Customer Reviews

Linda Goodman's Relationship Signs

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I'm a huge fan of Linda Goodman's work, so when I saw this book I grabbed it immediately. I thought it was a bit strange, since I know of her untimely death and the fact that she's already written a fantastic book on relationships and the zodiac (ie: Love Signs)... But I thought oh well, whatever, she must have something more to add.

NO. This book is completely devoid of Linda's trademark unusually witty, disarming turn of phrase and her thoughtful, precise insights and interpretations. Not only that, but WORST OF ALL, when I used this book to work out my ascendant, it was totally WRONG! My rising sign is definitely Libra, NOT Virgo! I tried it on a few other people who's ascendants I knew well, and it was wrong for a few of them also. A lot of the interpretations were also very narrow, lacking in depth or any real insight and thus were hard to ascribe to certain individuals because of that.

Linda's money hungry publishing company or whoever is behind putting this book out is doing her name and memory an enormous disservice. Save your money and make sure you buy Linda's other books like Star Signs, Sun Signs & Love Signs. They are all brilliant.

There's one section in the book that resembles Linda Goodman's inimitable style - the rest looks like an attempt to cash in on her name. Was Linda too trusting? We may never know. Avoid this book and reach for her Stars, Love or Sun Signs tomes instead.

I have never believed in censorship, but this book really ought to be withdrawn from the market.

On what grounds?

Insult to the author's memory.

The only thing that's Linda Goodman in this insipid pseudo-tribute is the name on the cover... and I am willing to bet with my life that it didn't get on that cover with the owner's permission.

I picked up a copy of this book today and was delighted to see something by Linda Goodman. I was with a friend and I said "isn't she dead?" I read a few pages and saw that this was supposedly some of Linda's work that had been given to someone else. That was fine. I have always loved to read Linda. She has this sick fascination thing with Librans (nature's sense of humour) and I enjoyed her wit and levity. I found none of it in this book. It is my opinion that if you are buying this book to enjoy Linda then you are not going to be happy. It's a mediocre Astrology book in a sea of new age material. Had I known then what I know now I would not have bought the book.

I bought this book a few years ago when I was seeing a particular Taurus, and I wanted to find out our compatibility. At the time, I was not as well versed in Astrology as I am now, but I did have both of our charts printed from an online source, and I just matched up the details and looked them up in this book.

I found some things to be accurate which I would never have wished to be so! But the book "told it like it was" and I soon found that some of the Saturn aspects could not be avoided, and I was quite shocked to discover that Linda was totally right about a Moon-Uranus transit which spelled disaster! She talks about how a Moon square Uranus will cause breakups and separations galore and that you've got to have some heavy aspects to counter-act this one. Even to this day, that particular excerpt stands out in my mind because it proved to be so true.

I will say that it can be a little difficult to navigate through this book because you are constantly flipping back and forth. Linda also has a section in the front of the book called "Love Aspects" which are also covered later in the book, so you'll end up reading those twice (though the information is slightly different for the same aspect). A little bit of patience and discernment is required. I only wish that there was something in the book to indicate the weight of a given aspect. You'll get a wide range of interpretations which could contradict one another because there are so many potential aspects in a synastry analysis.

If you are determined and you have your chart done before-hand, you can get benefit out of this book. I would still get a professional synastry interpretation done so that you can get a better sense of what issues are likely to effect you the most because some aspects will only come into play during extreme circumstances and aren't likely to be present in your day to day experience.

Relationship signs is a good book if you want to examine relationships between 2 people on an astrological basis. It is fairly simple although I think that it could have been made even simpler. Some of the concepts have been explained rather hazily such as when you look at 2 charts , do you need to compare the planets based on their position in each chart or is it on the basis of zodiac signs? The answer is on the basis of zodiac signs, of course. Therefore, you see there s a trine between A's Sun (Aries) and B's sun(Aquarius). You don't look at A's 4th house and B's 7th! The problem with this book is two fold:
1. You don't really need to draw a chart for each person when all you are doing is seeing the relationship between their respective planets and signs. Therefore this can be achieved by listing out each person's planets and signs. You don't need the two charts, they just confuse you! The way that this book explains planets and signs is slightly confusing. Therefore you do need to know a little about astrology before you start. This is not a Grant Lewi style book... you can't start work on this unless you have read a little (at least) about astrology
2. I must say that for a Goodman fan, this book is a little disappointing. The book lacks the full force of her witty, clever and incredibly simple style. Especially the explanation of signs and planets... it is made rather complicated, very un Linda like. Which leads me to believe (like many who have read this book) that it wasn't fully a product of Linda Goodman. It s probably a product of some kind of LG Co. headed by some people who Linda reportedly entrusted to carry out the work in her name after her death (in 1996)
On the plus side, this book has tables from the year 1900 to 2000 which enable you to determine charts of 2 people in relation to each other. Also, the relations between planets as explained by Linda (Sun trine Venus et al) are in her trademark style, even if other parts of the book aren't.
The final verdict? Buy this book, but use it only after you have had a little intro to astrology, which you can get by reading Sun Signs and Love Signs first. They are the real Goodman masterpieces.

I've loved Linda's work for so many years. But to me, in this book the writing is strained, while the humor is often flippant during passages that could have been otherwise profound. Also, the jocular, light tone repeatedly used while discussing difficult aspects struck me as excessive.

Way too much energy was spent on trying to make this book accessible to an audience completely unversed in astrology. For a book focusing on the definition of aspects, that is asking a lot of a novice reader. Many will likely be dismayed by the first 50 pages that are required knowledge for understanding the rest of the book. And afterwards, turned off by the last 200 pages dedicated to erroneous ephemeris detail.

If you don't know astrology, save yourself a lot of trouble and get your natal chart computed for free on the many internet sites that exist beforehand. This book's valiant, but useless, effort at trying to provide for everyone with rounded figures won't get you anything reliably accurate. It's nice to learn to how do your own chart, but this is the wrong book to start with.

Furthermore, no data in this book will tell what degree your planets are in - and you can't know any aspects without knowing degrees. So why 200+ pages were wasted on this section is beyond me.

As for the aspect definitions (pages 55-255) -- the only part of the book I think, actually written by Linda Goodman -- it is very good in parts. I definitely gained interesting insights there, and consider it to be worth the purchase just for those. Not her best work though. In addition, the section on rising signs was superficial and stereotyped. I can't even believe she wrote it.

in what appears to be a highly political move on the BANTAM front, a sweepingly general put-together of mostly vague to inaccurate planetary tables(aLMOST HALF THE BOOK) in a mass reading market already innundated with ALL the basics of astrology. i doubt seriously any real authorization was involved as its elusive and again vague explanation of c.b.'s (b.d.6-9-49?)acquiantance with M.A.K...ahem...only serious linda goodman "fans" should own a copy of this book.GAK! reviewster from the earthquake zone is write, to me. i bought this book two days ago and have spent two sleepless nights wrangling with its contradications.although the book love signs seems to still physically elude me periodically, the most important lesson gleaned from that has been that things are not always what they seem and people are sometimes too willing to believe whatever they are told. well, i better quit while i still have a head!

i liked the fact that this book covered alot of info,but it was very hard to uderstand. so it was very hard for me to make a relationship chart for me and my boyfriend. linda goodman's sun signs is a better book.

I have been reading/re-reading astrology books for 3 decades... just about everything that is out there. Linda Goodman's books are BY FAR the best and most accurate around. I am only saddened that she is no longer with us -- she would have enjoyed this new century and we would have benefited from her further writings.