After learning last year just what my house plants are thinking, author Elisabeth Saake fills us all in on what our trinkets, magnets, and bric-a-brac have on their minds. This slim volume is the perfect palate cleanser for readers who need a quick read full of sass, humor, and snark.

Have a music box? It does NOT want to be touched.

Your leather-bound journal would rather you not share your innermost thoughts. (Or amateur poetry.)

Have you been handling your worry stone overmuch these days? Learn what that worry stone thinks you should do instead.

Grab a snack and get ready to giggle. This is the follow-up that was worth the wait.

I call them knick-knacks and what not’s, colloquially speaking, but the items are the same as what Saake lists in her latest book, Tchotchkes and Their F*cked-Up Thoughts.
The book displays Saake’s irreverent observational humour on full blast — her perceived thoughts about the many collectible items, decorated (scattered) around the house.
Her rich inner emotional cognisance of these whimsical artefacts, a veritable wheel of time for each decade they reigned supreme — the 50’s for the Matryoshka Dolls (placed right up in the front middle shelf of my grandma’s china cabinet display), the 70s for the lava lamp that my dad loved, the souvenir spoon, the decorative chinaware, all of which come alive in a nostalgic wave of musing and amusement in this book.
Saake writes in staccato, instagram-able caption style. This line of writing makes it easier to dive into this book taking in bite sized information with vivid graphics and minimal text.
Each tchotchke is illustrated, accompanied by their “thoughts”, their location, and instructions on care and handling. What piques my interest is that Saake has assigned each of them a zodiac sign. Did she do this to add editorial plugs in for social media? Or is it just another idiosyncratic addition to the personality of the anthropomorphic item?
I recognise some of the objects in the book, and have some of them in my house. On the dining table, a pair of adorable chilly shaped salt and pepper shakers, the cuckoo clock in the hall, the Himalayan salt brick, flanked next to the Turkish evil eye in the corner of the living room, the bamboo fortune plant standing next to the laughing jade buddha in front of a mirror. The dreamcatcher that we hung over the bedframe. I had an inflatable miniature globe —my sister and I used to kick it around during our childhood, and now it is lost to the annals of time. As many of these tchotchkes are want to.
The book is a joyous adornment, something that will become a tchotchke, eventually, on a bookshelf.

This is such a fun read! I really didn't expect to smile this much from the book. Funny and to the point, these tchotchkes are so sassy.

To start with the positives, I really liked the fonts used in this book, the graphics, and the overall layout. It was a nice and short read, and I laughed at some of the star sign sections ("rock" for ex.) However, I am not sure who the target audience is, and I'm not sure if the description was really accurate. I'd give this a 2.5 if I could-- it would make for a really cute coffee table book, but I cannot see myself buying it or recommending it for anyone.

Tchotchkes and their Fucked-Up Thoughts is a hilarious introspection on the minds of tchotchkes that you may have sitting around your house such as Russian matryoshka dolls and your random garden gnome. It's a funny, entertaining, and creative illustrative book.

This made me laugh. It is so silly and adorable. I like the one about the plants more but this was fun too.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This book has a fun coffee table/waiting room vibe. The irreverent tone adds to the quirkiness of the book, but sometimes it seems a bit over done.
Overall, this would be a great gift for that friend who likes things a little off kilter.


My review also appears on my Goodreads page at:
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/18931417-lucy-marincel

This book was so weird and funny and dumb, I loved it. Definitely an odd one, not for everybody, but if you've ever thought to yourself, what would my Russian nesting doll say if she could speak. this one is for you. Similar vibes to the podcast Everything Is Alive.

Arc Review:
Overall Rating: 3 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️

This was a really weird and quirky book yet oddly charming and funny.
It just shares what your little tchotchkes, trinkets, knickknacks, odds and ends might just be thinking giving them an inner monologue along with there own astrological signs.
This would make a cute gift or just something to have on your coffee table.

Thank you NetGalley

This was a fun, entertaining and quick read. The thoughts of each knickknack were clever and fitting and some made me laugh out loud. I’m not sure who this book is for or if I would recommend it to friends, but I enjoyed it.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

For people who love a funny book with quick quips, this one should be a hit. It's very cleverly done, and a lot of things are included that I would have never put into the tchotchkes category but am now realizing they totally are.

Who knew my Russian nesting dolls had so much angst? A good gift for your most trinket-pilled friend.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this book. This book is little but is packed with laughs. Inanimate objects telling it like it is, what more could you want from a book of tchotchkes? My favourites were the ceramic hummel figurine, the lava lamp and the souvenir spoon. Best line of the book, "May all your teeth fall out, except one, so you can still have a toothache" - Menorah. Such a fun book.

Elisabeth Saake’s “Tchotchkes and their F*cked-up Thoughts: The Messed-up minds of your Trinkets and Treasures” gives voices to the knick-knacks and collectibles around us. It imagines a scenario where these trinkets watch us and pass comments and judgements. Occasionally, they despair about the modern world and express their angst about the neglect they seem to suffer. The book is a quick but humorless read. However, the accompanying illustrations are delightful. Sometimes, the authorial voice is evident and intrudes into the reading process. The author seems to smirk at the reader, saying, “Notice how clever I am”. Personally, this feature was irritating. Nevertheless, this coffee table book has tried to capture the essence of certain cultures. This attempt is heroic but falls victim to hackneyed stereotypes.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this arc in exchange for my honest thoughts.

A funny, goofy, irreverent look into what the odds and ends in your house might be thinking.

I thought it was really great that each item had a blurb, how to care for it, and where to put it in the house (all in the pov of the item), and then it's given an astrological sign (except for a couple where it doesn't apply. Ex: a rock's sign is just "rock")

I enjoyed some of the jokes, but a lot of them just didn't quite land for me.

Overall a cute, fun coffee table book.

This little book would make the perfect coffee table book. It is funny and relatable. Many of these tchotchkes are owned by the majority of the population. I love how this book gives them a small piece of a personality.

A cute little tongue in cheek book about what your various tchotchkes must think of you and each other. The illustrations and descriptions were fun. I’m not sure who this book is for but it was still a fun read.

A unique and quirky book, filled with interesting tchotchkes and what they are thinking. A nice, lighthearted book to pick up and piut down as needed.

This was a fun book that will make a great coffee table book or a gift for that friend who likes to collect all sorts of Knickknacks and curios. It even has suggests for potential gifts of collectibles for people based on their Sun signs. All in all, a fun conversation piece.

A hilarious and quirky take on the hidden lives of your trinkets, this book offers dark humor and biting commentary on over 50 collectibles. The illustrations are vibrant, and the sarcastic voices of each item will have you laughing out loud—though it’s more for quick, fun entertainment than anything deeply profound.