Smart Girl's Guide to Tarot

""Yeah, it's all crap, but it's still kind of interesting. Isn't that what we all say when we first get into tarot?"" Maybe yes, maybe no--but this is an energetic guide to augury nonetheless. Enthusiast Fredericks narrates her book in a quirky, frank, irreverent voice, arguing that tarot is""cheaper than Zoloft and less fattening than chocolate"" and thus perfect for hip, ambitious, smart--but maybe slightly neurotic--young women. After a quick history, an even quicker consideration of how the cards work (""I have no freaking clue"" about sums it up) and a speedy explanation of how to ask the deck a question, shuffle the cards and then lay them out, Fredericks moves on to descriptions of the cards themselves. The Tower card, for example,""suggests a sudden loss of stability and security"" (which is not necessarily a bad thing, Fredericks reassures readers), while the Tower reversed""represents inertia, oppression...and the same old shit."" But even that can have positive ramifications, she says, if readers use the card's appearance as encouragement to alter their current state. Illustrator Meredith Green provides a new look for the old cards: instead of queens with flowing locks and knights on horseback, there are young women doing yoga and cowboys holding coffee cups. Whether one looks to the cards for wisdom or entertainment, this is a spunky, informative guide, sure to be popular with the Lucky magazine crowd.