Like many, I became a jigsaw addict during the pandemic lockdowns. I formed a jigsaw exchange group that helped feed our appetite for an endless stream of colorful puzzles.

The Joy of Jigsaws was a fun little book on the history and construction of these popular puzzles. I may have had fantasies of creating my own masterpieces, but the complexity and equipment required to create even simple pieces with tens of pieces is daunting. I think I’ll stick to my commercially produced thousand piece challenges!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

As a puzzler, or dissectionist, I was happy to read a bit about the history of jigsaw puzzles, early puzzles, and how the industry has changed over the years. Making your own puzzle is fascinating, and something I may do in the future.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Joy of Jigsaws by Holly Lambert is an amazing and beautiful guide to the wonderful hobby of puzzles. The book contains gorgeous full-color photos of various puzzles, and the author gives us step-by-step instructions for creating your own puzzles. According to the description, this book also gives "information on the history of puzzles, benefits of puzzles and even some puzzle trivia."

Overall, Joy of Jigsaws is a gorgeous book that would make an excellent coffee-table book as well as a guide to puzzles. One highlight of this book are the amazing photos. I was especially impressed by the step-by-step directions with accompanying photos. Another highlight are the wonderful tips that the author gives us from her experiences making and solving her own puzzles. If you're intrigued by the description, I highly recommend that you check out this book when it comes out in March!

I'm of two minds here: On the one hand, it was fun. I love puzzles and I enjoyed learning fun facts and more information about puzzles. However, there was some serious ableism in this book in which the author references the benefits of puzzles for "people with special needs." Ick. That section really wasn't necessary and if she wanted to include people with disabilities, I think she should have done more research. As an autistic person, I was really disappointed by the infantilizing language she used to describe autistic people and that she even promoted the use of the puzzle piece logo for autism--something autistic people have said for a long time that we DO NOT like or condone. I wanted to enjoy the book, but to be honest, the ignorance that was included in just a couple of pages managed to warp my experience and kept me from enjoying it.

Jigsaw puzzles became so popular during Covid that stores had trouble keeping them in stock. Clearly this pastime offered just the right degree of the need to concentrate and an ability to accomplish something, however small. So, it seems that this book is made for this time.

This title is chockablock with information and photos. There are chapters on everything from the history of jigsaw puzzles, to the benefits of puzzling, to how to make your own and more. Readers will learn what name they can use to describe them as a puzzler, find out what types of jigsaw puzzles there are and get hints for solving. Clearly all of this will delight jigsaw fans.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions are my own.

Interesting read on the world and history of jigsaw puzzles, including puzzle competitions! If interested in making your own puzzles, this book provides some guidelines, although the pictures of the final products are not as refined as hoped.