. In order to truly grasp just how helpful the book is one may want to attempt the art. I decided to attempt reading cards. Luckily, I have a friend that owns tarot cards so I borrowed theirs. My first reading was moderately successful which can be considered a good thing. Of course, I had to flip through the book in order to interpret the cards but the descriptions were incredibly helpful when interpreting her love life. I think that for a beginner’s first time, the results and relative difficulty was satisfying. One dilemma I encountered was deciding the order of the cards when placing them in a layout. The picture is numbered however the drawings made the order somewhat difficult to understand. I do wish Main had gone more into detail about layouts.
If you are a person who enjoys experiencing new things or learning about subjects that are out of your comfort zone then this guide can provide you with the perfect opportunity to give tarot card reading a shot. It will make the experience much simpler than looking each card up. In addition, if you are a person who believes in readings but does not want to continue to pay for the services then why not learn the art yourself?
Before deciding whether or not to buy the book, I would like to remind all of you that Main does not endorse the usage of “dark” magic or anything similar. It is clear from what Main wrote in the introduction that her intentions were to have fun with the cards if you are a casual user. If you are a dedicated reader, Main mentions that she believes it is a great way to channel your inner self and satisfy the questions you wish to be answered. In summary, HOW TO DEAL: Tarot for Everyday Life as a guide is incredibly useful and an interesting read. Main uses lighthearted humor and plenty of colloquial language to make the reader feel at ease. The topic of the book is certainly up to debate when it comes to whether or not it is for each individual. However, like every book, it is not for everyone.
A fun look at the tarot cards and their meanings. I found it on par with other books in my personal collection. I really enjoy looking at the artists different interpretations of the artwork on each card as it relates to the classic Rider-Waite deck, and this book did not disappoint me there. The book was filled with beautiful and creative interpretations of the classic tarot suits. After each section of the book are some short essay questions about the readers personal life coupled with explanations on how those questions relate to the cards. This is so the reader has a better understanding of the deck and its plethora of meanings and can find a way to relate these cards to people, places, and things in their own lives. There is also a section on training the reader on various layouts of the cards. After finishing this book the reader may be able to successfully give a reading to friends if they follow along well and answer the questions. AND if they feel they are ready and in a good place to give a reading.
I would say without hubris that I have a good understanding of tarot from reading other books such as these and watching and talking with other readers for a couple of years now. But I always love learning more, and I did learn a few new things thanks to the essay questions. I enjoyed this book a lot. It gave me a fresh and new perspective on the deck. This book is perfect for anyone of any age to try and learn the basics of tarot and put them into practice.
I'll start by saying that this is not a tarot book that gives you an in depth guide to each card. It does however, provided a small summary of each of the 78 cards, and does so in a more clear, generalized, and modern way. This is really an introduction to Tarot and would be best accompanied with a specific guide book for whichever deck of cards a person is using. I really liked this book's approach to describing Tarot & how to use it. Everything was clear and just made sense. I particularly liked how the book offers small activities at the end of each suit & arcana that help you practice interpreting Tarot and really getting to know the individual cards and how to relate them to each other, as well as your life. The spreads provided are also really great tools. There is a perfect amount of balance between simplicity and education. I just wish that there was a deck & guide book created by the same author/illustrator to accompany this title! It would be great to have a more in-depth description of each card, but I don't think that would have fit this particular book. Hence the call for a separate deck/guidebook set.
A beginner's guide to reading tarot, with card meanings, exercises and sample layouts.
This beautifully illustrated book covers the complete tarot is simple, easy to understand language. It goes through each suit in turn, touching on what they mean as a whole and then what each card means individually. The illustrations don't quite match my deck, but the energy does and the descriptions are brilliant.
My only nitpick is that this book doesn't deal with reversed cards at all; the only time they're even mentioned is when the author tells us to be careful when shuffling so that the cards don't reverse. Reversed cards can add a lot of meaning to a reading and I'm sorry they weren't dealt with here.
Otherwise, though, I really enjoyed this book, and it's definitely going to become the one I reach for first when I'm having trouble!
This was an impulse purchase. I was interested in tarot and really enjoyed the art in this book. I didn’t realize this book is very aimed towards teens, but again, I didn’t look very hard so that’s my fault. That being said, I think this was a simple explanation of each individual tarot card and what it can mean for modern life. Even when the examples were targeted toward issues teens may be experiencing, it was easy to still translate those examples to something in your own life that applied. I think the only part I was really bothered by was the attempted “teen speak”, which felt cliche and annoying. The art was very lovely to look at, and I recently ordered the tarot deck its from. Overall a pretty book and a good basic reference.
This is a super handy book for reading tarot. I borrowed from the library, but wouldn’t mind buying a copy for my collection, so that I can give it a quick read every now and then as a refresher, or just to use as reference during readings. It definitely feels like it is geared to high school kids just learning tarot, but it’s totally ok for adults anyway. It would make a great gift for a young friend though! I found a lot of the exercises worked better as just journal prompts rather than study aids, but there are for sure some useful tips in the book to assist in better learning the cards. The artwork is cool, and I liked how this book felt current.
