Joy of Jigsaws by Holly Lambert – A Puzzler’s Guide and How to Make Your Own – was just the book I wanted to read. In the last few months we’ve started making a lot of puzzles and, even more, we mounted 9 on them as decorations of the home office. So, imagine my excitement to read this book. It is a short book and filled with pictures, but, even so, it has a lot of details about different aspects of making puzzles and their history.

The book is great if you are a fan of making puzzles, thinking of making your own for fun or as a gift for someone special. Also, it is a great gift for someone who likes puzzles. I like that the author covered topics such as the history of the puzzles, how they can be used by people to improve or maintain their memory and brain power. She talks about puzzles for children, which is really great too.

Other topics cover details such as puzzling competitions. Who would have imagined there is such a thing, but there is and I would love to see how people are approaching puzzling under time pressure. I liked everything about this book, it is a fun and well worth reading book. At the end, the book covers trivia, which was a fun way to finish the book.

5 stars

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Coffee and Books

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!

NetGalley, Melissa McDaniel

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.

NetGalley, Polly Krize

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

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!

NetGalley, Leighton S

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.

NetGalley, Joyce Laudon