The Little Guide to Palmistry

The first thing I noticed about “The Little Guide to Palmistry” by Johnny Fincham were the multi-colored palms featured on the cover. Fantastic!

However, already in the introduction my inner Hermione started to roll her eyes. Stating that palmistry has been scientifically proven by anyone is ridiculous. When I tried to find references for these assertions I only found “Further Reading” with a list of books that could easily have been required reading by Professor Trelawney, for example: “Your Life in your Hands” by Professor Fortuna Palmetto (just kidding, it is by B Hutchinson). I actually logged onto Pubmed to see if there was any research and I found quite a lot about fingers. Who knew? I found one article about Palmistry, which postulated that it is essentially a form of archaic psychological support, giving hope to clients. I think that could be said about any form of pseudoscience.
So throw all your critical thinking out the window and just read this for entertainment.

The format of this book is very reader-friendly with handy summaries (Learning Points) after each chapter. The writing is clear and compelling. My inner Hermione was aghast when so many things fit in with my personality (which is why all these pseudosciences always work…). However, everything depends on who is doing the palm reading. A person who is a natural empath with good people skills could use this to encourage people to see new sides of themselves.

Used judiciously with a huge grain of salt, this little book could be a good guide to a fun hobby.

An interesting guide to palmistry that gives the reader a different perspective on the subject. I did not know, for example, that therapists and carers tend to have softer skin, named silk skin. Nor that the size of the palm made a difference. These are only two of a number of examples given in this comprehensive guide to palmistry. Recommended for a highly informative guide. Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for giving me a copy of the book.

I always found it so interesting to read about the meanings behind what your palms hold and I think many readers will as well! So happy to add this to our collection

This book was short but gave a great overview of palmistry. I saw another reviewer was upset because they felt the book tries to claim palmistry is scientifically proven. I did not read it that way. The way I interpreted the text was that it's proven that working with our hands takes a huge part of our brain power, which sounds right to me. If this detail concerns you let me share that this part is just a few sentences in the introduction of the book.

I did not come to this book looking for science either though. I came looking for a guide to read palms and this does that job in an easy-to-understand way. It is very beginner friendly and I enjoyed it enough that I would like to own a copy to reference in the future.

In the end, it included two practice hand prints which I found really helpful. I would love to have several more of those in the book.

This would be the perfect gift for someone! It’s short and concise, and includes examples. This is the perfect skill to whip out at a party.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this arc ebook in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.