How to Deal is a quick reference guide of young adults looking for information about reading tarot cards. It explains very informally the meanings of the cards, different layout options for readings, and how they can be interpreted. It is definitely written for young adults, based on the vocabulary, tone, and sample questions and situations. The illustrations are cute and fun, as are the descriptions of the cards. The book also includes some worksheet type questions about the cards, aiming for the reader to get an understanding about who the cards may represent in their lives and how the cards may effect them. I thought this was a helpful addition. Overall, an easy book that knows the audience it's going for. Thanks to Edelweiss+ for the eARC.
I wish I'd had this book as a teenager. How To Deal is an awesome, easy to read, relatable guide to tarot reading, and I hope it introduces a new generation of tarot readers. I loved all the quirks in the writing, the pastel colour scheme adds to the no-pressure vibe of the book, and the illustrations are perfect. All in all, I love not just this book but the approach to tarot reading. There's no stuffy, rigid meanings of cards here - it's not just teen-friendly but beginners-of-all-ages-friendly.
I was looking for an easy, basic guide to reading tarot cards, and found this one, albeit geared for the Taylor Swift set, perfect for my needs. If you are looking to just play around with and have a little fun, this book will quickly get you acquainted with the tarot deck and a few simple spreads. Other recommended and highly-rated books that I looked at were just too long and had more information than I needed for a beginner just wanting to dabble with tarot. As long as you can get past the high school girl-speak, you’ll find yourself analyzing the cards and doing a reading in no time.
This book has a total self help vibe. It reminds us that during the good times, we need to spread the joy and be grateful and during the bad times, have hope and to keep going forward. The descriptions are a bit too chic lit though which takes the gravitas out of Tarot. For writing alone, its a 3/5. But with Marisa De La Pena gorgeous artistry, it's a 4/5. I can't give it a 5/5 because Sami Main doesn't seem to be able to connect to the Circo Tarot deck imagery despite her descriptions are faithful to the Tarot tradition. But all in all, this book is so pretty, a visual feast to the senses.
I enjoyed this book a lot, I am 29 and adore tarot and am new to it! This has is really awesome and easy to understand pages. I'm really excited about how it explained the spreads and the questions involved. I will say it is geared more towards a younger person, but personally I enjoyed the aesthetic of the book, how it was written and what was included. If you're a beginner and want a very easy going, easy to read book, this one will definitely help out. I will say, this one did not include reversals, so that will be something I'll look into next.
This was a super quick read -- it took me less than an hour, and I was taking notes. There are concise blurbs about each card, with no delineation between upright and reversed, which I enjoy, since that's how I read tarot. I'm only giving this four stars because I think the tone of the book was over a little more positive and could have gone into some of the darker aspects of some cards -- particularly The Tower, and some of the swords cards. Overall this was really helpful and brief which I enjoyed!
I'm one of those people who says things like "lol i don't really believe in that kind of stuff" but I was drawn to tarot cards because of the cool art on them and the medieval origin. I wanted to understand what tarot is, and this book was a great introduction. The meanings of each card is explained as well as how to do spreads, so it's really all you need to know to get started. The rest comes with practice. This book was a delight to read and really showed me that tarot is good for meditation, even if you don't believe in it. It can help calm you down when you are stressed or anxious.
It is for YA so tha language is a bit juvenile, but all in all I liked it. It does what it should which it gives the meaning of the cards, explains the differences between arcanas and different suits, it is better to read it at an earlier stage of life i.e. for teenagers, but that is exactly for whom the book was written. If you have a teenager in your life that would be an amzing gift, plus the illustartions are great.
This was my first ever book about tarot, and whereas I don’t consider it “the Bible” on the topic I think it covered all bases and was very thorough with all the explanations. Also as a designer I must say it’s beautiful which made my reading that much enjoyable. It is an easy read, very to the point and even if I read more about tarot I would think this is the one to go back to when you have any easy to answer questions.
While this book is geared toward teens, I enjoyed it. It gives you a brief idea on card meanings, nothing too in depth, but enough to get you started. It also has writing prompts and some card layouts to try. Not a bad book, but you'll definently want other books to help supplement with your learning. My only real complaint with this book is that it does NOT start with the major arcana. Every other tarot book I've read starts with the major arcana cards, not the minor.
How to Deal: Tarot for Everyday Life is basic. The art is cute, and it does dive a little bit into the meanings of the cards; it’s simple and not useful if you’re really trying to get into tarot. It only goes into the upright meaning of the card. With that, I do use the book to take notes on each card, like if there’s a signed zodiac sign to it, I write it down—and I’ll most likely be writing down the reversal meanings of the cards while I’m at it. Overall, it’s ok.
I started and finished this book in an hour, was expecting it to be a little longer but overall it was a fun read. I enjoyed the authors thoughts on each card, and naturally I loved the illustrations as I'm a huge fan of Marissa's artwork. I've been reading tarot for going on 6 years and knew this was a YA book, I think my daughter would love it.